Skiing Saddleback Mountain
Saturday, February 15th, 2025
Runs: 18
Distance: 20.74 miles
Elevation: 21,457 feet
Max Speed: 28.4 mph
Avg. Speed: 12.8 mph
Moving Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes, 46 seconds
Total Time: 5 hours, 2 minutes, 15 seconds
Day two of vacation! Sarah and Alec landed somewhere in the 11:00pm hour last night, so we were delighted to see them at 6:15am when our alarms went off! The original plan for the trip was as follows: Sat - Mt. Abram; Sun - Saddleback; Mon - BMoM; Tues - Saddleback; Weds - BMom or Mt. Abram. This plan was quickly thrown out due to weather forecasts. I splurged and got the $30 Snowology subscription and it was highkey the best decision I had made, aside from learning to ski! Saturday was going to be the best day of weather, followed by a good amount of snow on Monday, insane winds on Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday would be a toss-up. With this information, we pivoted our plans to going right to Saddleback! Alec stayed behind since he doesn't ski, and Gen, Sarah, and I were off around 6:45! The drive to Saddleback from Roxbury was as beautiful as we remembered, and only a little sketchy at times before and near the height-of-land. We started to get excited once we turned into Rangeley, and soon enough we were parked halfway down the first parking lot!
Daily Report
Saturday, February 15th, 7:00 AM
Ahh, you can breathe now. You're on vacation and you're at the mountain. There's 7-14 inches of snow lined up for tonight into Sunday night, and we just got out of a 10-inch storm the other day! Not a bad way to kickstart the week, eh? While on vacation mode, please remember to still ski with care for everyone's safety.
More moderate temps are here with us today, paired with cloudy skies. The upper mountain has been untouched since our recent snowstorm. You know what that means? The goods are in the woods! Go chase the powder! After your fresh snow hunts and groomer carves, stop by The Pub for live music performed by Barney Martin from 3pm - 6pm. Breathe in that mountain air.
Once we were parked, we headed into the lodge, which was delightfully quiet. We got grab-n-go breakfast, redeemed our Indy Passes (small line that moved quickly), and suited up for a beautiful day!
Runs 1-4
Run 1: Rangeley Quad - Green Weaver
[0.45 mi; 2:17; 640 ft; 23.6 mph max; 11.8 mph avg]
Run 2: Kenebago Quad - America - Hudson Highway
[2.42 mi; 11:01; 1,762 ft; 25.5 mph max; 13.2 mph avg]
Run 3: Rangeley Quad - Hudson Highway - The Pass - Silver Doctor
[0.70 mi; 3:30; 951 ft; 28.4 mph max; 12.0 mph avg]
Run 4: Little Inky Boy - Dusty Miller
[0.64 mi; 2:42; 663 ft; 28.3 mph max; 14.3 mph avg]
We got right to work as the sun began to peek over the mountain. There were some whispy clouds high up that soon faded away to reveal a shocking bluebird day! First up was taking the Rangeley Quad up to the Green Weaver, which is the first of many new trails for Gen and I (and Sarah, as she'd never skied here before). It was nice and fun - generally mild at first with two steeper turns, with the steepest being down to the Kenebago Quad. We then hopped onto the Kenebago to introduce Sarah to America (and the dreadful Hudson Highway...). The view from up top was absolutely stunning. We could see what we thought was Old Speck, but turns out it was actually Mt. Washington and the Presidentials! The headwall at the end is fast and fun with a nice run-out - I remember this being an area where I started to get comfortable getting some speed last year, and it was super fun to revisit! We continued down onto Hudson Highway which was... rough. Low-tide and very chopped up by the groomers. I was kinda bummed because it is a fun, easy trail when there's nice snow! We flirted with hitting Morning Glory again now that we have poles and a fun little adventure, but we didn't want to take 15 minutes out of our day when it realistically could be our only Saddleback day. We skated across the flat section and were soon back at the Rangeley!
The quest to "ski the shit" out of the mountain continued by hopping back on the high-speed and scootching over to Silver Doctor. Sarah wanted to check out the Wolly Bugger Glades, so we'll find her again later. Silver Doctor was a fun, wide racing trail (they were setting up gates as we went down). I'm still working on my carving turns, so this was actually perfect for me. When Gen and I got back to the Rangeley, we remembered that woods take a lot longer than groomers, so we followed Little Inky Boy to Dusty Miller all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which was a great call because we hit a bunch of untouched corduroy! We took the slow South Branch Quad back up to find Sarah, and then we were back to business!
Also fun to point out, this was the real innaugural day with my new "Camp Snap" camera - a digital camera modeled after a disposable. We used it last night, too, but today was the big day! We tried to follow the rule "everyone gets one action shot" and just played around with it a bunch. I'll see how the photos came out when I get home on Wednesday!
Runs 5-9
Run 5: South Branch Quad - Rangeley Quad - Green Weaver
[0.42 mi; 1:29; 636 ft; 22.2 mph max; 16.8 mph avg]
Run 6: Kenebago Quad - Tri-Color - Hudson Highway - Blue Devil
[1.57 mi; 7:35; 1,739 ft; 24.4 mph max; 12.4 mph avg]
Run 7: Rangeley Quad - Green Weaver
[0.38 mi; 1:50; 633 ft; 19.2 mph max; 12.3 mph avg]
Run 8: Kenebago Quad - Dazzler - Tight Line
[0.57 mi; 3:05; 1,073 ft; 27.2 mph max; 11.0 mph avg]
Run 9: Kenebago Quad - America - Hudson Highway - Sneaky Pete - The Pass - Green Weaver
[1.31 mi; 6:15; 1,086 ft; 27.4 mph max; 12.6 mph avg]
Time to get serious for our next batch of runs! We scooped up Sarah and took the Rangeley back up to Green Weaver, which was slightly scraped off at this point. It was an exciting mash-up of scraped off trail and piles of deeper snow. We continued onto the Kenebago (which was not blasting EDM music like last year...) and followed Tri-Color Down to the Blue Devil. Tri-Color was beautiful - you could see the whole resort from the top, and it was fun to ski up top. It settles down at the junction with Firefly and drops out at the top of the Rangeley area. We meandered down Hudson Highway again to hit Blue Devil, which was narrower than Silver Doctor, but just as fun.
Back up the Rangeley, we hit Green Weaver again, which was rapidly deteriorating in condition, and we opted to hit the Kenebago Quad from the other side, so we took the first right at the headwall instead of the second. This is where things got interesting! Sarah was looking forward to exploring Casablanca, but wanted to hit Tight Line first. I felt confident that I could to Tight Line from Firefly, but I was TERRIFIED of the headwall. I was going back-and-forth the whole lift ride, but ultimately decided that 1) I know how to ski, 2) I know how to side slip if its too bad or too scary, and 3) Dazzler is flat and I could turn around and do a walk of shame if its too much. Gen went back down Tri-Color and I followed Sarah to the left across Dazzler to the headwall. I was SHAKING. We let everyone in front and behind us go first, and then I let Sarah go. Again, I know how to ski. The drop-in was by far the most terrifying part and this was easily the steepest thing I had done so far in my short career. I started by traversing basically the entire headwall followed by a tight turn and another traverse, slowly widening my turns. Sarah waited for me at Firefly, and from there it was just another fun, steep black run. I cruised down and back at the Kenebago fully began to cry. Sarah told me "you're literally fine you skied that well you didn't look a mess at all now lets get back on the lift" - important things! Our timing was good becuase Gen landed right when we were back, and up we went!
I requested an America run as a reward for doing the scary thing, so we went back up! Sarah went off to explore the glades as Gen and I ZOOMED down (not really we kept gawking at the view). We were done with Green Weaver, so we took Hudson Highway to Sneaky Pete to The Pass to get back over to the Kenebago - it was MUCH nicer (I also remember Sneaky Pete being terrifying last year and it was so easy this year - growth!).
Runs 10-11
Run 10: Kenebago Quad - America - Hugson Highway - The Pass - Grey Ghost - Dusty Miller
[2.14 mi; 9:37; 2,024 ft; 25.1 mph max; 13.4 mph avg]
Run 11: South Branch Quad - Rangeley Quad - Grey Ghost - The Pass - Lower Green Weaver
[1.31 mi; 6:27; 1,257 ft; 22.2 mph max; 12.2 mph avg]
Gen and I decided we'd get our first tippy-top to tippy-bottom run in now. We went back up the Kenebago (we also noticed what looked like pee-stains on the snow near the top... intersting) and followed America to Hudson Highway to The Pass to Grey Ghost to Dusty Miller - super fun! Grey Ghost was wider than Silver Doctor (I think) and Blue Devil (definitely), but still super fun. Dusty Miller was easy and soft - just a delight. Clouds were starting to roll in the horizon, but the day was still stunning! We went back up the South Branch and Rangeley for Run #11 and wiggled our way over to the Lower Green Weaver, which also skied wonderfully (MUCH better than it's upper half!). We also took a different way to The Pass this time - via Grey Ghost - which became our new preferred route.
Runs 12-14
Run 12: Rangeley Quad - Grey Ghost - The Pass - Lower Green Weaver - Green Hornet
[1.31 mi; 5:19; 1,237 ft; 25.2 mph max; 14.8 mph avg]
Run 13: Rangeley Quad - Grey Ghost - Jitterbug - Hudson Highway - Red Devil
[1.11 mi; 4:40; 1,240 ft; 24.3 mph max; 14.2 mph avg]
Run 14: Rangeley Quad - Green Weaver - Lower Tight Line - Lower Green Hornet - Dusty Miller
[1.76 mi; 7:52; 1,558 ft; 22.1 mph max; 13.4 mph avg]
We picked up Sarah back at the Rangeley - she LOVED Casablanca - and headed back up! Gen and I were ticking away at groomed blues that we'd never done before, so next up was the Green Hornet! It skied just as well as lower Green Weaver. Next up was the Red Devil. We follwed Grey Ghost to Jitterbug - which was a nice cut-through IF there weren't others around, but there were frequently many others. We needed to catch some speed coming down the Hudson Highway headwall since there was a medium uphill to get to Red Devil, but once we were there it was great! A lovely view followed by a steeper headwall and then a great intermediate run featuring a tree island.
The last groomed blue in the Kenebago area we still needed was the Lower Tight Line. We were brave and followed Green Weaver from the top of the Rangeley, which all-in-all was fine, just unpleasant to ski. Lower Tight Line was tight but super low-tide, so we had to dodge some exposed earth and rocks. Overall it was fine. Glad we did it, don't need to do it again! We then followed Lower Green Hornet and Dusty Miller to bring Sarah to the Tippy Bottom for the first time!
Runs 15-16
Run 15: South Branch Quad - Rangeley Quad - Grey Ghost - The Pass - Lower Green Weaver
[0.64 mi; 3:30; 636 ft; 21.6 mph max; 10.9 mph avg]
Run 16: Kenebago Quad - America - Hudson Highway - The Pass - Blue Devil
[1.60 mi; 8:04; 1,680 ft; 24.3 mph max; 11.9 mph avg]
At this point, Gen was on her "three more skip the last." We took the South Branch and Rangeley Quads up to Grey Ghost, The Pass, and Green Weaver to get to the Kenebago (Grey Ghost was getting soft now with a few icy patches). From the Kenebago, we hit America to Blue Devil again, which was a super fun and beautiful run! Gen went inside while Sarah and I got just a couple more in before calling it a day. At this point, Alec drove up to go for a hike near Rangeley and was going to meet us at The Pub in the lodge for dinner/late lunch!
Runs 17-18
Run 17: Rangeley Quad - Green Weaver
[0.50 mi; 2:38; 617 ft; 17.6 mph max; 11.3 mph avg]
Run 18: Kenebago Quad - Tri-Color- Grey Ghost - Royal Tiger - Mrs. Duley Glades
[1.85 mi; 9:08; 1,995 ft; 25.3 mph max; 12.2 mph avg]
Daily Report
Saturday, February 15, 2:39 PM
A stormsa brewin' and we are pumped! Forecasters call for 7-14 inches of snow incoming tonight through tomorrow night!
Surprise! We were expecting clouds but were gifted with crispy views and poppy blue skies. Soft snow and calm air in a bluebird atmosphere are sure to sooth the soul. Today, the already skied or groomed snow rode nicer than the untouched, but every day the snow changes. The edge-able groomers were top notch, and chewed up glades were a delight to swift through.
We opted to now do our "three more skip the last." Rangeley up, Green Weaver to Kenebago (which somehow got even more brutal), and then up the Kenebago for another tippy-top to tippy-bottom run! We followed the fully scraped-off Tri-Color down to Grey Ghost first. We got a photo with the Grey Ghost sign since the grey ghost is the mascot for the high school we teach marching band at. From there, we followed Grey Ghost all the way down (after The Pass the trail was lovely) to Royal Tiger, and then dipped into the Mrs. Duley Glades, which were super fun! A little tricky to control speed for me since it was mostly a single-track, but we had a blast.
We rode the South Branch Quad back to the lodge as Alec and Gen went upstairs to get a table for dinner. We got our apres drinks and a lovely dinner (I DEMOLISHED a burger and poutine), and then worked our way back home! We stopped at the grocery store in Rangeley to pick up some snacks and dessert, and once home we continued to watch the Hoarders channel before winding down for bed. This was such a fun day, and also a super rewarding day. I did, in fact, ski the shit out of the mountain (or at least the trails that were within my skill set!).
No comments:
Post a Comment