Sunday River - November 21, 2010

[WJenness]

Date(s) Skied: November 21, 2010

Resort or Ski Area: Sunday River

Conditions: A little bit of everything

Trip Report: Drove up late last night and stayed at my buddy's condo at SR.

Woke up and meandered up to the Barker lodge right around 9:00. Pretty good turnout as cars were parked below the Locke Mountain Townhouse road... It'll be a good thing when South Ridge opens (could be in the next day or two) and the parking over there can be utilized as well.

Got up to the lodge and saw the longest line for the Locke lift that I've ever seen... It went past the bottom of Rocking Chair! I decided that taking my time getting my boots on wouldn't be the worst thing, so I got a bagel and hot chocolate in the lodge. In addition to the long line, there was a ton of snowmaking going on. Lower Sunday Punch, Cascades, Right Stuff, Barker Basin, South Ridge, Risky Business could all be seen getting love from the base.

As I was in the lodge booting up, I noticed a line forming over by the Barker chair... I quickly finished getting ready and headed out and got in line.

After about 15 minutes or so, the lift started loading to cheers from the line and the lifties. Unloading at the top, Right Stuff was open, and I headed right over there... EASILY the trail of the day. Lots of nice soft (not too sticky) snowmaking, some bumps forming after a couple runs, just awesome early season skiing for manmade. Lapped it a few times, running into riverc0il and some of his buddies, skied a lap or two with them, and then needed to take a break (early season conditioning fail).

I headed back out and took a few more laps on Right Stuff because it was just GREAT! I then decided to see where turning the other way off the quad would take me. Jungle road was open, and nice and soft, taking you to an upper Sunday Punch that was just all cookies / snow pebbles... NOT a fun surface to ski on. I then loaded up at the Locke triple mid-station to check out T2. T2 was hard and fast, but edge-able. I then skied to the bottom via Sunday Punch which was very OK... Lower Sunday Punch was very nice as it had been getting fan gun love all morning and was actually bumping up a little bit.

I then went back and closed out the day with a few more Right Stuff laps. It was still pretty good, but was starting to develop some scraped off spots, and a little grass / brush poking through on the runout back to LSP... I imagine they'll continue to make snow there for the next few days... Waterbars were fairly prominent on the runout as well (covered and skiable, but speed bump-ish).

I took off a little after noon to make it home for the Pats game (made it with about 10 minutes to spare , perfect timing).

Off to the gallery to upload some pics.

I'll post them here when I'm done.

-w

 

[deadheadskier]

We must have just missed each other. I was one of the unfortunate souls parked below the Locke Townhomes, well below actually.

Photo from there at the end of the day looking up:



Parking there, my expectations were a bit low. They got even lower when I finally completed the long slog to the Barker Lodge and the line was quite long on the Triple, no Quad yet and a long line inside for a lift ticket.

Second I walked outside, the Quad was moving. Got in a 10 minute line, by far longest of the day, went up and hit the Punches. Upper skied like crap, really deep golf ball sized frozen granular. Botton was mint with creamy fresh made snow on skiers left and right.

Hit the triple from there as there was zero line now. Hit T2, which was firm, but good snow on the sides. Then back up the Quad to check out Right Stuff. I agree, definitely the run of the day. Super nice soft variable bumps on skiers left under the guns. Great coverage too. By end of the day there were zipper lines of 5-6 bumps in places. After lapping it a few Right Stuff runs, I headed back up to Locke and met up with snoseek for the rest of the day. Several runs down Right Stuff sandwiched around a couple beers at noon in the lodge. Finished out the day doing T2 to Punches.

Snow guns were on Top to Bottom all day. Cascade will come online soon, Risky Business, Southridge and then the return trail from Southridge back to Barker started seeing some love at the end the day.

Bolted at 2 and made it home for the end of the 2nd quarter of the Pats Game.

Bummer we missed each other Wayne. snoseek and I had a blast. Fantastic November skiing, way better than my first day out two weeks ago up there.

Some more photos of my own:

Looking down lower Punch



Washington from the top of Locke



hopefully Wayne has some Right Stuff photos. I was having too much fun to stop and take out the camera.

 

[WJenness]

OK, here we go:

Snowmaking in progress on Cascades (it can't be far away):

A look back at the Barker Basin:

Middle Punch coverage (pretty washed out, but I decided to post it anyway):

Agony always look so strange to me without the snow:

Guns going at the top of Right Stuff:

A look down Right Stuff:

Nice soft snow on Right Stuff:

A look up at the snowmaking as I was making my way out of Brookside:

-w

 

[MonkeyBrook]

Good recap guys, I agree completely. We hit Right Stuff 5-6 times in a row...seemed to get better each run. Had to bail early but had a blast. Good crowd out there today. Not sure if you guys noticed but Dana was loading chairs whne Barker first opened.

 

[snowmonster]

Thanks for the TR, wjenness. Sorry couldn't make it. Looks like I missed out on all the fun.

 

[WJenness]

Here's a video of Right Stuff that I stumbled across:



-w

 

[severine]

Very nice! This brought the excitement level for the season up a bit!

 

[snoseek]

Good day up there Sunday. Pulled in @ 8 and the somehow managed to squeeze my little shitbox in the last available spot in the rows. It was busy for sure, so glad the quad opened. Skied with jerryg and some river board people for a bit and met up with deadhead. BTW deadhead is pretty smooth in the bumps. Right Stuff was super fun, creamy, good bumps.

Had the most insanely painful charlie horse a couple times while skiing. I need to get my shit together, stretch, drop a quick fifteen lol. I ate four bannanas and a couplke of peanut butter sammys for dinner on my way to Stratton.

Woke up this morning to sleet and headed over to the loaf. Tote road was sweet, Especially the upper part to the bottom of chicken pitch. All of it was excellent and the crowds were gone. I pretty much just cranked the music and lapped it till 2 or so. It was freezing rain when I left but it did not appear to be wrecking the base even a little. Hayburner looks pretty much good to go, candyside still needs some work.
I think my pass is blacked out next weekend so I'll have to wait till monday. Booooo!

 

[Terry]

Good day up there Sunday. Pulled in @ 8 and the somehow managed to squeeze my little shitbox in the last available spot in the rows. It was busy for sure, so glad the quad opened. Skied with jerryg and some river board people for a bit and met up with deadhead. BTW deadhead is pretty smooth in the bumps. Right Stuff was super fun, creamy, good bumps.

Had the most insanely painful charlie horse a couple times while skiing. I need to get my shit together, stretch, drop a quick fifteen lol. I ate four bannanas and a couplke of peanut butter sammys for dinner on my way to Stratton.

Woke up this morning to sleet and headed over to the loaf. Tote road was sweet, Especially the upper part to the bottom of chicken pitch. All of it was excellent and the crowds were gone. I pretty much just cranked the music and lapped it till 2 or so. It was freezing rain when I left but it did not appear to be wrecking the base even a little. Hayburner looks pretty much good to go, candyside still needs some work.
I think my pass is blacked out next weekend so I'll have to wait till monday. Booooo!

Acording to the website, the blackouts don't start till christmas week. See you there on Sunday!

 

[snowmonster]

See you all Sunday. I plan to ski this weekend or my name ain't the snowmonster!

 

[deadheadskier]

I plan on being back up this Sunday. According to the coupon, Warren Miller twofer is still valid on Sunday. They only blacked out Thanksgiving - Saturday.

 

[snoseek]

Wait....Silver isn't blacked out!!!!! That changes things. Need to see how my work week is gonna play out. The next month is NOT a skiers dream for me.......


Edit-so it looks like loon on thurday for me before dinner. I haven't been there in years, looking forward!