Sugarloaf/USA, ME, 12/09/03

[Rob]

Okay, so... First off, the drive over was beautiful. A huge moon setting in front of us, the sun rising behind us, and alpenglow on a distant Mt. Katahdin to our right. Throw in some rime on the trees from river mist and it was just a goregous morning. As we came out of Kingfield heading up to the 'Loaf the snowbanks just kept growing bigger until just the sign parts of the "curve" signs were showing. The snowbanks on the access road were some of the biggest I've ever seen in 5 years of going there, and definitely the biggest I've ever seen before February. <BR> <BR>Warmup run on King's Landing. Nice soft fluffy bumps. Ducked into the trees and had a few mid-thigh deep turns but it wasn't really steep enough to keep moving even on the lower "headwall" pitch (and it's far from flat - Sugarloaf has some f'n steep blues). I was hitting some wood under the snow, but that wasn't unexpected and it's not going to hurt a ski any. <BR> <BR>Next run traversed right off the superquad, under the Spillway lifts (weren't running - long side was supposed to be) and a through the woods traverse to White Nitro/Wedge. <BR> <BR>There were tracks on it, but they were all clumped together (WTF!??!) leaving about 1/2 the width of the trail untracked. There was also a group of about 15 people standing around saying "Don't go over there, you never get moving." Uh-huh. I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. <BR> <BR>"Nadine - Go! Go go go! Point 'em straight down and just left them run!" <BR> <BR>Well, it wasn't untracked any more! The magic phat skis work for her too! <BR> <BR>It was nice. A couple face shots, a few more waist deep turns, and lots of slow-motion floating. And nothing going "crunch" underneath. <BR> <BR>We both decided that needed a do-over. However, when we got there some nice soul had graciously broken trail through the woods to Boomauger, the next trail over. This one was steeper, so better turns could be made. We got 3rd and 4th tracks on it. <BR> <BR>"Sweeeet." <BR> <BR>"Totalllllyyyy." <BR> <BR>"One more time?" <BR> <BR>"Oh yeah." <BR> <BR>By the time we got back to it, it had been completely tracked out. It was still nice and soft though. Time for lunch. Yeah - only 4 runs in 3 hours, but serious QUALITY runs. <BR> <BR>[intermission] <BR> <BR>Double Bitter - nice, soft, huge and well-formed bumps. Built by professionals. Or the CVA Freestyle Team. Same thing, really. <BR> <BR>Windrow - lived up to it's name. Lots of lightly and un-tracked turns on snow sheltered from the wind. Not as deep on this side of the mountain, but plenty soft and I think lighter, on top at <BR>least. <BR> <BR>Comp Hill - Couldn't finish the day without trying comp hill before it got it's usual "race snow" vomitted onto it. It sucked - irregular bumps, hard snow, tired legs, dehydration. Some nice untracked low-angle turns at the bottom... <BR> <BR>We saw a ton of moose tracks, and a momma moose with her calf standing in the road on the way home. And a huge orange moon heaving itself over the horizon. <BR> <BR>Awesome day. Just awesome.