Category: Trip Reports

2005-2006 Season, April, Loon Mountain

Crappy Late Season Day at Loon Mountain

Soon after waking up at 7am, I fired up my computer to check conditions. Things did not look too bad until I stuck my head out the door, and boy was it cold! I slacked off until about 9am when I decided that I might as well give it a shot. After my powder day at Saddleback on Thursday, I knew I was in for disappointment, but I figured it would at least be worth the drive. Not so much.

Jay Peak’s woods would not be very skiable after the rain compiled with a hard freeze. I still had a voucher for Loon and suspected a ski area with good grooming would be the best option. But not even Loon’s grooming could save the day!

Driving up to a relatively empty mountain was the first sure sign of trouble. Loon is never that uncrowded at 10am on a sunny Saturday morning. The Sherman Adams Lodge was sporting high school racers who either already finished their run or were waiting for their run, I could not tell. But I could tell that even these racers would rather be indoors than taking a free run, ouch.

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2005-2006 Season, April, Powder Day, Saddleback, Video

Amazing Day at Saddleback, ME

Steve on Muleskinner

I have said it many times this season: any one who thinks this season has sucked has not been paying attention and getting out when it counts. You simply CAN NOT put work above skiing when there is fresh snow in the mountains. I have had Saddleback on my radar for three or four years now and finally everything lined up to get over there following 12″ of fresh earlier this week. I think Saddleback is perhaps even more over looked than Burke as a great ski area no one skis and is certainly one of my favorites now that i have made some turns there.

Drivers approaching Saddleback from Vermont should be wary of a few things regarding the directions Saddleback suggests on their web site. Route 16 in NH has frost heaves that will launch your car completely air born if you do the speed limit for a fifteen mile stretch north of Berlin, NH. The road is only slightly better in Maine, but at least in NH Route 16 is consistently a rodeo whereas Route 16 in Maine you do not have any warning before preparing for lift off. The bigger issue is that the directions say to take Route 16 through Rangeley; but what they don’t tell you is that you need to go straight on Route 4 when Route 16 turns left. Fifteen minutes later, I noticed Saddleback in my rear view mirror. Oops.

A better alternative for those folks driving to Saddleback from western New England is to utilize Route 2 West to Route 17 East To Route 4 to Saddleback. Frost Heaves are less of an issue on Route 17 though still in existence and despite the longer mileage drive on Route 2, the excellent road conditions and high speed limits make up for the extra mileage in the end.

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2005-2006 Season, April, Burke, Earned Turns, Powder Day

Thick Powder Earned Turns at Burke

Burke!

In hind sight, I should have Dawn Patrolled this tour. But the storm went by faster than I had anticipated which resulted in no snow during the morning or afternoon. My timing was all out of whack. I left work early to go earn some turns down the road at closed Burke Mountain. I arrived to find a snow covered Burke Mountain begging for turns to be made on any untracked line I desired.

The untracked was not exactly powdery due to a warm afternoon baking under the sun. I was in a race against the time of consolidation when I first began skinning. But I slowly shook off my haste as untracked is untracked regardless of consistency. The snow was moist but not completely wet and packed down, but rather wet with a little fluff which is an odd combination. It looked like fun as it proved to be.

I tracked up Lower Warren’s Way to Bear Den to Willoughby on the skin up. As I approached mid-mountain, I noticed the wet snow was slightly slabbed on the surface of open slopes with a more powdery and lighter consistency on skier’s left under the trees. Duly noted for the descent! Four inches of the thick consistency stuff was the rule with deeper pockets occasionally. I suspect Burke picked up six inches at mid-mountain before the snow began consolidating.

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2005-2006 Season, April, Cannon Mountain

Last Day of the Season at Cannon Mountain

Echo Lake from Gary's

Anyone that firmly believes a bad day of skiing is better than a good day at the office does not get out on days like this. There definitely are days on which I would much rather be working than skiing, this day was one of them. The only day of the season i can recall thinking “I should have stayed home.” [I repeated this same thought nearly a week later at Loon, NH due to similar but slightly worse conditions].

The original plan for the weekend was skiing Mad River Glen on Saturday followed by either Tuckerman Ravine or Gulf of Slides on Sunday. After the down pour at Mad River Glen yesterday, I was still optimistic that the Ravine might be an option for Sunday until Saturday night when I checked the summit temperature of Mount Washington which was reading 17 degrees!!! And that was not even the coldest part of the night. With the winds howling, temperature falling, and potential new snow overnight, it just was not going to happen. If the Sherburne had still been open top to bottom and in good condition, I might have considered it as the Sherbie is always worth a day trip by itself. But not when you can not skin and ski top to bottom.

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2005-2006 Season, April, Mad River Glen

Last Day of the Season for Mad River Glen

Pat on Creamery

The morning dawned with bright sun shine, blue skies, and very comfortable temperatures. Weather forecasts were calling for a ninety percent chance of rain showers during the afternoon, but the morning was shaping up to be every skier’s wet snow dream. I boarded the Single Chair at 9:15 A.M. with a big grin on my face that continued throughout the day. It was no April Fool’s joke that today would be Mad River Glen’s last day of operation for the season and I planned on going out with a bang.

I began with a groomer run down Upper Antelope which held out well despite the recent high temperatures. Only one major bare patch existed near the top of the run with about five feet of snow on either side. The snow was wet and frozen gran with lots occasional thin spots with an occasional spot featuring Mashed Potatoes. Ice flows were amazingly edgable!

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