Sugarloaf 1/30/11

[BackLoafRiver]

Date(s) Skied: January 30, 2011

Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf

Conditions: Powder / Packed Powder

Trip Report:

Sunday was an amazing day. Not overly cold, no wind, and great company. On the hill by 8:30, the Superquad was packed. The singles line was backed up to Double Runner. King Pine was down and Spillway East still wasn't running so it took some clever planning to get around.

Met up with SkiMaine at the top of the Superquad. Did a warm-up on King's Landing which was spectacular. 5 minute wait in the queue and by the time we made it back up, Timberline was open. Lapped it for a while, the snow on Timberline itself was awesome.

Did Upper Tote next and visibility was a problem. The center was already scratched off and it was damn difficult to see the edges. Cleared up by the time you hit the intersection of Binder. Binder back to the lift was pristine. Really nice with some powder on the sides.

Jeff suggested we do Gondi Line Extension -> King Pine Area next. This turned out to be run of the day. There was no one over there. Absolutely phenomenal skiing. There was powder all over the place. Nothing deep, but it was definitely fun and fluffy. Widowmaker skied great. From Widowmaker, we hit Slasher and then back to the Super Quad. Slasher was soft on the sides but showed some wear in the middle. (one section of rock in particular)

Discovered some trails I had never done before. Poleline, for one, was really cool. Just a narrow trail that runs along, you guessed it...the Pole Line. Nothing too extreme but definitely fun. Also re-discovered Wedge. I am pretty sure that had been left alone most of the day. Really glad I had a chance to hit that.

I mentioned it before, but Woes continue at the Loaf. King Pine was offline all weekend due to a broken bearing. ( I think) From what I heard the part should be in today and it will be up and running this week. (Wednesday please) I guess this same one went last summer and had a 15 year warranty on it. Eesh.

Also, Jeff and I noticed the chairs on the super quad were loading funny. There were a few times where there would be a massive gap between chairs and then others were almost on top of each other. Not good. He can elaborate more. I hope that wasn't anything serious.

Not much in the way of pictures. I didn't want to stop.

Poleline:

Looking back up Gondi -

 

[salsgang]

Thanks for the report. Gondi and Wedge were really good when I skied there a couple of weekends ago. Wedge is my new favorite.

 

[rocojerry]

Sugarloaf 1/30 -- perspective 2

I was there yesterday too --

Could basically see the singles line from above the Beach as I started the day -- Plan B, Whiffletree to King Pine quad to start the day...

Got to the top of Whiflletree, and noticed King-Pine closed(an ambassador also told me bearing problem)! Agh, plan thwarted... I convinced friends to go down a whiffletree run as a warm-up instead of going directly to Spillway. We immediately hopped into a glade run to warm up 1-2 inches of light powder on top of, some stumps, hidden rocks, etc... Got first tracks, but snow was just enough to cover stuff, but not nearly enough to go over things which had been previously discovered --

Morning was slow, big lines at Spillway to start... Superquad busy, rode singles line -- Hayburner and bit of Kings/Hayburner glades, bit more snow than a Whiffletree warmup glade, but same problem, light layer of snow hiding the previously hit obstacles... We then made our way back to Spillway, lift-line had got reasonable, and then by almost lunch -- non-existant. Spillway had great snow and bumps, Sluice, great as always... we started to venture towards King Pine from Spillway (lower) -- got in a few more bump runs, maybe lower winters and/or baumager? good stuff.... Now for our pre-lunch plan, Superquad/Timberline, snowfields to King Pine... Frontside Snowfields pretty ski'd off, dangerous without good edges-- I lost my group and shot down widowmaker, should have hit Haulback or Ripsaw based on what my friends talked of.

After lunch, we decided to check out Brackett... I went in all the way to the end -- ski area boundary ropes... Just to see how big Phase I was from the top... Top part that I went down was more chute-like chainsawed through heavy tree growth.. not many options.. then it opened up nicely, with lots of birches towards the bottom. Saw a pretty big rock cliff (15-20?), good thing I didn't go that way.. It was pretty ski'd out, compared to Saddleback conditions the day before -- some rocks, stumps, logs, etc -- but my board is ding'd already so no worries for me... 6"+ more of base and its pretty much good to go I'd say...

After that, I decided more glades were in order... and started to go to some of my pre-bracket favorites.... had a really good glade run somewhere off whiffletree -- did a bit of flat traversing and making my own way to the goods, and was rewarded with about half a run of at least 6-12" fluff.... good stuff!

All in all, a good day at the loaf -- I'm not sure if I've been here on as calm a day as this... Sunny, comfortable, bit crowded in the AM, but almost ski-on some lifts by afternoon. Looking forward to getting back after a good storm, or AZ weekend, whatever comes first!

 

[Skimaine]

Overall a good day on Sunday. As Mike and rocco noted, it was a little crowded on Spillway and S-Quad in the AM. Once Timberline got rolling the lines became manageable.

Most groomed trails are in great shape with very little scratch for this time of the year. I had skied past White Nitro Ext on Saturday it looked like boilerplate so we avoid it on Sunday. I had on Volkl Bridges with new the fangled early rise/rocker thing working. Fun is soft snow but not the ice carvers need for firm and steep. We made our front face run down Gondi Ext and it was very nice. As noted, visibility was all over the place. One lap it would be good and the next run it was socked in. I even saw some actual sunshine about 3:15.

Between the snow making and the nice storm pattern over the last month, Sugarloaf snow conditions for this time of year are as good as I have seen in the last few years. Another blower this week will take conditions to the next level.

Let's hope that King Pine is back on line to provide service to the east side.