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I have said it many times this season: any one who thinks this season has sucked has not been paying attention and getting out when it counts. You simply CAN NOT put work above skiing when there is fresh snow in the mountains. I have had Saddleback on my radar for three or four years now and finally everything lined up to get over there following 12" of fresh earlier this week. I think Saddleback is perhaps even more over looked than Burke as a great ski area no one skis and is certainly one of my favorites now that i have made some turns there.
Drivers approaching Saddleback from Vermont should be wary of a few things regarding the directions Saddleback suggests on their web site. Route 16 in NH has frost heaves that will launch your car completely air born if you do the speed limit for a fifteen mile stretch north of Berlin, NH. The road is only slightly better in Maine, but at least in NH Route 16 is consistently a rodeo whereas Route 16 in Maine you do not have any warning before preparing for lift off. The bigger issue is that the directions say to take Route 16 through Rangeley; but what they don't tell you is that you need to go straight on Route 4 when Route 16 turns left. Fifteen minutes later, I noticed Saddleback in my rear view mirror. Oops.
A better alternative for those folks driving to Saddleback from western New England is to utilize Route 2 West to Route 17 East To Route 4 to Saddleback. Frost Heaves are less of an issue on Route 17 though still in existence and despite the longer mileage drive on Route 2, the excellent road conditions and high speed limits make up for the extra mileage in the end.
I met up with The Sledhauler just past 10am and booted up in Saddleback's amazing new base lodge. The lodge is a thing of beauty, one of the nicest looking base lodges around. We boarded the Rangeley Double and took Upper Royal for a warm up. Six inches of light POW was featured directly under the lift, now that is how I like to warm up! The middle 500 vertical feet of the mountain had light powder everywhere. Higher up on the mountain was slabby and cruddy while down lower was crusty and variable. Regardless of conditions, tons of untracked remained all over the mountain a full day after the storm had ended. I reflected upon our choice of mountains noting that Wildcat, Jay Peak, or Sugarloaf would definitely not have a single untracked line today. After heading back up the Double, we made tracks down to the Kennebago T-Bar.
What a trip that section of the mountain was! The trail map does not do it justice. The T-Bar is marked "not for beginners" due to its steep unrelenting, fast line speed and pitch, and and thin cover near the unload area. a nice ride. The top sections of Tight line and Supervisor were scraped with windblown scraped snow and some snow making pipe to contend with at the entrance. We dropped into think wind blown variable snow that was rather firm and chopped up. With the wind howling, a quick descent was made to that magical 500' of vertical area that had phenomenal powder. These trails were mostly tracked up with untracked lines on the sides. Lower Warden's Worry was reserved for us and held copious amounts of great untracked pow with a fair amount of obstacles and geological treats.
Next up were some of the tightest glades I have ever skied featuring thick spruce trees with limbs (usually) chopped off. I dubbed "Intimidator" the most aptly named trail in New England. We just stood at the top looking at the trees then looking at each other, dumfounded. Untracked powder was made it easier to navigate than it might have been with just packed snow. Lines longer than a dozen feet were hard to find, you needed to keep changing it up and trusting your current line and trusting your skis while looking for another line. Sick Sick Sick. We tried Dark Wizard next, HOLY CRAP!!! I can not remember the last time i stood at the top of a run shaking my head and reassessing my sanity Again, almost completely untracked powder helped but damn those trees were tight!
Lower Intimidator and Lower Nightmare Glades were more open but also more tracked up with less fluffy powder below that magic 500' vertical. We still managed to occasionally score jackpot untracked and lines that were more forgiving.
Run of the Day was Upper Nightmare Glades which seemed to get better every run, what a trail! Sparse trees, lots of obstacles, and a variety of terrain features were great highlights. I found a killer rock jump skiers 'right while Sled was delighted in untracked powder through sparse tree lines on skiers' left.
Upper Professor had incredible light powder with some untracked up high, interesting terrain features, good curves, and variable snow down low. Lower Peachy's Peril and Lower Green Weaver featured great powdery run outs on low angle ungroomed terrain. Golden Smelt was a roller coaster of turns and rolls, a new england classic by my standards, delving through various layers of crud from slabby to crusty. A nice way to end the day.
Muleskinner... what can i say? It kicked like a mule! It is definitely one of the best on piste trails in New England. You certainly traverse far enough from the lift to feel like it is not on piste! Narrow, steep, tree islands... killer. We took two.
Despite a six to twelve inch snow fall of powder, Saddleback was virtually deserted all day. We spotted somewhere between forty to fifty skiers and riders the entire day, and that number includes ski patrol which we the only other skiers in the trees with us. To say Saddleback is a rare undiscovered gem of a Powder Stash and New England classic is an under statement. Over shadowed by bigger and more well known Sugarloaf to the east and closer to metro Boston Sunday River to the south, Saddleback is sandwiched between two ski areas that offer a bolder and more well advertised product. However, boldness and being well marketed translate into bigger crowds, less elbow room, higher prices, and ruder clientele. And most importantly, less powder days after a storm and more competition for untracked powder the day following a storm. Skiers and riders seeking cheaper and more laid back alternatives to the big resorts need look no further than Saddleback. It is a New England classic with some amazing terrain that would give even mighty Mad River Glen a run for its money.