Sugarloaf 12/11

[BackLoafRiver]

Date(s) Skied: Saturday December 11, 2010

Ski Area: Sugarloaf, ME.

Conditions: PP, Machine made

Trip Report:

Was so excited to get out on Saturday my body woke me up at 4:30. Was in the car by 5:15 and arrived by 7:15. The seasons pass line was already out of control. (and they don't open until 8 a.m.) Only a small area of the lodge was available for the general public. It was the first day of the Bubblecuffer program and also Maine Handicapped skiing welcome day. I think there were 6 tables to boot up at. Camera crapped out on the first shot so it was over to the cell phone. Sorry about that.

Stepped outside to this:

Was 3rd in the singles line. Got on 4th chair. Most people were lining up to get their demos. Did a warm up lap down Tote. Bumped into SkiMaine and Mrs. Ski Maine. Really nice sharing some turns with you guys. I had a great time.

Took me a run to figure out my legs. Temps were fairly warm at the base. (mid - 30's maybe) I was sweating in no time flat. Cloudy all day. Some snow falling in the morning.

First - Conditions were great. The snow was good, coverage was great and they were still hard at the blowing. Super crowded. Since they only had a handful of trails open, everyone cramped on the same 4 or 5. (Tote, Hayburner, and kings Landing) Sluice was open later. At 10:30, the crowd disappeared and it was pretty much ski on the super quad. Scoot is going to be in great shape. The guns were on and it didn't have quite enough snow to make it manageable. Quite a few bare spots.

Candy Side also had some ground showing but, it was easily avoided.

Second - Demos. I will post in another thread about this but I do think I found my next ski.

Here are some shots. I had to bolt at 12:00 to get back for a concert with my students. Again, excuse the cell shots:

Scoot:

Looking up Scoot:

Upper tote:

Looking up:

Kings Landing:

 

[mikestaple]

Thanks for the Scoot shots. My favorite blue on the mountain.

 

[BackLoafRiver]

Thanks for the Scoot shots. My favorite blue on the mountain.

I do love Scoot as well. Not my favorite blue but, on a powder day, you can still get fresh tracks there well into the afternoon.

 

[xwhaler]

I also was the Loaf on Saturday.
We got on the hill about 9:45 and skied until noon when we stopped for a 30 min lunch. The skied from 12:30 until 2 before we called it a day and headed into the Widowmaker!

SQ was pretty crowded early on. The it broke down just as we were heading in to lunch.
We enjoyed Skidder quite a bit and Kings Landing, especially skiiers right where there was still some loose stuff to be had from the midweek event.

After lunch with the SQ down for the day we headed up to Spillway...ran down Sluice once and Tote to Scoot another time.
Scoot was actually decent.....pretty sticky under the guns and I did catch a rock on skiiers right but it was enjoyable.

Good Day #2 on the season for me.

 

[BackLoafRiver]

I also was the Loaf on Saturday.
We got on the hill about 9:45 and skied until noon when we stopped for a 30 min lunch. The skied from 12:30 until 2 before we called it a day and headed into the Widowmaker!

SQ was pretty crowded early on. The it broke down just as we were heading in to lunch.
We enjoyed Skidder quite a bit and Kings Landing, especially skiiers right where there was still some loose stuff to be had from the midweek event.

After lunch with the SQ down for the day we headed up to Spillway...ran down Sluice once and Tote to Scoot another time.
Scoot was actually decent.....pretty sticky under the guns and I did catch a rock on skiiers right but it was enjoyable.

Good Day #2 on the season for me.

I heard the Superquad broke down. Did it fire back up that day?

How was Sluice?

Agreed that Scoot was super sticky. My skis didn't want to move. Skidder seemed nuts (tons of people) so I passed. You're right about the edges of kings with some loose stuff on it.

 

[xwhaler]

I heard the Superquad broke down. Did it fire back up that day?

How was Sluice?
QUOTE]

We saw the SQ running again about 2pm but the chairs were empty...as far as I know they shut it down for the rest of the day. For their signature lift, that SQ sure has its fair share of problems and delays.

Sluice was decent, especially skiiers right. The cold is back in place so they should have the Whiffletree area up and going for this coming weekend.

 

[bigbog]

Nice pics BLR. Was a lot of fun getting in first turns with new angles for the knees & hips last Saturday, for a while, and then fleeing from the mass rampage of the thundering herd @Boardwalk ...to the least crowded Whiffletree lift:lol: Never saw so many people racing towards Boardwalk in my life.... As xwhaler mentioned...most of Skidder, Scoot, Kings, Sluice were fine..I thought...if not maybe a little on the soft side in places from the beginning stages of warmer air up above rolling in...
SteveD