Snowfields at the 'Loaf

[Marc]

So I've never been skiing in Maine, but I plan to this winter. SR more than Sugarloaf, but I will do the Loaf at least once...

My question is, I know the snowfields are not open very often, but has anyone here skied them when they were? How was it? Were they worth it?

I imagine a trip sometime in March would be most likely to yield good luck with them?'

Anyone have any pictures of skiing them?

'Preciate it. :beer:

 

[Greg]

White Nitro and Powderkeg are frontside snowfields that are open often since Nitro has snowmaking and PK gets a lot of overspray. Never had the pleasure of skiing the backside as I only get up there for Reggae in April. I would say mid to late March is your best bet. The best pics of the snowfields I've found are on K2trav's site:

Backside
Front face

Once you hit the 'Loaf, you'll be hooked.

 

[salida]

there are other lift served snow fields in new england... just have to know where to look

 

[loafer89]

The backside is fantastic an VERY steep in some spots (images of hanging onto short tree's come back into my memory).

I have only skied the backside twice in 16 years as it takes alot of snow to open them with decent skiing (April 1997 saw 10'+ of base on the backside ) I know of several people who skied them in the past few years, but the base was minimal.

Your best chance to ski the backside would be in March/April, otherwise White Nitro has snowmaking and is one of the steepest frontside trails. They usually blow snow on it by early January.

Good Luck, and enjoy your visit.

 

[freeheelwilly]

Those pics look tasty. Skiing above treeline is where it's at. Never been to the Loaf but the snowfields have always intrigued me. Backside looks tres cool!

 

[Geoff]

In my opinion, the best time to ski Sugarloaf is midweek in early April. The snow fields soften up with great corn snow. The odds of catching them in good shape midwinter are pretty low. It doesn't take too many people to sideslip the snow away and that's one of the more wind-scoured places known to man.

 

[loafer89]

I would have to agree with the above comments. I personally would not bother with visiting Sugarloaf before at least February 15th or so. I got VERY lucky this year as we had very warm temperatures (50F +) and rain early on followed by a 24'+ of snow.

It was my best visit ever, but it would have sucked without the snowstorm. April seems to be very kind to Sugarloaf, with great spring skiing.

The resort does have topnotch snowmaking and grooming and the mountain is huge.

 

[riverc0il]

having never skied the snowfields at the loaf, geoff's comments about being wind-scoured were the first thoughts that came to mind when viewing the pics on k2trav's site posted above. above tree line sure looks fun, but is terrible if the conditions are not right. i suspect a nice spring corn day early in the spring would be ideal.

 

[Geoff]

having never skied the snowfields at the loaf, geoff's comments about being wind-scoured were the first thoughts that came to mind when viewing the pics on k2trav's site posted above. above tree line sure looks fun, but is terrible if the conditions are not right. i suspect a nice spring corn day early in the spring would be ideal.

Midwinter, the place should be called "Mt Wind Hold". There are a lot of days where the best terrain can only be accessed via surface lift. The top of the mountain is broken scrub pine because of the wind and rime ice killing everything, not because of the elevation. I'm sure there are midwinter days where it's amazing at the top but I haven't experienced it. Their spring skiing is arguably the best in the east. Wait for a high pressure system to set in and hit it midweek in early April.

 

[Zand]

Midwinter, the place should be called "Mt Wind Hold".

SugarBUSH already has that name, but this place and Sunapee come close. Sugarbush isn't usually really all windhold, but "lazyhold".

 

[loafer89]

When Sugarloaf recieved all of the snow from the 24" dump, most of the snow on the summit had been transformed into sheet ice by the previous rain/thaw/freeze. This made for the perfect surface for the wind that followed to blow ALL of the cover on the summit away.

The lower mountain/glades were incredible, but most natives did not seem used to such deep powder snow.

I think that Saddleback recieved some of that summit snow that blew away

 

[dmc]

above tree line sure looks fun, but is terrible if the conditions are not right. i suspect a nice spring corn day early in the spring would be ideal.

No doubt.. Nothing like some sweet alpine corn...

But even scoured - I'd still have a blast.. Cause sometimes it about the place and not the snow..

A nice sized snowfield in an alpine envoironment.. Just making your way down with the wind blasting in your face.. Surviving each turn - anticipating the route...

So psyched...

 

[awf170]

White Nitro and Powderkeg are frontside snowfields that are open often since Nitro has snowmaking and PK gets a lot of overspray. Never had the pleasure of skiing the backside as I only get up there for Reggae in April. I would say mid to late March is your best bet. The best pics of the snowfields I've found are on K2trav's site:

Backside
Front face

Once you hit the 'Loaf, you'll be hooked.

just keep in mind, that it will probably not look like that, I have skiied the backside on about 5 different ocasions and it was only that good once(march 2001) This year was wierd, in mid march the rest of the mountain had a wicked base but the backside was horrible, I had to side step down to avoid destoying my skis.

The frontside besides white nitro and powderkeg(personally i think white nitro sucks, it always icy and groomed. And powderkep always has rock hard snowmaking snow in it) is rarely open(even less than the backside) but when it is open it is absolutey sick. The stuff to the skiers left of white nitro is pretty awsome and not that hard. The stuff between the backside and powder keg probably only opens every few years, and ussually is nasty, but when there is a lot of snow it is epic. Pretty much like glade skiing because of the little trees, but awsome

 

[Birdman829]

I think the best I have ever seen the snowfields was February Vacation when i was in second grade (ummmmm 1996 I guess it was). It was amazing. That was back when they had the old gondola and we skied off of it all day every day that i was there.


EDIT: I just was checking out K2Trav's snowfall history and it appears as though the loaf got 389 inches that year, thus explaining the great conditions. Oh what i would do for another winter like that...

 

[Marc]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.


Sounds like I'll save a trip to the loaf for when the more southerly stuff starts petering out, aka early April.



With Kmart, Pico, Snow, Attitash, and SR all closer we'd have to be very motivated to hit it more than once. If we can't be at least guarenteed good runs on PK or White Nitro then we probably won't bother.

BTW, how many times do you have to go to start displaying the sticker?

 

[awf170]

With Kmart, Pico, Snow, Attitash, and SR all closer we'd have to be very motivated to hit it more than once. If we can't be at least guarenteed good runs on PK or White Nitro then we probably won't bother.

Trust me, even without the snowfields sugarloaf is worth it. Probably the best skiing in New England just horrible lift system.

see all that those glades off the spillway? They are awsome, they always have good snow too. There really steep but the trees are so far apart that there pretty easy

 

[Greg]

Cause sometimes it about the place and not the snow...

EXACTLY. Sugarloaf has an aura about it. The first time I skied there was Reggae '04 and the conditions were pretty horrible. It still instantly became my favorite mountain after the first ten minutes of skiing there. I was hooting and hollaring on my first run while skiing slush, ice, mud and dirt. Charlie was there and can confirm...

If we can't be at least guarenteed good runs on PK or White Nitro then we probably won't bother.

You're only making this statement because you've never been. There's a lot more than just the snowfields.

BTW, how many times do you have to go to start displaying the sticker?

Once. And you can call yourself a Sugarloafer right away too! :beer:

 

[Birdman829]

BTW, how many times do you have to go to start displaying the sticker?

That's actually a question I have never thought about before. I have one and take note whenever I see another car with one driving around. I'd say feel free to put it on. I worked up there for the last two summers during the week and then did weekends in teh winter and pretty much every vehicle up there has a loaf sticker. Display it proudly brother :beer:

 

[ozskier]

Sugarloaf isn't above tree line.
Everyone else is right, awful lift system, and the best time to hit there is the 3rd week in March to closing whenever you can luck out with a high pressure system.

 

[dmc]

Sugarloaf isn't above tree line.

True - forest fires(right?)- but from what I've heard it's a cool experince and the feeling lends itself to an alpine experience.