Sugarloaf has been a mountain that has inexplicably eluded me for well over half my lifetime. Having only been to Sugarloaf one time as a little kid on a ski vacation with the family, it is a mountain that has long been on my to do list. Along with Bretton Woods, Stratton, and Okemo, The Loaf was one of a very limited number of major ski areas in New England that I had yet to fully explore. A dubious list without distinction for such a fine quality mountain as Sugarloaf. With fond memories and low expectations due to poor weather and a mediocre March, I find myself driving from Saddleback to Sugarloaf on Friday evening with significant anticipation.
AlpineZone and Sugarloaf partnered up for the Summit and offered forum members an incredible deal at just over $150 per person for two nights lodging and two lift tickets along with some other perks including two parties with refreshments, the full resort treatment, and first tracks for an hour Sunday morning. We were essentially offered a complimentary two nights stay with the purchase of two slightly discounted lift tickets. This was the no brainer deal of the season and special thanks go out to the AlpineZone Team and to Sugarloaf for making this Summit possible.
Our six person condo in the Snowbrook Village afforded an awesome all encompassing view of the mountain due to its lowly proximately to the base of the Snubber Lift which serviced most of Sugarloaf’s condos off the access road. The condo was spacious and well stocked with a complete line up of appliances and creature comforts. For a skier that historically day trips 95% of the time and hostels one night stays the remaining 5%, the condo was a rare treat of an oasis allowing me to relax, grab some drinks, and have a good time without worrying about the drive home or early morning alarm for the next day’s alpine start.
You may have noticed that I have wrote quite extensively about many aspects of the trip but have yet to provide a conditions report and blow by blow summary of exciting runs as per normal. If you have already drawn the conclusion that conditions were below par for late March during what is historically their snowiest month of the year, your reasoning would be sound. Conditions were similar to Saddleback during the day prior: firm and fast. Sugarloaf did a commendable job grooming the snow into an eminently edgeable fast and hard packed surface following Thursday’s rain/freeze event. We were even able to escape the groomers on occasion with mixed results ranging from the absurd to what could only be described as situationally and relatively amazing.
After three fast runs, our condo group met up with the massive Summit contingent approaching thirty skiers met at the Sugarloaf Superquad. We gained the summit on a crystal clear blue bird day with extensive views of Mount Washington in the west and Katahdin in the east. We unloaded at the top of Timberline with a stiff and chilly breeze in our faces. Decision making and movement was an issue with a group this large but after setting off down Tote Road at a blistering pace, the group quickly fractured and the soon after fractured again into smaller more manageable groups.
What surprised me about Sugarloaf is that as massive as the mountain looks in person and on paper, it seems to ski much smaller. Over the course of the day, we seemed to cover almost all open trails excepting the Whiffletree area. Given that it was essentially a groomer only day, one might think that we skipped over a lot of terrain. However, no more than a half dozen trails were either not in skiable condition (frozen bumps) or closed excepting the snowfields and glades which were all closed for good reason.
While this means that I did not get to experience some of Sugarloaf’s best terrain and trails and none of their glades, I did get a good feel for the mountain and was not overly impressed with its size. It was as if someone took Sunday River’s horizontal expanse of wide characterless boulevards and placed them on a vertical plane instead. Not to compare Sunday River to Sugarloaf as it pales in comparison. But I did feel that Sugarloaf was lacking in narrow character rich trails and interesting topography. The day turned into one crazy fast blur of one wide well pitched boulevard after another.
Later in the day, our group hooked back up with some guys from my condo who had ventured off the groomers to exceptional results on Skidder. We followed them to the goods in the form of two inches of wind blown snow on skier’s far left of the trail. The variable wind blow over scraped gave way to desperation scraped bumps and survival skiing following one more short burst of navigable wind blow mixed with scraped. I have never been so excited to see two inches of wind blow over scraped! Turns ranged from sublime to desperate and painful but an exceptionally good time was had by most. We then turned into Sheer Boom under the Superquad for skiable hard pack bumps to finish out the run. We repeated this run three times with quickly deteriorating results with each run, partially due to conditions and partially due to fatigue after a long day.
Despite the less than ideal conditions, especially considering the time of year and historic epicness of late March, a good time was had by all. I really enjoyed railing fast arcs and working quick short turns on the steeps. But I occasionally found scraped down pockets that were rather disagreeable. Still full from our late lunch at Bullwinkle’s, I opted to skip dinner, hit the AlpineZone Social hour, and called it an early night due to fatigue.