Sledhaulingmedic and I made our annual pilgrimage to Saddleback in Maine this fine Sunday afternoon. A brilliant blue sky with occasional puffy white clouds and very comfortable temperatures were enjoyed throughout the day. I donned a fleece and windbreaker for the Spring like temperatures that climbed into the forties. Generally, snow conditions never truly softened up despite some excellent corn being harvested on some lower mountain trails.
While Saddleback accurately reported 1-2″ of fresh snow over night, they downplayed the NCP they received prior to the change over. Snow surfaces were firm and many trails scheduled to open never had the rope dropped including Muleskinner, Upper Intimidator Glades, and Nightmare Glades. Just as well that the Glades were roped, but I was sad not to ski Muleskinner. Ropes dropped late on Supervisor,and Upper Tight Line to mixed results on firm surfaces.
We found the lower mountain slopes in better condition than most upper mountain trails, so we hammered the lower mountain in the morning after finding firm conditions up top. The lower mountain was slow to soften up but eventually we found the goods on the southern aspects.
Firm bumps were had on Peachy’s Peril, Upper Royal Coachman, and Golden Smelt with the later relenting in places during the morning with occasional softer sections. Parmachenee Belle was a delightful narrow twister with tighter bumps and many natural features. It was almost ready to go after our lunch break but still a little firm. The trail featured occasional debris which indicated this might have been a recent addition or the trail had work done this past Summer. In either case, I really enjoyed the character of Parmachenee Belle. Similar to Golden Smelt with less pitch but more twists, bends, and turns. Sweet run and accessed via a T-Bar to boot!
We found that the Doctor was in on the race course trail called Silver Doctor which featured the best snow conditions on the mountain. We lapped this trail several times to harvest delightful corn and soft snow. This excellent trail featured cool turns and character despite the race trail sized width. I really enjoyed our many turns on Silver Doctor.
We tried a pair of glades including Lower Intimidator Glades and Thrombosis which were rather sketchy and firm despite more than adequate coverage. The snow never quite softened up in the glades even at the mid- and lower-mountain elevations which made skiing survival at best. On average, Saddleback has the tightest marked glades that I have skied in New England, by far, hands down, no question. This was not the time to be working on our tight tree skiing skills with less than enjoyable snow to play on. We decided to skip Dark Wizard entirely, a rare day that I tuck tail and run when such challenging marked runs are open for the taking. Just was not worth the effort or risk level.
Later in the day, we returned to the Kennabego T-Bar for a few more summit runs. We found the headwall of Tight Line in rough shape and okay turns lower down on a firm Tight Line. Supervisor looked nice but looks were deceptive as we found the Upper mountain trails never softened. We opted to return to lapping the delightful corn on Silver Doctor before calling it a day.
Much shenanigans occurs when Sledhaulingmedic and I get together. We opted to pass on the outdoor Barbecue at the Lodge in favor of Hot Dog Quesadillas grilled at the Sled Hauler Hauler in the parking lot. Additionally, Éclairs were held while riding a T-Bar no hands. Long story short, good times.