loafer89
New member
Area skied: The Balsams Wilderness, New Hampshire
Date skied: March 21st, 2008 from 10:45am - 3:45pm
Surface conditions: Powder, windblown, variable
Weather: snowshowers all day, 9F base and 3F summit, 20-30mph winds
We woke up today to no new snow at all from last nights storm and winds here in Rumford Center where not very high but a quick call to Saddleback revealed a closed mountain with the same at Sugarloaf. Sunday River was not sure about lift operation so we called The Balsams and they confirmed the chair running and 8-12" of new snow overnight.
We made the drive up from Rumford Center in a bit over an hour and arrived to a light snow falling and a brutally cold 9F with fairly high west winds. We booted up and paid $31 for an adult lift ticket and $23 for my son which is a good deal for 1,000' of vertical and 15 trails.
Snow conditions ranged from deep powder on the lower 3/4 of the mountain to wind blown exposed ice and frozen granular for the first 200' of vertical down a majority of the trails, due to the high winds at the summit blowing the new snow right into the woods.
The trail of the day was Notch which is about 20' wide and had stashes of powder on the edges and in the woods and was a nice refugee from the cold high winds. We did this twice and had fun each time.
Notch:
We skied down Androscoggin which had some deep untouched powder halfway down the trail:
Overall we had a fun day but this is the coldest Spring day that I have ever skied in 25 years of skiing, truly frosbite weather and we took pictures very sparingly as it hurt to have exposed skin out for more than a few seconds at a time. Warren was a real trooper skiing in such high winds and cold weather.
The Balsams Wilderness:
Date skied: March 21st, 2008 from 10:45am - 3:45pm
Surface conditions: Powder, windblown, variable
Weather: snowshowers all day, 9F base and 3F summit, 20-30mph winds
We woke up today to no new snow at all from last nights storm and winds here in Rumford Center where not very high but a quick call to Saddleback revealed a closed mountain with the same at Sugarloaf. Sunday River was not sure about lift operation so we called The Balsams and they confirmed the chair running and 8-12" of new snow overnight.
We made the drive up from Rumford Center in a bit over an hour and arrived to a light snow falling and a brutally cold 9F with fairly high west winds. We booted up and paid $31 for an adult lift ticket and $23 for my son which is a good deal for 1,000' of vertical and 15 trails.
Snow conditions ranged from deep powder on the lower 3/4 of the mountain to wind blown exposed ice and frozen granular for the first 200' of vertical down a majority of the trails, due to the high winds at the summit blowing the new snow right into the woods.
The trail of the day was Notch which is about 20' wide and had stashes of powder on the edges and in the woods and was a nice refugee from the cold high winds. We did this twice and had fun each time.
Notch:
We skied down Androscoggin which had some deep untouched powder halfway down the trail:
Overall we had a fun day but this is the coldest Spring day that I have ever skied in 25 years of skiing, truly frosbite weather and we took pictures very sparingly as it hurt to have exposed skin out for more than a few seconds at a time. Warren was a real trooper skiing in such high winds and cold weather.
The Balsams Wilderness:
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