Hello, I'm snowphoenix and I'm new to Snowjournal (though I have been reading the site for several years). Please enjoy these two trip reports from Sugarloaf! (Sorry if some photos are poor quality, my phone got a bit cold and seemed to have trouble focusing the camera)
Sunday 1/16/22
newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=2466
Sunday was a nice day of skiing groomers; the corduroy in the morning was very nice although things were getting skied off by the afternoon. Coverage was generally pretty good on open trails. I started out with some laps on the Whiffletree lift before spending most of the day on the upper mountain lifts to avoid the long runouts, taking 19 runs in total. The bluebird skies allowed for excellent views of the surrounding peaks, and while it was cold there wasn't too much wind. Snowmaking was in progress on Lower Competition Hill, Sidewinder (with some huge whales) and a few other areas around Bullwinkle's and the top of the Skyline lift. There was a race event being held on Upper Narrow Gauge.
All lifts were open except Double Runner West and the T-Bar; most were either ski-on or had a few-chair wait. The SuperQuad had about a five-minute wait most of the day but was empty towards the end of the day. Overall it was a really fun day of skiing!
Riding up Whiffletree
Riding up Whiffletree
Skid Road
Upper Whiffletree
Lower Whiffletree
View from the top of Skyline
Tote Road
King's Landing
View from the summit
Tote Road Extension
Riding up King Pine
Riding up Skyline
Narrow Gauge Extension
Spillway
Ramdown
Riding up Timberline
Monday 1/17/22
newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=2470
Monday was a “quality over quantity” day. I only had about an hour to ski before the long drive home for afternoon commitments. About 3 to 4 inches of fluffy powder had fallen at 8:30 but the snow report showed no new trails open. My original plan was to take Whiffletree to Tohaul and do some fast laps on King Pine, but alas both of those lifts as well as Timberline were closed due to wind. I traversed across the base area from the base of Whiffletree to see what other lifts were open. Both Double Runners as well as the SuperQuad were running and I quickly got in line for the latter, waiting about 3 minutes to get on as the line grew behind me. On the windy ride up, someone else on the chair with me recommended Windrow as it had not seen much traffic yet, so I quickly made my way down Tote Road only to make a wrong turn and end up on Scoot instead. It was a nice run although I could still feel the hardback and ice beneath the fresh snow.
At the base, I saw how long the SuperQuad line had become so I opted for Double Runner East instead, hoping to get up to the Skyline lift. I noticed the West side was running slightly slower than the East side so I think I made the right call here. As I got in line for Skyline, two snowboarders offered to share their chair with me. Right as we were loading, an alarm rang in the lift shack but the lift didn’t stop. Our chair and the one after us were loaded, then the lift stopped and we realized that they were closing due to the wind and we were on the second to last chair! The lift soon restarted and carried us through the very strong wind to the top. Once there, I battled my way through the headwind on an icy and wind-scoured Spillway X-Cut and headed down Ramdown. Lastly I finished my run on Skid Road which was all fresh snow except for two sets of tracks, which earned it the ROTD. Unfortunately that was all the skiing I could do before having to pack up and leave.
Apparently Sugarloaf was able to reopen Whiffletree and Skyline later in the day as well as about a dozen more trails, and they got at least 8 inches from the storm. Big thanks to those two snowboarders at Skyline for letting me ride with them; otherwise I would've been stuck at the bottom of Skyline! I’m pretty pleased with how the day went and I can’t wait to return to Sugarloaf when everything is open as it's an outstanding mountain in my opinion.
Upper Scoot
Riding up Double Runner East
Ramdown
Skid Road
