Date(s) Skied: Sunday March 8, 2015
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA
Conditions: Packed Powders...Temps in Teens, Off/On snow showers with some hints of sun poking through & most importantly little to NO WIND.
Trip Report: We started the day @ WMountain. I decided to time the chair ride up (since there was a previous discussion about this on another thread), BUT I forgot to check it at the end of the chair ride...I did check the stop watch with just 2-3 towers left on the ride & it was pushing 17+ minutes (with no stops)....So my guess is the chair ride is a solid 18+ minutes at least. From WMtn, we headed over to skyline to do a warm up run on Hayburner. Reading the 4000 foot forecast the night prior (high temps 12 degrees, 20 mph winds & wind chills below zero), I was fully expected firm conditions at the Loaf....Conditions were MUCH better than anticipated, and Hayburner had great snow/bumps down skiers left. From there we headed to Timberline (via Toke Road) to the summit. Toke Road has some ice patches showing between the bumps (read lots of traffic), but not too bad. Off the summit we hit Nitro into Powder Keg...PKeg was loaded with snow all the way into Ramdown....Some of the best turns of the day. The snow consistency was not firm, but slightly more packed in that it required a bit more "oomph" in setting your edges, but not to the point where you felt like you had to overwork your skis. The rest of the day was a blur & we hit most everything from east of the superquad over to brackett....Some of the bump runs have recently seen a groomer (whip, boomauger, ripsaw), so they were not as "fun", but you could still find a decent bump line on the very edge. Any groomer trail with any amount of traffic (especially as you approached the center of the trail) turned scratchy real quick; however everything else was skiing fantastic. As for glades we did hit up Gondi, Greenhorn, Brackett, and Toke road...If I had to rate them this would be the order but really the first three are just about a tie in terms of conditions & fun factor. Skiers right of the Gondi glade is just as loaded & soft as it was 2 weeks ago. The other trail worth mentioning is the Winters Way (especially the section from Spillway Xcut down to the next xcut by the Max Headroom exit....This section is loaded with nice deep packed powder bumps along skiers left....This section of trail has consistently brought smiles to my face all year long.
Another bonus of starting on WMtn chair is you are forced to end on WMtn chair...Basically it offers an opportunity to hit up the Greenhorn glade. Normally it's not a section of the mountain which I would seek out (due to the skating over to horseshoe trail & the everlasting WMtn chair ride). I don't believe this glade gets a lot of traffic & as a result the snow/bumps were very nice in there. The glade reminds me of a cross between Pipecleaner & Toke Road with some steeper pitches...It is well worth a trip there to check out this glade (& more importantly you can load at WMtn mid station upon exiting the woods to minimize the chair ride back up).
Overall another GREAT day on the hill...The cold temps have really preserved the snowpack & in addition I believe it has limited the amount of thaw/freeze cycles to keep the bumps & off piste in decent shape. There will be some epic days coming up at the Loaf in the next few weeks when the front/backside have a chance to bake in the sun & soften up a bit....The heart of the season is upon us!!
TOD: Powder Keg
Unfortunately not many Pics:
Greenhorn Glade:
West Mountain:
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA
Conditions: Packed Powders...Temps in Teens, Off/On snow showers with some hints of sun poking through & most importantly little to NO WIND.
Trip Report: We started the day @ WMountain. I decided to time the chair ride up (since there was a previous discussion about this on another thread), BUT I forgot to check it at the end of the chair ride...I did check the stop watch with just 2-3 towers left on the ride & it was pushing 17+ minutes (with no stops)....So my guess is the chair ride is a solid 18+ minutes at least. From WMtn, we headed over to skyline to do a warm up run on Hayburner. Reading the 4000 foot forecast the night prior (high temps 12 degrees, 20 mph winds & wind chills below zero), I was fully expected firm conditions at the Loaf....Conditions were MUCH better than anticipated, and Hayburner had great snow/bumps down skiers left. From there we headed to Timberline (via Toke Road) to the summit. Toke Road has some ice patches showing between the bumps (read lots of traffic), but not too bad. Off the summit we hit Nitro into Powder Keg...PKeg was loaded with snow all the way into Ramdown....Some of the best turns of the day. The snow consistency was not firm, but slightly more packed in that it required a bit more "oomph" in setting your edges, but not to the point where you felt like you had to overwork your skis. The rest of the day was a blur & we hit most everything from east of the superquad over to brackett....Some of the bump runs have recently seen a groomer (whip, boomauger, ripsaw), so they were not as "fun", but you could still find a decent bump line on the very edge. Any groomer trail with any amount of traffic (especially as you approached the center of the trail) turned scratchy real quick; however everything else was skiing fantastic. As for glades we did hit up Gondi, Greenhorn, Brackett, and Toke road...If I had to rate them this would be the order but really the first three are just about a tie in terms of conditions & fun factor. Skiers right of the Gondi glade is just as loaded & soft as it was 2 weeks ago. The other trail worth mentioning is the Winters Way (especially the section from Spillway Xcut down to the next xcut by the Max Headroom exit....This section is loaded with nice deep packed powder bumps along skiers left....This section of trail has consistently brought smiles to my face all year long.
Another bonus of starting on WMtn chair is you are forced to end on WMtn chair...Basically it offers an opportunity to hit up the Greenhorn glade. Normally it's not a section of the mountain which I would seek out (due to the skating over to horseshoe trail & the everlasting WMtn chair ride). I don't believe this glade gets a lot of traffic & as a result the snow/bumps were very nice in there. The glade reminds me of a cross between Pipecleaner & Toke Road with some steeper pitches...It is well worth a trip there to check out this glade (& more importantly you can load at WMtn mid station upon exiting the woods to minimize the chair ride back up).
Overall another GREAT day on the hill...The cold temps have really preserved the snowpack & in addition I believe it has limited the amount of thaw/freeze cycles to keep the bumps & off piste in decent shape. There will be some epic days coming up at the Loaf in the next few weeks when the front/backside have a chance to bake in the sun & soften up a bit....The heart of the season is upon us!!
TOD: Powder Keg
Unfortunately not many Pics:
Greenhorn Glade:
West Mountain:
