Saddleback, ME 02-01-10

[jerseyrob]

Had a pretty good day at Saddleback today! The mountain was a ghost town with beautiful bluebird skies and a little bit of fresh snow. I hadn't been up there since the thaw and was a little nervous about snow conditions but was pleasantly surprised. Conditions were primarily hard packed with LOTS of windblown little stashes of powder mainly on the sides of the trails. It's been blowing hard up there for the past few days so spots where the snow was deposited were surprisingly deep! ROTD was right under the Rangeley Double. Fun little wind drifts to bounce through of surprisingly soft snow. Not sure why it wasn't hit sooner(we got "first" tracks at 2:00pm-ish)? Lower Jane Craig had a lot of snow deposit, as well, and went fairly long before tracking out. Upper mountain can use a little love. Frostbite and Black Beauty were death traps, very windblown and not really skiable until the runout but still had some nice stashes of snow too be found between the sheer ice and death spikes. Snowmakers have definitely been hard at work and were just starting to fire up the guns again over at the base of the Kennebago Quad when we were leaving. Overall, it was a great day! Not powder conditions but still fun! I think we're just one good storm away again!!

Quick stop at Smalls Falls for a stretch and a beer!

Warm up run on Upper Hudson to Red Devil.

Beautiful Day!

Hiking up top.

Fun drifts we got to play in all day!

Warming up.

Glades have a lot of blow downs to contend with.

Taking in the view!

Lower Black Beauty powder stashes.

 

[snowmonster]

You're killin' me with these pictures! Nice!

 

[salsgang]

Super! Thanks for the pics Jerseyrob. We have not been up in a while. It is time this weekend I think. Looks like a great time... now if we can just get a storm in the forecast.

 

[xwhaler]

I was up at Saddleback yesterday as well....we were out there for 1st chair and ripped until about 1:15 when we called it a day due to the cold/wind
Agreed on the little wind blown stashes....all found on skiier's left of the trail which was odd b/c in my experience the wind usually blows right to left looking up the mtn

Good Runs yesterday: Left side of Peachy's, Golden Smelt, Silver Doctor, Coachman
Marginal Runs=Upper Professor/Jane Craig....too sketchy near the cliffy sections at the bottom of the upper part
Glades were in ok shape...dropped into #3 Casablanca and made my way over to #2 towards the bottom...some stumps and roots to contend with but still nice coverage in there
Intimidator glade was in tougher shape...needs a bit of coverage to cover up some rough spots
Thrombosis skied well yesterday all the way through

 

[tipsdown]

Good to hear they're recovering well...Now let's WILL some snow there for the weekend...I'm heading up with a bunch of people and we need the Woods in good shape!