Now that SJ is back up and running (thanks admin), here are the pictured reports from this past weekend at Sugarloaf! This is my second year with the New England Silver Pass, so I'm hoping to make at least a couple more trips to the Loaf this season as my time allows.
Saturday 11/29 (report written and posted on NESC on the day of)
https://newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=4036
Great start to the season today at Sugarloaf! While Maine hasn’t received nearly as much natural snow as Northern Vermont this month, Sugarloaf has provided a solid early season offering with good base depths on open terrain.
Lift lines peaked at around 3 minutes at Superquad and Skyline; I don’t think Double Runner East ever got a line. From the Superquad, the main options were Gin Pole to Sluice or Spillway, Narrow Gauge including Cribworks, Comp Hill (only in the afternoon after race training finished up), King’s Landing, Tote Road to Spurline to Peavey X-Cut, and Bridle Chain to Lower Timberline. On the lower mountain, Lower Winter’s Way and Lower Narrow Gauge including Picaroon were open, both emptying into the lowermost part of Boardwalk. The Skyline quad started on wind hold but opened at 11:00 providing access to Sluice Chute, Upper Narrow Gauge, and Upper Tote Road.
Tote Road and Upper Narrow Gauge had the best and most consistent conditions of the day, with a good loose granular surface. Sluice had nice morning corduroy but became icy in the afternoon. King’s Landing was golf balls, with active snowmaking running on the pitch. Most other trails were some combination of hard pack and frozen granular, with ice patches developing as the day went on.
Snowmaking was running all day on The Landing, Candy Side, Tote Road from Peavey X-Cut down, middle Boardwalk, and a few other areas. Looks like snowmaking has wrapped up on Skidder and Hayburber which should hopefully be open soon.
It was a cold, mostly cloudy day and quite windy in the morning, with temperatures in the upper teens and to twenties and light snowfall throughout the day.
Overall it was an awesome first day of my season; let’s hope for a winter to remember!
Riding up the Superquad
Lower Narrow Gauge
Sluice
Lower Timberline
Spurline
Spillway
Upper Narrow Gauge
Riding up Double Runner East
Sluice Chute
Upper Tote Road
King's Landing
Pitch of King's Landing
Sunday 11/30 (report written and posted on NESC on Monday 12/1)
https://newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=4038
Skied for a few hours yesterday morning before driving home. Same terrain open as Saturday, though Comp Hill was closed for training in the morning. Similar temperatures to Saturday and no wind holds although there were still some strong gusts at times. Probably about an inch or so of dry powdery snow had fallen at the base by noon. Never waited more than a few chairs for Superquad or Skyline apart from a couple minutes at Superquad at opening. Conditions were slightly better than yesterday but still scratchy/golf balls on some trails. You could get some nice soft turns on the sides of the trails if you paid attention to where the wind was blowing the new snow. Snowmaking ran throughout Saturday night but was turned off on Sunday morning.
Fun weekend to start the season with, looking forward to being back at the Loaf when more terrain is open!
Upper Narrow Gauge
Bridle Chain
Sluice Headwall
Lower Winter's Way
