My wife and I got the day off due to the snowstorm, and we live near the highway (which was quite good) and took off to Ragged for the day.
They got about 14" of snow, which looked about right, though some of it had settled etc.
For those of you that don't know, Ragged is a mid-sized mountain (50 trails) that seems to pride itself on being down to earth and not stuffy. They definitely are, it's a great place, we really enjoyed it.
It took a bit longer than expected to get there (2 hr from Boston), but we drove up and there was barely anyone in the parking lot. We got a great spot, 3 rows from the main building.
Took a nice run down Blueberry Patch and eventually wound up on Lower Ridge (not sure how, as the map doesn't show the connection), it was great conditions, nice and groomed. I noticed the glades were open, although it warned thin cover (more on that later).
We took another run down upper exhibition, and took the little half circle of ungroomed snow on the upper part of the trail. Lots of fun, the powder was great.
Took a break because my wife's nose looked a bit off color (and it was cold, below zero with windchills), and then took the tripple up for some runs down the Cardigan Turnpike. I also checked out the Devil's Den glades as we passed by it, a couple of runs later I did try it. Lots of snow, which was good, and a lot of it was untracked, although for good reason as they didn't have much underneath the new powder except for stumps, sticks, roots, rocks, etc.
But it was fun anyway and I made some new tracks.
The top of Flying Yankee was closed because it had no snow due to the wind blowing it around, but there was an entrance to it from Cardigan Turnpike, and it was totally ungroomed. Lots of fun, though icy, a bit rocky, and scary for my wife at first. The bottom 2/3 was great though, but they closed it later in the day for some reason.
We had lunch, then got back on the mountain and did the Glades trail (it's called Glades, we called it "glades Glades"). Good fun, although thin cover at first and a bit icy at the top. The bottom part was fun, but you had to keep an eye out for the rocks.
Did some more runs down Cardigan, some more Devil's Den, and visited other groomed sections as well (can't remember exactly where).
Took Headwall towards the end of the day. Big mistake. Icy on most of it, and powdery on the left side, but right next to a big dropoff. I bailed horribly on the ice and slid, no pain though. Nervously watched my wife come down it. I almost told her to take off her skis, but she did it and didn't fall like me.
Towards 3 we started getting tired, and we started falling for almost no reason. On our run down glades Glades, I hit an exposed stump that stuck 4" out of the snow, and totally bailed. Didn't see it. At that point, we said enough, and drove home.
All in all, lots of fun. Good conditions that deteriorated towards the end of the day, and we were tired, but a great day out.
We will definitely get back there when they get some more snow. Hopefully a lot more soon.
They got about 14" of snow, which looked about right, though some of it had settled etc.
For those of you that don't know, Ragged is a mid-sized mountain (50 trails) that seems to pride itself on being down to earth and not stuffy. They definitely are, it's a great place, we really enjoyed it.
It took a bit longer than expected to get there (2 hr from Boston), but we drove up and there was barely anyone in the parking lot. We got a great spot, 3 rows from the main building.
Took a nice run down Blueberry Patch and eventually wound up on Lower Ridge (not sure how, as the map doesn't show the connection), it was great conditions, nice and groomed. I noticed the glades were open, although it warned thin cover (more on that later).
We took another run down upper exhibition, and took the little half circle of ungroomed snow on the upper part of the trail. Lots of fun, the powder was great.
Took a break because my wife's nose looked a bit off color (and it was cold, below zero with windchills), and then took the tripple up for some runs down the Cardigan Turnpike. I also checked out the Devil's Den glades as we passed by it, a couple of runs later I did try it. Lots of snow, which was good, and a lot of it was untracked, although for good reason as they didn't have much underneath the new powder except for stumps, sticks, roots, rocks, etc.
But it was fun anyway and I made some new tracks.
The top of Flying Yankee was closed because it had no snow due to the wind blowing it around, but there was an entrance to it from Cardigan Turnpike, and it was totally ungroomed. Lots of fun, though icy, a bit rocky, and scary for my wife at first. The bottom 2/3 was great though, but they closed it later in the day for some reason.
We had lunch, then got back on the mountain and did the Glades trail (it's called Glades, we called it "glades Glades"). Good fun, although thin cover at first and a bit icy at the top. The bottom part was fun, but you had to keep an eye out for the rocks.
Did some more runs down Cardigan, some more Devil's Den, and visited other groomed sections as well (can't remember exactly where).
Took Headwall towards the end of the day. Big mistake. Icy on most of it, and powdery on the left side, but right next to a big dropoff. I bailed horribly on the ice and slid, no pain though. Nervously watched my wife come down it. I almost told her to take off her skis, but she did it and didn't fall like me.
Towards 3 we started getting tired, and we started falling for almost no reason. On our run down glades Glades, I hit an exposed stump that stuck 4" out of the snow, and totally bailed. Didn't see it. At that point, we said enough, and drove home.
All in all, lots of fun. Good conditions that deteriorated towards the end of the day, and we were tired, but a great day out.
We will definitely get back there when they get some more snow. Hopefully a lot more soon.