Date(s) Skied: Saturday 4-17-2010
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf
Conditions: Pow, dumping all day
Trip Report:
Unlike the rest of New England, winter never really left Sugarloaf. Scoping out the trail report mid-week, they were still advertising 50+ trails open where as ther remaining few holdouts only had a handful. Last I was there was for the AZ summit, which was mid January hard snow conditions. Today? Mid-January POW conditions.
Today was a real treat. Espiecally because up until about 48 hours ago it looked like rain. Figured I'd take some runs, but mainly chill with some beers and reggae. By last night, the forecast had my stoke meter pegged. At first I was thinking that spring snow can be hazardous if it's just a little as chances are you're bound to hit no base areas following the melt out. Not the case today. Some bottoming out, but my bases are pretty much just fine now. It all filled in.
First sign of snow today was on a car roof top outside of Portland.
Furthur up the road around the Belgrade Lakes it started to show signs of accumulation. Here's winter bitch slapping some new spring leaves.
Once through Kingfield, it was on like donkey kong
Pulled into the lot at 9:30. There was 2-3 inches on the ground. I figured I'd probably just be skiing bumps today with a nice coating, so I grabbed my B2s and left my High Societies in the car. Once on the shuttle and rolling, the guide lets us know there is 6-7 inches of fresh up top. Crap, bad ski choice. Was psyched to also hear that King Pine was running, which it didn't appear to be all week.
Booted up and went up the Superquad and down Sluice to Spillway. Sluice had been groomed in the middle overnight, but there still was loose snow. Sides were chock full with about 6 inches and bumps interspersed randomly. B2s are only just okay in such conditions. They just don't plow through crud and what not, so they can wear out the legs in a hurry.
Headed over to King Pine from there. Haulback was SWEET. Snow seemed to pile in King Pine much more than the rest of the mountain. I really wanted to be on my other skis, but it was also so good, I didn't want to stop. After Haulback I decided to hit Misery Whip. Great bumps, though fairly icy in the troughs. Took a nice digger half way down into a big soft pile of snow. Man did I miss that feeling. Not often you enjoy falling, but today you enjoyed everything.
With my fall, low and behold, broken ski break. In 25+ years of skiing, I've never broken a binding. Now I've broken both heal pieces on the Axials. I've hated these bindings since the start. This time, I was kind of happy as it gave me an excuse to get back to the car.
Now on the new skis, I got back to the Superquad and was going to text Rocojerry as he was supposed to be up there. Just as I go to reach my phone; I see him getting on the lift. Spent the rest of the day ripping with Jerry, his girlfriend and a couple of friends of his, Chris and Pat. GREAT time. Minus a couple of beers at Bullwinkles, skied straight through to 3:30 when I was spend.
Run of the day was definitely Ripsaw. I spied people on it from the King Pine lift and we lapped it a few times ducking the rope. Eventually ski patrol dropped the rope. First couple of runs were SWEET. Skiers left was all pow bumps. Skiers right was straight pow as I'm assuming the base over there was completely wiped out befor this storm.. People were heading out to Can't Dog Glade as well. Essentially everything from King Pine / Spillway up was in play today minus the snowfields. By the end of the day, I saw tracks on every trail.
Best Powder day of the year for me for sure. Missed some others by a day or two, but today Sugarloaf was the right place to be.
More Pics:
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf
Conditions: Pow, dumping all day
Trip Report:
Unlike the rest of New England, winter never really left Sugarloaf. Scoping out the trail report mid-week, they were still advertising 50+ trails open where as ther remaining few holdouts only had a handful. Last I was there was for the AZ summit, which was mid January hard snow conditions. Today? Mid-January POW conditions.
Today was a real treat. Espiecally because up until about 48 hours ago it looked like rain. Figured I'd take some runs, but mainly chill with some beers and reggae. By last night, the forecast had my stoke meter pegged. At first I was thinking that spring snow can be hazardous if it's just a little as chances are you're bound to hit no base areas following the melt out. Not the case today. Some bottoming out, but my bases are pretty much just fine now. It all filled in.
First sign of snow today was on a car roof top outside of Portland.
Furthur up the road around the Belgrade Lakes it started to show signs of accumulation. Here's winter bitch slapping some new spring leaves.
Once through Kingfield, it was on like donkey kong
Pulled into the lot at 9:30. There was 2-3 inches on the ground. I figured I'd probably just be skiing bumps today with a nice coating, so I grabbed my B2s and left my High Societies in the car. Once on the shuttle and rolling, the guide lets us know there is 6-7 inches of fresh up top. Crap, bad ski choice. Was psyched to also hear that King Pine was running, which it didn't appear to be all week.
Booted up and went up the Superquad and down Sluice to Spillway. Sluice had been groomed in the middle overnight, but there still was loose snow. Sides were chock full with about 6 inches and bumps interspersed randomly. B2s are only just okay in such conditions. They just don't plow through crud and what not, so they can wear out the legs in a hurry.
Headed over to King Pine from there. Haulback was SWEET. Snow seemed to pile in King Pine much more than the rest of the mountain. I really wanted to be on my other skis, but it was also so good, I didn't want to stop. After Haulback I decided to hit Misery Whip. Great bumps, though fairly icy in the troughs. Took a nice digger half way down into a big soft pile of snow. Man did I miss that feeling. Not often you enjoy falling, but today you enjoyed everything.
With my fall, low and behold, broken ski break. In 25+ years of skiing, I've never broken a binding. Now I've broken both heal pieces on the Axials. I've hated these bindings since the start. This time, I was kind of happy as it gave me an excuse to get back to the car.
Now on the new skis, I got back to the Superquad and was going to text Rocojerry as he was supposed to be up there. Just as I go to reach my phone; I see him getting on the lift. Spent the rest of the day ripping with Jerry, his girlfriend and a couple of friends of his, Chris and Pat. GREAT time. Minus a couple of beers at Bullwinkles, skied straight through to 3:30 when I was spend.
Run of the day was definitely Ripsaw. I spied people on it from the King Pine lift and we lapped it a few times ducking the rope. Eventually ski patrol dropped the rope. First couple of runs were SWEET. Skiers left was all pow bumps. Skiers right was straight pow as I'm assuming the base over there was completely wiped out befor this storm.. People were heading out to Can't Dog Glade as well. Essentially everything from King Pine / Spillway up was in play today minus the snowfields. By the end of the day, I saw tracks on every trail.
Best Powder day of the year for me for sure. Missed some others by a day or two, but today Sugarloaf was the right place to be.
More Pics:
