Date(s) Skied: 12/15/14
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf
Conditions: Bluebird. Mid 30's, no wind. Powder & Packed Powder
Trip Report: Amazing early season conditions! The Loaf is coming off an incredible 7 day stretch of terrain expanding/base building weather. It all started up with winter storm Damon blessing us with 18 inches of snow. Next two days were off/on mixed precip/snow/sleet/freezing rain creating havoc on the lifts, and appearing to take away the nice present from Mother Nature just days before....However, Mother Nature blessed us again with a surprise storm Friday into Saturday leaving her mark with 8 inches of dry fluffy powder. The result: a solid bass of 18 plus inches of snow locked in with a solid layer of crust, with 8 inches of powder sitting on top which allowed the Loaf to open everything below Spillway crosscut (as of today) including Bracket Basin the only exception being Nitro and some glades . The trails which previously had snowmaking (Kings, Hayburner, Spillway, Gondi, Ramdown, Tote) have incredible coverage now...These trails were all groomed (except for Gondi) and were a delight to carve up. In addition, the trail edges now have an abundance of snow providing some options to break up the monotony of skiing the groomed. The bump trails were all great with (surprisingly) not much poking through where you had to watch where you skied. We were able to sample/lap Bubblecuffer, Winters Way, Boomauger, Double Bitter, and Sheerboom. There were some sections of crust/ice between some of the bumps especially at the tops of Bubblecuffer & Winters Way, but it was not a factor as you got a little bit down the fall line. Of those bump runs, I felt like Winters Way was in the best shape, and surprisingly Sheerboom was very good too. We did not get into many glades as I was a little skeptical on conditions & how well the crust base would cover. Only went into the new glade on skier's right of Gondi as well as the glade between kings & hayburner....the gondi glade was fine & had decent coverage, however the other glade seemed to be lacking a bit which creating a more cautious ski attack. Then there were trails like Comp Hill, which previously had no snowmaking & was just left in its natural state...It was not bumped up like some of the more traditional bump trails but had nice soft powdery bumps throughout which was really fun to let the skis run & do their thing plowing/floating through the crud.
TOD: I can't pick just one....It's tie between Comp Hill, Winter's Way & Spillway
Unfortunately not to many pics, because the skiing was to good....
Early Morning shot...Is this December or February?
Couple shots on lower part of bubblecuffer:
Skiing above the clouds...looking towards Crocker from Timberline chair:
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf
Conditions: Bluebird. Mid 30's, no wind. Powder & Packed Powder
Trip Report: Amazing early season conditions! The Loaf is coming off an incredible 7 day stretch of terrain expanding/base building weather. It all started up with winter storm Damon blessing us with 18 inches of snow. Next two days were off/on mixed precip/snow/sleet/freezing rain creating havoc on the lifts, and appearing to take away the nice present from Mother Nature just days before....However, Mother Nature blessed us again with a surprise storm Friday into Saturday leaving her mark with 8 inches of dry fluffy powder. The result: a solid bass of 18 plus inches of snow locked in with a solid layer of crust, with 8 inches of powder sitting on top which allowed the Loaf to open everything below Spillway crosscut (as of today) including Bracket Basin the only exception being Nitro and some glades . The trails which previously had snowmaking (Kings, Hayburner, Spillway, Gondi, Ramdown, Tote) have incredible coverage now...These trails were all groomed (except for Gondi) and were a delight to carve up. In addition, the trail edges now have an abundance of snow providing some options to break up the monotony of skiing the groomed. The bump trails were all great with (surprisingly) not much poking through where you had to watch where you skied. We were able to sample/lap Bubblecuffer, Winters Way, Boomauger, Double Bitter, and Sheerboom. There were some sections of crust/ice between some of the bumps especially at the tops of Bubblecuffer & Winters Way, but it was not a factor as you got a little bit down the fall line. Of those bump runs, I felt like Winters Way was in the best shape, and surprisingly Sheerboom was very good too. We did not get into many glades as I was a little skeptical on conditions & how well the crust base would cover. Only went into the new glade on skier's right of Gondi as well as the glade between kings & hayburner....the gondi glade was fine & had decent coverage, however the other glade seemed to be lacking a bit which creating a more cautious ski attack. Then there were trails like Comp Hill, which previously had no snowmaking & was just left in its natural state...It was not bumped up like some of the more traditional bump trails but had nice soft powdery bumps throughout which was really fun to let the skis run & do their thing plowing/floating through the crud.
TOD: I can't pick just one....It's tie between Comp Hill, Winter's Way & Spillway
Unfortunately not to many pics, because the skiing was to good....
Early Morning shot...Is this December or February?
Couple shots on lower part of bubblecuffer:
Skiing above the clouds...looking towards Crocker from Timberline chair:
