Sugarloaf/USA, ME 4/24/2004

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A terrific day at Sugarloaf today. <BR> <BR>Sure, the snow was thin. Sure, the terrain was limited. Sure, we arrived at 8 am in the midst of a cold rain shower. But the snow surface, the company, and the complete dearth of people more than made up for it. <BR> <BR>We lingered over coffee before wandering over to Guest Services for $25 tickets. Rob was only the second paying customer of the day. Dan, Rob and I boarded the Superquad as soon as the rain shower ended and headed up. <BR> <BR>Thanks to blustery winds the only other lift scheduled to run -- the Spillway chair -- didn't. The morning was filled with alternating sun: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3845.jpg" ALT="sun"> <BR> <BR>and snow squalls: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3846.jpg" ALT="snow squalls"> <BR> <BR>as the front moved through. Freshly groomed slushy corn was the order of the morning. <BR> <BR>Dan: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3847.jpg" ALT="Dan"> <BR> <BR>Marc: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3848.jpg" ALT="Marc"> <BR> <BR>Rob single-handedly proved on film just how many different directions it's possible to head in at one time: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3849.jpg" ALT="Rob"> <BR> <BR>Upper runs like King's Landing and Skidder were fabulous. Tote Road wasn't bad, and Hayburner had a few rocks poking through. Upper Spillway and Sluice were perhaps best of all, mostly because people were avoiding the short walk at the bottom. The runout on Candy Side was just plain gloppy, but had sufficient snow spread around: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3850.jpg" ALT="Candy Side"> <BR> <BR>Kudos to Sugarloaf for creating such a decent product today despite fickle weather and only 100 or so inches of snowfall this season, 50% of which fell before the Christmas week meltdown. Most impressive, folks! Too bad for them that there were so few people taking advantage of it. <BR> <BR>Tomorrow is Sugarloaf's final day. We'll be on Mt. Washington's Gulf of Slides.
 
Oh, I almost forgot. 3 separate moose sightings this evening between Pinkham Notch & North Conway. Of course, my stinkin' camera was back in the motel room.
 
Oops...still one more thing. Rob <B><I>did</I></B> manage to pull off that recovery!
 
Thanks for the report Marc ! <BR> <BR>It's good to see some pics of the Loaf still good late this season. Last year it closed around april 14 I think and on april 20, even the Skidder was looking all bare, if I correctly remember !
 
Thanks Marc. My first visit to da Loaf was for Reggae Fest this year. I absolutely love the mountain. They must have lost a lot of terrain over Reggae and early last week, but I did notice the upper trails like Skidder had a lot of cover still. The base area was thinning out quick though. One of our last runs last Sunday was White Nitro. It was a stellar run with smooth corn the whole way. Eight days later and I'm still similing. I have a bunch of pics from Reggae on my site if you're interested. What a hill!
 
Marc: <BR> <BR>Have you skied this place alot in the past? hopefully you were out on more of the mountain than just the 19 runs open over last weekend. Competition Hill and Narrow Gauge still looked to have alot of cover left. Was Spillway x-cut all melted off at the top of Spillway?. How many people do you figure skied there on saturday? <BR>The snow sure went fast from 102 trails on 4/11 <BR>to 19 on 4/24.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><HR SIZE=0><!-Quote-!><FONT SIZE=1><B>Quote:</B></FONT><P>Have you skied this place alot in the past? hopefully you were out on more of the mountain than just the 19 runs open over last weekend.<!-/Quote-!><HR SIZE=0></BLOCKQUOTE> <BR>I've skied there many times in the past, just not in recent years. But, 19 trails?? No more than a dozen, tops, even including all of the partial trails and x-cuts. The two open trails beneath the dormant Spillway chair -- upper Spillway and Sluice from the top of the lower Spillway chair on down only -- both ended in a runout that included a healthy walk at the bottom to get back to the base area or to the other open terrain to return to the chair. We never saw the upper Spillway x-cut because only the Superquad ran all day.
 
Sounds and looks like you had a good time.My wussy butt tried unsuccessfully to fish with the change in days.Guess I should have made the drive. <BR>((* <BR>*))NHPH
 
I am just getting my ski condition information from the offical(read lie) at sugarloaf.com. Have you tried to access the chat area on their website? <BR> <BR>Here is what you get when you click on chat: <BR> <BR>We regret to inform you that the Sugarloaf chat room has been discontinued. The chat room poses many challenges because of our inability to confirm with certanty, the age of chat room participants. Inapropriate topics, vulgar language, personal attacks, and threatening comments will not be condoned by Sugarloaf Mountain Corporation. Several recent topics have been deemed offensive for young viewers. Inappropriate comments on a Sugarloaf sanctioned and owned page not only anger and offend, they pose a potential liability that we are no longer willing to accept. <BR> <BR>I thought that skiing was all about expressing your freedom, this kind of action by ASC troubles me. Especially comming from a resort that is more easy going than the rest in their organization.
 
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