Sharon
New member
They reported 8" of snow and it looked like more was falling overnight on the Tug...but where that snow actually falls is a mystery until you drive up there. Some places had feet of snow and other places had just a few inches.
At Snow Ridge we saw 4-8" of fluff on top of a breakable crust.
We got there at opening bell and the temp was 3 degrees.
The skiing was good, and as usual, there is plenty of untracked snow to ski there and there is a crazy ravine with chutes, bowls and cliffs that kept us quite challenged.
The ravine didn't have good light for photography
My friend had a little trouble...it was his first day skiing this season
Hero line skied by the elder in the group
I was skiing with 3 older dudes (50-65 yr olds), 2 on telemark and one on a snowboard. The eldest telemarker was the most hard core and he kept wanting to ski the headwall cliff into the ravine, while the rest of us wanted untracked snow. We'd get the untracked prior to the cliff and then, the cliff, which was pretty scary, especially with that breakable crust. The steepest shots could not hold the snow. Commitment was necessary to get down into that ravine. You needed balls to really rip that stuff up today, and we ran into the guy who can rip it well....Skimore.
He had a fairly large posse yet he stuck with us for a run to make sure me and the old men made it out of the ravine.
We were uncertain where the skiable lines are into the ravine, so it was nice to have someone there who could guide us to the skiable entrances. You can easily get cliffed out and it wasn't easy moving around in deep snow with the crust....especially if you went down too far and want to go back up to the better entrances. Sketch factor was big in places, but we all enjoyed the challenge. The crust beneath the snow definitely affected our form and fluidity and upped the difficulty.
We found some nice untracked snow next to the ravine between the trail and the top of the ravine in the woods, which we lapped up before lunch. That was a really nice stretch of tree skiing on the front side. I don't think there us much more in the main area, at least as far as we saw. (didn't get any pix of this)
One thing I find at Snow Ridge is that even if it is 10 degrees, if I dress in my usual ski attire, I get too hot. I ditched the neck gaitor on the first run and the fleece on the 4th run. At lunch I got chilled and put both the fleece and neck gaitor back on. We did a lot of schlepping to get to the goods and then back to the lift.
There was only one lift running on a quiet weekday. They only charged us $20 for lift tickets. But that meant we were limited to one side of the ravine, unless we hiked.
So we hiked.
We hiked over to the south woods. We made the only tracks there, including breaking the boot pack, but it was well worth the effort of postholing knee-2-thigh deep powder and crust for 15 minutes. The neck gaitor was off right away and I was no longer chilled, sweating once again.
entering the south woods
The goods
We had to walk back to the lift, but it was mostly on a road. We took two more runs off the lift on the front side and called it a day at 4pm. They are open until 8:30, so we were not stopped by closing time.
We ran into Skimore in the bar. He was with a friend who asked if we are going to report about the goods on this forum. I told him not to worry. Snow Ridge is a bit out of the way for most of the FTO readership. It's a nice little homey ski area with a good vibe and some seriously challenging terrain as well as beautiful glades that is seriously uncrowded, even on the weekends. If a few people read this post and venture out to check it out, I don't think anyone will notice the difference. There are not many skiers who can ski, let alone find the goods at Snow Ridge. It's well hidden. For the people who read this and decide to go check it out, they deserve it for making the effort.
At Snow Ridge we saw 4-8" of fluff on top of a breakable crust.
We got there at opening bell and the temp was 3 degrees.
The skiing was good, and as usual, there is plenty of untracked snow to ski there and there is a crazy ravine with chutes, bowls and cliffs that kept us quite challenged.
The ravine didn't have good light for photography
My friend had a little trouble...it was his first day skiing this season
Hero line skied by the elder in the group
I was skiing with 3 older dudes (50-65 yr olds), 2 on telemark and one on a snowboard. The eldest telemarker was the most hard core and he kept wanting to ski the headwall cliff into the ravine, while the rest of us wanted untracked snow. We'd get the untracked prior to the cliff and then, the cliff, which was pretty scary, especially with that breakable crust. The steepest shots could not hold the snow. Commitment was necessary to get down into that ravine. You needed balls to really rip that stuff up today, and we ran into the guy who can rip it well....Skimore.
He had a fairly large posse yet he stuck with us for a run to make sure me and the old men made it out of the ravine.
We were uncertain where the skiable lines are into the ravine, so it was nice to have someone there who could guide us to the skiable entrances. You can easily get cliffed out and it wasn't easy moving around in deep snow with the crust....especially if you went down too far and want to go back up to the better entrances. Sketch factor was big in places, but we all enjoyed the challenge. The crust beneath the snow definitely affected our form and fluidity and upped the difficulty.
We found some nice untracked snow next to the ravine between the trail and the top of the ravine in the woods, which we lapped up before lunch. That was a really nice stretch of tree skiing on the front side. I don't think there us much more in the main area, at least as far as we saw. (didn't get any pix of this)
One thing I find at Snow Ridge is that even if it is 10 degrees, if I dress in my usual ski attire, I get too hot. I ditched the neck gaitor on the first run and the fleece on the 4th run. At lunch I got chilled and put both the fleece and neck gaitor back on. We did a lot of schlepping to get to the goods and then back to the lift.
There was only one lift running on a quiet weekday. They only charged us $20 for lift tickets. But that meant we were limited to one side of the ravine, unless we hiked.
So we hiked.
We hiked over to the south woods. We made the only tracks there, including breaking the boot pack, but it was well worth the effort of postholing knee-2-thigh deep powder and crust for 15 minutes. The neck gaitor was off right away and I was no longer chilled, sweating once again.
entering the south woods
The goods
We had to walk back to the lift, but it was mostly on a road. We took two more runs off the lift on the front side and called it a day at 4pm. They are open until 8:30, so we were not stopped by closing time.
We ran into Skimore in the bar. He was with a friend who asked if we are going to report about the goods on this forum. I told him not to worry. Snow Ridge is a bit out of the way for most of the FTO readership. It's a nice little homey ski area with a good vibe and some seriously challenging terrain as well as beautiful glades that is seriously uncrowded, even on the weekends. If a few people read this post and venture out to check it out, I don't think anyone will notice the difference. There are not many skiers who can ski, let alone find the goods at Snow Ridge. It's well hidden. For the people who read this and decide to go check it out, they deserve it for making the effort.
