<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 12/20/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Ever scrath a chalkboard with your fingernails while driving by it at highway speeds? Do it while chewing tinfoil and you'll have a good idea of what much of the skiing at Sugarloaf was like this weekend. Fortunately, none of our party shelled out $38 bucks to ski it. I was able to collect about 7 free passes through various sources, and the others kicked in another 3 so everyone was able to ski free on Saturday and 4 of us went again on Sunday. We found a nice cabin in Stratton (where everyone is born with the ability to make tortillas) for <BR>$225/night so split 9 ways we had plush lodging for only $25/night. <BR> <BR>It was good that everything worked out so cheap because the skiing was nothing to write home about. It reminded me of so many cold and icy <BR>nights spent at Mt Southington back in grade school. They basically had 3 different options open on Saturday and 4 on Sunday (King's Landing, Hayburner, and Spillway on Sat, add Whiffletree on Sunday). It looked like barely 5% of the mountain was open so whoever made that 70% by next week guarantee is smoking something pretty strong. All of the opened <BR>trails were pretty typical McSki boulavards. They were groomed Saturday morning and were scraped off by noon, leaving a narrow strip of loose gran on the edges and a skating rink down the middle. My brother compared these edges to skiing "flutes" in Alaska -- Matt and I dismissed this as a late stage symptom of severe powder deprivation. <BR> <BR>As far as we could tell there was minimal grooming done on Saturday night -- they seemed to be devoting their resources to the halfpipe. <BR>Probably the best skiing of the weekend was there (though closed) on Saturday. They were blowing snow in it all day and the jump at the <BR>beginning was pretty nice with a really soft landing. I never thought I'd be so hard up for interesting terrain that I'd start playing in a <BR>park.. but that was where we were at. Whiffletree had good snow on Sunday but lacked much of a pitch and was packed full of people. It was Ullr Fest this weekend so they had a bonfire Sat and handed out fake snowboards to toss in as offerings to the snow gods. If this is a part of ASC's new snowmaking stategy I think they may be doomed. <BR> <BR>But it was "free" so who's to complain right? Most of my sour attitude is probably eminating from getting busted by the Maine State Swine at 78 on the Maine Turnpike -- a $98 bummer. A speedo stuck at 74, way too much caffeine, and VT plates did me in. After that, the last 2 hours to Cape Crud was probably the most miserable drive I've ever done. The effects of 2 days skiing, 8 cups of coffee, and 6 hours of driving was a unique form of torture. <BR> <BR>This was my first trip to Sugarloaf so it was nice to get a look at a new mountain. It sure is big, but it's kind of sad how they laid the <BR>place out. Seems like every scrap of land within the resort's boundaries has been developed. There doesnt appear to be much in the way of woods between trails and most of the trails are extremely wide and straight. If you deleted every other trail on the mountain it would give the place a much less congested feel. It also looks like they were pretty heavy <BR>handed with the bulldozer too as many of the trails dont seem to follow the natural lay of the mountain. <BR> <BR>There are a few trails that look like they have some character left though (Winter's Way, Bubblecuffer, and Double Bitter look like fun), <BR>even if they all have superhighways to either side of them. And then of course there's the snowfields, so I guess I'll have to go back in the spring for a second opinion. Maybe by then the staff down in the base lodge will know what a chili dog is -- we ran into 4 different girls on 2 different occassions that swore there was no such a thing, even though "Hot Dog w/chili" was plainly listed on the menu right behind them. Where do these people come from? Canada? Boggles the mind...
Sugarloaf, ME 12/18-19/99
- Thread starter Jerm
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