Skiing Saddleback Mountain

Indy Pass ski vacation is in action! Gen and I arrived to Rumford Friday night, home of Back Mountain of Maine, and woke up early to make the additional hour drive to Rangeley for our first day of skiing in Saddleback Mountain! We arrived at the lodge around 8:15am, just before lifts opened, easily redeemed our passes, slowly got set up, and took it all in! We were excited and nervous for the day to come, especially since it was Gen's first ski day of the season. The atmosphere of the lodge was lovely, cozy, and friendly, and the staff were truly delightful. Our day would consist of 9 runs in 18-degree weather, almost no wind, and constant snowglobe snow!

Mountain Report

Saturday, February 17th @ 7:05am

        "First tracks on groomed trails this morning will be amazing" - Jared. you heard it here first. Come and get it while it's hot. All of our lifts are expected to start spinning at 8:30am, allowing you to lap Maine's Favorite Mountain. The clouds dropped off another 2 inches of snow within the past 24 hours, refreshing the surface oh so nice. Even though it was windy, conditions were great yesterday, and I couldn't contains the "yewwwws!" coming out of my mouth. I expect some of the same, if not better, today.

        Temperatures in the low 20s will be present at teh base area, while the summit will range from 10-12 degrees Fahrenheit. Throw in some overcast skies and a breeze, and that's the weather for today. 

        Did you know that we as a mountain and a community are back to back champs?! Gather 'round the base area today, Saturday, February 17th, at noon, and join us for a special surprise enveiling! What could it possibly be? I don't know, you'll have to come find out!

        Throughout the week, lifts will continue to open to the public at 8:30am, giving y'all some extra time on the slopes. Take advantage of it!

        The SBTP crew worked late the other night to bring you some fresh features in Wheeler Park. It's an all-you-can-hit buffet with some new additions: a down tube, flat double barrel, flat box, and a flat down flat bar. Plus, the 13' half pipe on Montreal is open. This is Maine's only Zaugg cut and maintained half pipe. Rip it up!

Saturday, February 17th @ 1:23pm

        Whoever shook the snow globe at Saddleback, we love you! Flakes have been floating down from above all day, blanketing our trails in that white gold. Keep it comin' Mother Nature! Conditions on the groomed trails were top tier today. Natural terrain is starting to get deeper, but beware of the hidden hard pack underneath. it's been a rockin' start to President's week, and we are stoked to have you here for the unique Saddleback experience.

Run 1: Lodge to South Branch Quad via Royal Tiger

[0.50 miles, 3:19, 341 feet, 17.6 mph max, 9.0 mph avg]
Something I read about Saddleback was that the beginner area is FANTASTIC since it is below the lodge area (therefore, no speeding bullet skiers flying past you), and I agree! Our day started with a run right away heading down the Royal Tiger to the base of the South Branch Quad. Every time I take my first run it feels like I’ve never skied before, but slowly it became more comfortable. My specific goals for this trip are to work on my edge turns and keeping my shoulders facing forward the whole time.

Run 2: Dusty Miller to Hummer to Royal Tiger

[0.61 miles, 3:22, 367 feet, 18.8 mph max, 10.8 mph avg]

We were excited that the whole area here was filled with green trails, so for run #2 we decided to hang right to Dusty Miller. This was also our first lift ride of the day, and our first encounter with our new favorite lifty - an old guy with a handlebar mustache who would aggressively wave at us and was wearing different, insane hat. We saw a top hat, Native American headdress (yikes), and a flamingo. Royal Tiger was filled with day-one beginners, and there was NO ONE back here! The trails were groomed, but the snow globe-snow had the tops super soft, and there were minimal tracks at this point of the morning. It was fun to experience not-first-tracks-but-still-early-tracks. It was also a very different experience going through a couple inches of powder, even on this easy run. I turned onto Hummer on a whim, and sadly slowed down a little too much at the end before Royal Tiger, so I had to ski-skate up to Royal Tiger for the final descent.

Run 3: Dusty Miller

[0.60 miles, 2:41, 358 feet, 21.2 mph max, 13.4 mph avg]

At this point, we were noticing how slow this lift was. We sat with a nice girl who’s been skiing here since she was 3 (and she truly could have been anywhere from 13-21 years old, who knows), and when the lift kept stopping we had nice chit-chat. The terrain here was excellent, but man, the lift was slow. This time, we took Dusty Miller all the way down, and it was just a lovely run. The trails were getting a little more busy at this point, but still nothing bad at all.

Run 4: Royal Tiger to Smelt Streamer

[0.60 miles, 3:53, 367 feet, 19.8 mph max, 9.3 mph avg]

Our next goal was to hit the other side of this area. We were aiming for Hornberg, but missed the entrance and hit Smelt Streamer instead. This was a nice trail with a little more variation than the others. We were extra careful to not hit the terrain park, and succeeded!

Run 5: Royal Tiger to Hornberg to Smelt Streamer

[0.63 miles, 4:12, 367 feet, 20.7 mph max, 9.0 mph avg]

More successful this time! The sign for Hornberg was tucked away. Gen didn’t trust it when we flattened out around a bunch of Condos, but I was pretty sure it continued on. I continued past through deeper snow, over a bridge (SCARY!), and then bottomed out and had to ski-skate up a small incline. From here, there were no signs, but there was a nice man watching his child lay in the snow. I asked him if I was horribly lost, and he said no and simply pointed down a short steep where the trail continued, and then linked back with the Smelt Streamer. I eventually met Gen at the end, and on we went!

Run 6: Dusty Miller to Hummer to Royal Tiger

[0.61 miles, 2:40, 364 feet, 19.8 mph max, 13.6 mph avg]

Our last lap in this area for now! We wanted one more nice easy run before we took a warming break (neither of us could feel our toes), so we went back to the other side to cruise down. I planned to do Dusty Miller all the way again, but I found the ski school on the lower part of that trail, so I switched over to the Hummer again. At this point, I feel I was getting better at aiming my shoulders at one place, and was continuing to practicing using my edges by engaging my knees.

BREAK

We took a lovely break by the large fireplace in the lodge to warm up and drink some gatorade.

Run 7: Hudson Highway

[1.82 miles, 13:55, 1,273 feet, 22.8 mph max, 7.9 mph avg]

It’s time! We scootched over from the lodge to the Rangely High-Speed Quad, sat with two others (who seemed to have a similar relationship as me and Emma, one expert and one apprentice), and made our way up! I loved this ride. The snow globe was in full effect, and as we got higher up the trees became more encrusted with snow. The unloading area was VERY flat, which was a solid bummer, but c’est la vie. The guy on the lift mentioned that the Hudson Highway does have some rough flat section, but we decided to fully experience it at least once, even if it’ll suck. From the top, the trail was BUSY. In hindsight, we should have waited. Oh well! The upper part was fast, and that led into a tricky head wall. I was moving too fast, I was stressed, and there were people EVERYWHERE, so naturally, I fell. I definitely struggle with head walls. Maybe I’m fighting it too much? Not sure. After the head wall, the rest of the trail was lovely! Most people went over to The Pass, so the Hudson Highway was nice and quiet. I had to pause at the junction with Morning Glory because I had noticed a sound coming from my right ski, and my outer brake was still in brake position and dragging. I ended up taking off the ski and man handling it back into place, which seemed to work? Unfortunately, all momentum was lost, and we had a long, painful ski-skate back to the lodge, as the entire last bit was flat. Absolutely brutal. I was SWEATING.

Run 8: Hudson Highway to Morning Glory

[2.24 miles, 16:03, 1,562 feet, 23.5 mph max, 8.4 mph avg]

Take two! Just me and Gen on the chair this time, and the views were just as beautiful. We scootched over next to The Next to cut off a few feet of ski-skating, and we were off! There were SIGNIFICANTLY less people this time, which was perfect, but on the head wall my skis crossed and I went splat, again. More impressively this time, too! I landed on my belly and slid 6ish extra feet. Oh well. Skis back on, and down I went! I noticed when my skis crossed, it felt like they were being covered in snow? I will conquer this. I got some speed after this, and definitely enjoyed my trip down. My legs were feeling it at this point, but I was trying to remember to use my knees to turn and keep shoulders pointing down. I also realized I use my heels A LOT, which is a habit I need to break. We made our way to the Morning Glory junction, and in an effort to avoid the flat part of Hudson Highway, we turned onto Morning Glory. The upper part of this trail was my favorite yet! Snow was light and fluffy with not too many tracks, and the terrain varied from short steeps, long but pretty flats, and a few ups-and-downs. It was a trail where it was fun to go fast because you didn’t feel like you were going to die! All was great… until we hit the bottom of the run near the road crossings. There was a guy hiking up, skis in hand, and he said he thought he was lost and if I knew where we were. I told him yeah but I’m a mess. He mentioned a road crossing coming up, which I knew about. He ended up slowly following us to the road crossing. The trail continuation wasn’t very clear, unfortunately, but we found the hole (slightly downhill on the road), where the trail flatly continued. There was a lot of skating here. Then, the trail crossed the mountain road, and continued to be flat with small ups and downs. Absolutely brutal and slow. I ended up facetiming Emma to get my mind off of it. This sucked. After who knows long and MUCH more physical exertion than I planned, we made it to some condos and FINALLY a small head wall that finally led us back to the South Branch Quad. Poles definitely would have helped us here, but at least our skating technique improved! We parted ways with our new friend, who said that was the biggest mistake of his life, and Gen and I decided we would hit one of the nice greens again as a palate cleanser.

Run 9: Dusty Miller

[0.62 miles, 2:52, 367 feet, 18.1 mph max, 12.9 mph avg]

The palate cleanser - a lovely final run on Dusty Miller. Not much to say here, beside my body and brain were tired. My heart wanted to ski more, but a break was needed. On the lift, Gen and I decided we would take a break and then decide what we wanted to do next. After sitting by the fire for a bit, we finally decided that we would pack up, get lunch in town, do some shopping, and then head back. Only bummer was that we didn’t get to hear the live music at the mountain apres, but that’s okay! We had a great lunch, I got a “cold as f*ck” sweatshirt, a beautiful drive home, a lovely siesta, and then a fun dinner at the Rumford Inn, which was equally as sketchy as it was lovely. Tomorrow’s plan is to hike Whitecap Mountain in the morning and then ski Black Mountain of Maine!

Saddleback Mountain Map (2024)