kbroderick
Active member
Date(s) Skied:
Monday 6 February 2006, Tuesday 7 February 2006
Resort or Ski Area:
Sunday River Skiway
Conditions:
Good, firm snow to start things off with some softening as the days went on; snow seems to be a little thin in a few places, but not to the point of risking ski damage.
Trip Report:
I was in Bethel from Sunday night through Wednesday morning and spent most Monday and Tuesday mornings on the hill. I got out just a little after 0900 each morning with the goal of ripping groomers until I couldn't ski anymore, and I made it to about 1300 each day. Monday, I managed to ski all seven peaks (from Jordan Bowl all the way to White Cap); Tuesday, I stuck around Barker.
A little background: I went to Gould Academy in Bethel, so I spent four years of my life getting on snow four or more days a week at Sunday River. I'm pretty familiar with the hill.
My parents had reported that conditions on the major Barker trails were pretty good as of Sunday, so I started off with a run down Sunday Punch. Almost immediately, I realized three things:
1. The snow cover is thin this year. I didn't find any rocks, and the groomers had done an excellent job of not making gravel, but there was a lot more terrain than I remembered; Ecstasy skied more like it usually does in late November than early February, as there wasn't enough snow to fill in all the dips and smooth things out. I'm not complaining--I like it a lot more this way--but I was surprised.
2. The light in Maine is friggin' flat. I don't know if it's just the way the trails face or that I'm no longer as used to them as I once was, but I was getting tossed all over the place on my first run. There may have been a connection to the additional terrain I noted in (1), but I definitely couldn't see much definition in the snow.
3. Detachable quads are really nice when it's not crowded and you're trying to burn runs on groomers. I think I got as many runs in during my first hour as I normally would in ninety minutes without access to a detach (and even more vertical feet).
Monday Mourning would have been the trail of the day at Barker, had the lower half not been closed due to the remnants of the Jeep King of the Mountain race. Sunday Punch, aside from the flat light and terrain, was pretty good; however, the skier's right had some thin snow with a lot of moisture content trapped due to the quick temperature change from Sunday. Right Stuff was nice, but again had more terrain than I remembered, and I was quickly getting frustrated by an inability to make good turns on a sustained pitch. I decided to try switching terrain and headed towards Jordan, taking Lazy River (which was almost exactly as I remembered, albeit with slightly exaggerated terrain through the S-corner) to the Spruce Peak Triple (which is just as much fun to get on as ever) and over into Aurora. One run down Airglow confirmed that flat light and interesting terrain (as well as some interesting grooming) was not confined to Barker, and I continued into Jordan. The trail into Jordan (can't remember its name right now) had an ominous "Caution" sign on a bamboo pole atop the first knoll, so I slowed way down; however, the other side of the knoll was not rocky, as I had feared; it was simply saturated with water, which had frozen as the temperature dropped. I think there must be a water source under the snow in that area (as there is on skier's right on Punch).
Two runs down Rogue Angel and a run back to Barker later, I decided to see how White Cap was doing. Obsession was full of death cookies (not surprising, as I had seen the cats working it while arriving at the hill earlier that morning, and grooming a thaw-freeze after it sets up tends to create iffy conditions), but White Heat was groomed all the way across and quite skiable. Salvation was a lot of fun; although it had also been groomed late, there hadn't been enough traffic to thoroughly break up the surface as on Obsession. Anyhow, I headed back over to Barker for a few more runs, including one in the Superpipe--I usually ski at a resort that doesn't have one, so I wanted to check it out. I dropped in, skied up quite near to the top of the opposing wall, turned back down, looked up at the wall, and decided to turn left and just go straight down the middle. Especially after a thaw-freeze, those pipe walls are intimidating.
Overall, Tuesday was similar, excepting that I stuck with Barker, got to ski with my dad for about an hour, and managed to make a few decent turns even early in the day. Fresh manmade on Ecstasy, Cascades, and Right Stuff made for easier turning and definitely smoothed out some of the dips on Ecstasy. Right Stuff gets trail of the day honors, I think.
Other thoughts after going back to a megaresort after spending most of a few winters in Vermont and not at megaresorts:
1. Wow, there were a lot of people around for a Monday and Tuesday morning; I don't think I once rode a lift without someone else in sight.
2. Did I mention that an uncrowded detach is great for burning runs down groomers?
3. Having approximately 300m of vertical to play with is nice, especially when there's plenty of sustained pitches to choose from.
4. 40 runs on said 300m of vertical on largely man-made snow leads to base burn even on skis with fresh wax.
5. The grooming wasn't quite as smooth and consistent as I remembered, but it was generally quite good and I didn't find any gravel (which is a huge plus in a thin snow year).
Monday 6 February 2006, Tuesday 7 February 2006
Resort or Ski Area:
Sunday River Skiway
Conditions:
Good, firm snow to start things off with some softening as the days went on; snow seems to be a little thin in a few places, but not to the point of risking ski damage.
Trip Report:
I was in Bethel from Sunday night through Wednesday morning and spent most Monday and Tuesday mornings on the hill. I got out just a little after 0900 each morning with the goal of ripping groomers until I couldn't ski anymore, and I made it to about 1300 each day. Monday, I managed to ski all seven peaks (from Jordan Bowl all the way to White Cap); Tuesday, I stuck around Barker.
A little background: I went to Gould Academy in Bethel, so I spent four years of my life getting on snow four or more days a week at Sunday River. I'm pretty familiar with the hill.
My parents had reported that conditions on the major Barker trails were pretty good as of Sunday, so I started off with a run down Sunday Punch. Almost immediately, I realized three things:
1. The snow cover is thin this year. I didn't find any rocks, and the groomers had done an excellent job of not making gravel, but there was a lot more terrain than I remembered; Ecstasy skied more like it usually does in late November than early February, as there wasn't enough snow to fill in all the dips and smooth things out. I'm not complaining--I like it a lot more this way--but I was surprised.
2. The light in Maine is friggin' flat. I don't know if it's just the way the trails face or that I'm no longer as used to them as I once was, but I was getting tossed all over the place on my first run. There may have been a connection to the additional terrain I noted in (1), but I definitely couldn't see much definition in the snow.
3. Detachable quads are really nice when it's not crowded and you're trying to burn runs on groomers. I think I got as many runs in during my first hour as I normally would in ninety minutes without access to a detach (and even more vertical feet).
Monday Mourning would have been the trail of the day at Barker, had the lower half not been closed due to the remnants of the Jeep King of the Mountain race. Sunday Punch, aside from the flat light and terrain, was pretty good; however, the skier's right had some thin snow with a lot of moisture content trapped due to the quick temperature change from Sunday. Right Stuff was nice, but again had more terrain than I remembered, and I was quickly getting frustrated by an inability to make good turns on a sustained pitch. I decided to try switching terrain and headed towards Jordan, taking Lazy River (which was almost exactly as I remembered, albeit with slightly exaggerated terrain through the S-corner) to the Spruce Peak Triple (which is just as much fun to get on as ever) and over into Aurora. One run down Airglow confirmed that flat light and interesting terrain (as well as some interesting grooming) was not confined to Barker, and I continued into Jordan. The trail into Jordan (can't remember its name right now) had an ominous "Caution" sign on a bamboo pole atop the first knoll, so I slowed way down; however, the other side of the knoll was not rocky, as I had feared; it was simply saturated with water, which had frozen as the temperature dropped. I think there must be a water source under the snow in that area (as there is on skier's right on Punch).
Two runs down Rogue Angel and a run back to Barker later, I decided to see how White Cap was doing. Obsession was full of death cookies (not surprising, as I had seen the cats working it while arriving at the hill earlier that morning, and grooming a thaw-freeze after it sets up tends to create iffy conditions), but White Heat was groomed all the way across and quite skiable. Salvation was a lot of fun; although it had also been groomed late, there hadn't been enough traffic to thoroughly break up the surface as on Obsession. Anyhow, I headed back over to Barker for a few more runs, including one in the Superpipe--I usually ski at a resort that doesn't have one, so I wanted to check it out. I dropped in, skied up quite near to the top of the opposing wall, turned back down, looked up at the wall, and decided to turn left and just go straight down the middle. Especially after a thaw-freeze, those pipe walls are intimidating.
Overall, Tuesday was similar, excepting that I stuck with Barker, got to ski with my dad for about an hour, and managed to make a few decent turns even early in the day. Fresh manmade on Ecstasy, Cascades, and Right Stuff made for easier turning and definitely smoothed out some of the dips on Ecstasy. Right Stuff gets trail of the day honors, I think.
Other thoughts after going back to a megaresort after spending most of a few winters in Vermont and not at megaresorts:
1. Wow, there were a lot of people around for a Monday and Tuesday morning; I don't think I once rode a lift without someone else in sight.
2. Did I mention that an uncrowded detach is great for burning runs down groomers?
3. Having approximately 300m of vertical to play with is nice, especially when there's plenty of sustained pitches to choose from.
4. 40 runs on said 300m of vertical on largely man-made snow leads to base burn even on skis with fresh wax.
5. The grooming wasn't quite as smooth and consistent as I remembered, but it was generally quite good and I didn't find any gravel (which is a huge plus in a thin snow year).
