Sugarloaf ME 4/09 - 4/11 2004

K

Kevin

New member
I decided to go back to Sugarloaf after all, seeing as how they recieved 6" of new snow on April 4th, I just could not resist and ski Vermont instead. The mountain is in good shape considering that they have had very little snow this year. Alot of the extreme skiing such as Bubblecuffer, Winters Way, glades and the snowfields except for White Nitro were very thin <BR>and not all that fun to ski, but there is alot more to Sugarloaf than just these areas. <BR> <BR>Friday April 9th was quite warm and sunny with temps of 40-45 at the base and 35-40 at the summit. White Nitro had snowmaking blasted onto it during the cold periods of January-February, and was the only real way down the snowfields without trashing your skis. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3753.jpg" ALT="White Nitro"> <BR> <BR>On friday night, a cold front came through with a big drop in temperatures and about 1-2" of snow on the mountain. I was one of the first in line for the Superquad on Saturday morning. The groomed runs off the superquad such as King Landing, Hayburner and Competition hill were awesome, with packed powder conditions. I really see why they call this mountain the king of spring, It is quite cold even in mid-April. Temperatures for the remainder of the weekend never really got above freezing, preserving winter surface conditions. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3754.jpg" ALT="View of the mountain from Spillway Chute"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3755.jpg" ALT="Warren on Boardwalk Trail for the 1st time"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3756.jpg" ALT="View of Sugarloaf from Route 16"> <BR> <BR>Easter sunday was a stellar day with perfect weather and great snow conditions, temperatures on the mountain were in the 20's and the snow was <BR>85% packed powder. I skied alot with my son, who is getting better by the day, we even took a run down Tote road. Sunday was the king of day that you wish you could bottle up and save. <BR> <BR>Summer Sucks!!!!!
 
I've heard this before, but this report really demonstrates a dramatic spring weather difference between Sugarloaf and NH/VT. Sugarloaf hasn't had all that much snow this year, and over half of it was in those big early December storms. <BR> <BR>I was in New England Memorial weekend of 1986 after a business meeting in Boston. We drove past Lake Winnipesauke, which was jam-packed with boaters and looked like mid-summer on a 75 degree day. Mt. Washington's snow was gone (I had checked; I would have brought skis if there had been snow) and we drove up its toll road. Then we went to Maine, where it was overcast and chilly, and many of the summer tourist spots weren't open yet. <BR> <BR>I wouldn't think Sugarloaf would have marine cooling. It's only a bit farther north than Stowe/Jay etc. Why would its spring weather be that different?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><HR SIZE=0><!-Quote-!><FONT SIZE=1><B>Quote:</B></FONT><P>I wouldn't think Sugarloaf would have marine cooling. It's only a bit farther north than Stowe/Jay etc. Why would its spring weather be that different?<!-/Quote-!><HR SIZE=0></BLOCKQUOTE> <BR>Actually, compared to N VT, Sugarloaf has marine *warming* for most of the season. It's that much closer to the Gulf of Maine, which allows warm, moist Atlantic air to wrap counter-clockwise around coastal lows. If they've got enough cold air in place to have the precip fall as snow they're in good shape, but often enough that doesn't happen, as witnessed by their relatively meager average annual snowfalls. Given the proximity of Atlantic moisture, one would expect their snowfall averages to be much higher if all of that stuff fell as snow. <BR> <BR>Also, there just plain aren't a lot of coastal lows in most seasons. Sure, there are a few prominent ones each year, but Sugarloaf doesn't get to squeeze the moisture out of each of those lows approaching from the west and northwest -- they're plumb near dry by the time they reach Maine. This season is a perfect example, where N VT resorts broke 300 inches and Sugarloaf struggled to surpass 100 inches. <BR> <BR>FWIW, judging from these photos the snow on the ground at Sugarloaf isn't much different than Jay or Stowe right now, both of which -- especially Jay, from my own obs a week ago -- are still eminently skiable. This past weekend, before the deluge afflicting most of New England this week, Jay had nearly all of its terrain open. What Sugarloaf <I>does</I> have over either of those Vermont areas is elevation, some 700-1000 feet more of it on top. That may partially account for its snow preservation, as does its northeastern exposure (much of Stowe faces due east, although the Front Four face northeast, and while Jay's tramline runs northeast-southwest much of its terrain in the Bonaventure basin faces ESE). <BR> <BR>Trust me, Tony, you can't much compare the weather in the Winnepesaukee area to N VT. Night and day. In fact, you can't much compare the weather in the Winnepesaukee area to that in Franconia Notch area just some 40 or 50 miles north of it. <BR> <BR>And finally, if there was no snow left in Tucks on Memorial Day in 1986, that was an exceedingly rare season, indeed. Generally by that time the summit cone of Washington is completely bare, and you can't see the snow in Tucks from anywhere there. <BR> <BR>Speaking of which, and I should probably start a separate thread for this part of this post, I'm debating what to do this weekend: ski Wildcat/Mt. Washington (Gulf of Slide instead of the Tucks zoo), or Sugarbush/Stowe/Jay. This weekend's weather forecast is looking fantastic for a GOS assault, yet it would be nice to save that for the following weekend and enjoy some final lift-served this week. Just my luck, though, the following week will feature a deluge and howling winds on the Presis. Decisions, decisions...
 
There wasn't ZERO snow in Tucks in 1986, but I called someone back there (probably the observatory) just before and was told it was so marginal as not to be worth it. I know that FTO standards of what's marginal are much lower<IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)">. But it was plenty warm in North Conway. <BR> <BR>The existence of above timberline terrain at Sugarloaf is more evidence of colder weather, particularly since it gets less snow than Jay or Mansfield. And the colder weather could be/probably is spring/summer rather than winter. This does affect whether trees grow and how fast snow melts. <BR> <BR>And what about the "brush line" you mentioned before in northern Vermont. Does Sugarloaf have that, and consequently good glade skiing? Probably not as good as Vermont most of the time, with so much less natural snow. What about that big year 1995-96 when Sugarloaf had 387 inches?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><HR SIZE=0><!-Quote-!><FONT SIZE=1><B>Quote:</B></FONT><P>And what about the "brush line" you mentioned before in northern Vermont. Does Sugarloaf have that, and consequently good glade skiing? Probably not as good as Vermont most of the time, with so much less natural snow.<!-/Quote-!><HR SIZE=0></BLOCKQUOTE> <BR>Tony, you're about to learn another Eastern skiing idiosyncracy. <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/wink.gif"> <BR> <BR>Sugarloaf's woods skiing is lousy, but not due to snow, it's due to the trees. Sugarloaf was logged in the 20th century, and the second generation of trees that replaced the felled ones grew much too close together. Most of Vermont - literally - was clearcut in the 1800s, and the forests there are much more mature as a result.
 
Sugarloaf has usually has completely different weather than the rest of New England, just due to its location so far to the north. There was almost no snow at all on the approach to the mountain remaining from last winter. Farmington was all grass, as was Kingfield. Only above about 1000 ft did one encounter some residual snow still remaining. What kept the big snowfalls away from Sugarloaf was the nearly permanent arctic high pressure anchored over southeastern Canada this winter, great for snowmaking, but poor for snowstorms. When I went up in January there was more snow on the ground in Connecticut than there was in most of southern Maine. Just FYI there was little to no glade skiing available last weekend, except for some tight tree skiing between Wedge and Boomauger, and off of Spillway x-cut. The mountain does have excellent snow preservation, last weekend was barely above freezing, and the bright sunshine of each morning, destabalized the atmosphere, causing light snowshowers at the summit each afternoon. The clouds caused by this reduced the temperatures each afternoon, causing the snow to start freezing up again past about 1:00pm. I still love this place even if it gets less snow than the resorts down south, the continuous vertical drop is hard to beat, grooming is quite good, and the staff are extremely friendly, most important when you are skiing as a family.
 
Does anyone know what happened to the Sugarloaf chat area on there website? It seems that it was removed around about February 1st. I guess that ASC is growing touchy about people seeking other sources of information.
 
Longtime lurker here, felt the need to post on a discussion on my "home mountain" <BR>The forum was shut down because it was becoming critcal of the poor management at asc and people were providing accurate snow reports that contradicted the front page. A new forum is now located at <A HREF="http://pub3.ezboard.com/bsugarloaf" TARGET="_top">http://pub3.ezboard.com/bsugarloaf</A> <BR>All the regulars are now there after k2trav.com's chat got shut down by the mountain as well. (k2 is an employee and was strong armed) <BR> <BR>For the record the last 3 winters have been absolutely terrible at the loaf, mostly because the storms have been going south of us. We were close to 100 inches below normal for all 3. <BR> <BR>As for glade skiing... I can't imagine anyone calling it lousy... Most of my northern VT native friends like it better at the loaf. Its true our woods are tighter, but the locals are more prolific than anywhere else I've seen. The goods are just hidden. I too skiied the loaf last weekend and found the glades to be well covered. Nothing below 2500 feet was worthwhile but everything else was quite good, marked and especially unmarked. Can't dog, boomers, spillway xcut glades and that new piece of shit glade kickback were good. I skiied some of the hariest stashes and found them in good shape as well.
 
Beetpoop, it sounds as if I'll have to come looking for you the next time I'm at the Loaf. <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/wink.gif"> I'm usually good at sniffing out hidden stashes, but apparently I've got a ways to go in Maine. I stick by my secondary growth comments, though...from what I observed any unpruned trees are darned thick there.
 
Thank for the information about the chat forum for Sugarloaf. I was just interesterd in what had happened to it. I do not usually go there, but I was interested to see what the conditions were really like before I made the trip up this past January 11-16th. I did recieve timely responses to my questions about the real conditions and was very thankfull for that. I agree that this winter was on the light side, but the mountain does have excellent snowmaking and grooming to make up for the shortfall in most respects. My view of it is that the extreme stuff, like the snowfields and the wild thing trails are an added benefit if they are open when we I go up. As for the tree skiing, I argree with Marc that they are very tight and well hidden and not much fun with 193cm skii's.
 
Has anyone heard how the mountain is doing financially? When I bought new ski's at the Sugarloaf ski shop in Kingfield, the ASC employee <BR>told me that the mountain had a record number of wind hold days this season (16) to be exact. This has to be bad for business, good for them with me anyway, because I came back to use my vouchers from January 16th, when the mountain was completly closed due to high winds. Speaking about the tree skiing again the mountain report lists Blueberry Grove glade and Swedish Fiddle glade as being open. As I remember these glades were mostly rocks. No wonder the chat was closed, nobody can really believe there snow reports.
 
Agreed, anything unpruned isen't fun to ski but there are a few natural glades, well hidden of course. As for your 193's I generally cruise through glades on my 195 k2 comps, it sometimes gets a bit tight, especially if you take a wrong turn. <BR> <BR>I don't know what the snow report on the website says, but everything off the spillway x-cut will be good this weekend as well as kickback (which was cut over one of my fav. stashes). Can't dog will be easily skiable, open or not. The backside is skiable if you can get there without getting caught. boomers and freds pitch will be fine. Rookie river is probably thin. <BR> <BR>As for finantials, ive heard that they are in poor shape because of weather and the cheap season pass from sunday river. Maybe ASC will crumble and the loaf will get sold. One can hope...
 
I totally forgot to even check out the new glades that were cut for this season. I remember skiing Rookie River with a ski instructor friend. I think I ate more tree bark in that one run than I care to remember. That is a tight glade with a stream bed thrown in for good measure. The mountain is just so large that it is hard to explore all the open terrain in three days time. Hopefully next season will be better than this year, but I've learned that this place is at its best after March 1st most years. Is it really possible to ski the back side? there did not seem to be enough snow. I only skied the entire snowfields once, and that was in April 1996 when there was 10+ of snow on the snowfields. High Rigger, Pure Heat and Hard Tack were awesome and very challenging. I really miss the gondola though, even from just the mid-station it was more fun than now. If you go up have a great time, for me I am off to ski Belleayre because the fat lady is singing for N.Y state.
 
Just got back from the loaf today, reagge fest was fun. Did the backside was actually a lot of fun. 2 of the 3 major routes had excellent coverage. The flatter area up high was getting bushy. At the bottom there was no snow and i had to hike down 20 feet to the runout but other than that i was able to ski the whole way. Definatly less snow this year though. The backside closes cause the runout and inrun dont have enough snow, I have never seen the actual steep part too low on snow. The bottom half of the mountain was brutal, not much snow. Upper elevations were decent but the low snow year is showing everywhere.
 
I Emailed Kevin last week and he provided some great detail on the conditions. I did far more skiing than Reggae-Festing, and I had a great time overall. I think the rain last week hurt them a bit as compared to what was there Easter weekend. Some crossovers were hurting as were the base areas, but I still had a blast. First time to the Loaf and I will definitely be back! Full trip report and pics here: <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewtopic.php?t=1496" TARGET="_top">http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewtopic.php?t=1496</A>
 
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