Skiing Saskadena 6
Sunday March 16th, 2025
Runs: 23
Distance: 12.92 miles
Elevation: 14,045 feet
Max Speed: 27.4 mph
Avg. Speed: 12.4 mph
Moving Time: 1 hour, 4 minutes, 34 seconds
Total Time: 5 hours, 11 minutes, 56 seconds
I fear I might actually be sick... AGAIN! I thought I was suffering from seasonal allergies the past couple of days, but I slept quite horribly last night and woke up feeling like one giant booger. Boo. That being said, I wasn't in too bad of shape to ski! I was up at 7am and was soon on my way to Saskadena 6, running about an hour ahead of Sarah and Mom and about two hours ahead of Linnea and Andrew. My drive was boring and I wasn't feeling great, but I woke up near the end when I hit a brutally muddy road - it's definitely spring! I had to say a few Hail Mary's on this road before eventually making it onto pavement and to Saskadena 6! There were maybe 20 other cars there and basically nobody on the lift - nice! It was warm in the low 50s. I booted up inside, redeemed my Indy, and figured I'd just ski until I wasn't having any fun any more!
Conditions
Sunday, March 16th, 8:40am
New Snow 24 hours: 0"
Season Snowfall total: 87"
Primary Surface: Corn Snow
Good morning from Saskadena Six! We're not expecting the sunshine we saw yesterday but the snow is soft to start the day and the skiing and riding today will be super fun! Things are starting to get a little thina cross the hill so keep an eye out for areas of thin cover and wet spots, especially at the base. The bottom of Lasky's might have a bit of a natural pond skim by the day's end. The skiing is great nonetheless and we'll have 15 trails to start the day serviced by Chair One and the Snow Day conveyor lift which turns 9am-4pm. See you on the hill!
This is our last week of regular 5-day operations. Next week, we'll plan to open Friday-Sunday, March 21st - 23rd. Out annual Passholder Apprecaition Day is March 23rd and will feature a S6 Passholder BBQ 11:30am-2pm and live music from local favorite, The Gully Boys, 2pm-5pm! The mountain will still be open to non-passholders so be sure to mark your calendars. Any additional operating days past the 23rd will be evaluated pending conditions.
As a reminder, Chair Two is not in operation this year. We are working with an engineering team to evaulate all possible options for future replacement. All Chair Two terrain will be accesible, conditions pending, via either Gully or Duane's Drop.
Runs 1-7
Run 1: Chair 1 - Easy Mile
[0.90 mi 3:29; 617 ft; 23.4 mph max; 15.4 mph avg]
Run 2: Chair 1 - Bunny's Boulevard - Skyline
[0.60 mi; 2:09; 591 ft; 23.1 mph max; 16.7 mph avg]
Run 3: Chair 1 - Skyline
[0.58 mi; 2:19; 591 ft; 24.7 mph max; 14.9 mph avg]
Run 4: Chair 1 - Mid Face - The Face
[0.38 mi; 1:52; 620 ft; 26.9 mph max; 12.3 mph avg]
Run 5: Chair 1 - Road Way - The Face
[0.47 mi; 2:10; 614 ft; 25.3 mph max; 13.1 mph avg]
Run 6: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Lasky Lot
[0.53 mi; 2:23; 617 ft; 24.7 mph max; 13.4 mph avg]
Run 7: Chair 1 - Road way - Duane's Drop - Backdoor - Bee Line - Chimney
[0.58 mi; 2:23; 617 ft; 24.2 mph max; 11.1 mph avg]
The first batch of runs were my solo runs. My goal was to ski the map from viewer's right to left, starting to ones I was familiar with and then going into new territory. Run #1 was down the Easy Mile, which was a classic run of "do I actually know how to ski?" I've found that starting with easy greens almost confuses my legs more than starting with a trail with steeper pitch, maybe because I don't need to ski with better technique to get down safely? Run #2 was down Bunny's Boulevard which was fun! A nice pitch and a nice width. Run #3 was down Skyline, which was a bit icy and visually very ditry, but still skied well overall. The trails weren't overly soft (yet), so I was starting to feel pretty good!
Run #4 was new to me and was down the DOUBLE BLACK DIAMOND "Mid Face" - which actually had a decent pitch, but only for a short section. Snow was soft on Mid Face and just a touch firmer on The Face below. On a nice snow day this would be fun to zoom down, but I was taking it slow because soft snow scares me! I followed Road Way to The Face for Run #5 which was easier, but Mid Face to The Face was more satisfying since it was a straight shot. The view down to the base area was cool from up here, since it felt like it was straight down. The view from the whole ski area was neat - we weren't on top of some massive peak with expansive views, but we were nestled into some rolling hills in all directions.
Continuing to work my way over, Run #6 was down Road Way to Duane's Drop and then to Lasky Lot. Duane's Drop had the softest snow of the day and a steeper headwall than other trails (sans Mid Face), which made for some brain/leg skiing. Lasky Lot was a nice narrower cruiser that spat out at a massive slush patch right near the base area. My final solo run was back to Duane's Drop and through the park fence to Backdoor and then down Bee Line and Chimney, more fun, relatively easy trails (also with no park features).
After that run it was a little after 10:30 (Sarah and Mom's ETA) and I had to pee, so I figured I'd hop inside to use the bathroom and check Sarah's location, and before I had a chance to I found them getting set up! I hung out with them while they booted up and then we were back out!
Runs 8-11
Run 8: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Backdoor - Milky Way
[0.69 mi; 3:50; 604 ft; 24.2 mph max; 10.8 mph avg]
Run 9: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Backdoor - Double Dip
[0.58 mi; 3:30; 614 ft; 23.6 mph max; 10.0 mph avg]
Run 10: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Backdoor - Bee Line
[0.55 mi; 2:37; 600 ft; 27.4 mph max; 12.6 mph avg]
Run 11: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Lasky Lot
[0.52 mi; 2:21; 620 ft; 27.3 mph max; 13.4 mph avg]
Back on the non-exitent lift line, Sarah, Mom, and I were heading back up. I told them about my adventure so far and we decided to start on looker's left of the mountain and work our way right this time, which would start their map tracing but also finish mine - yay! Run #8 for me was down back through Backdoor and around Milky Way, which was their park run. It had three jumps, a narrow box, and a rail. The jumps were super fun and the other two features were easily avoidable - truly a perfect park run! Only down side was there was a medium-long skate back to the chair, since Chair Two was down for the season.
Run #9 was through Backdoor into Double Dip, which was a fun "natural" lift line run. The snow was soft, so even though it looked rough, it skied well. #10 was through Backdoor yet again and all the way down Bee Line, which had a bit of fresh corduroy near the end that actually felt amazing under my skis. I thought this completed my map - yay! Run #11 was back down Lasky Lot, and then we found Linnea and Andrew!
Runs 12-15
Run 12: Chair 1 - Road Way - The Face
[0.44 mi; 2:30; 614 ft; 25.0 mph max; 10.6 mph avg]
Run 13: Chair 1 - Mid Face - The Face
[0.36 mi; 1:47; 620 ft; 24.9 mph max; 12.2 mph avg]
Run 14: Chair 1 - Mid Face - The Face - Showboat - The Face
[0.39 mi; 2:55; 584 ft; 21.5 mph max; 8.0 mph avg]
Run 15: Chair 1 - Mid Face - The Face - Showboat
[0.41 mi; 3:44; 636 ft; 14.7 mph max; 6.6 mph avg]
Now the gang was fully together (minus Emma, who was TOO COOL FOR US/had a massage booked and Gen who was recovering from a two-week-long business trip to Florida), we were continuing our trip across the map. Run #12 was back down Road Way to The Face and #13 was Mid Face to The Face, both were soft and I skied them better than before! One trail that I had missed before was Showboat - a rotting natural trail that was partially open. All of my friends are better and braver than me, so I rallied! Run #14 was just a preview and some practicing hitting the rotting moguls, accepting ice as a friend, and avoiding patches of grass until we got back on The Face near the end. Linnea also FaceTimed her mom for some GNAR points, which was fun and silly. Run #15 followed Showboat all the way down. I felt good about how I skied the mid-section, but my pole got stuck in a mogul near the beginning of the bottom, so I had to do some side-stepping up to get it. The very end was mostly grass with just a little bit of snow left, but the crew said I did a good job!
Runs 16-19
Run 16: Chair 1 - Skyline
[0.59 mi; 2:22; 610 ft; 26.9 mph max; 14.9 mph avg]
Run 17: Chair 1 - Bunny's Boulevard - Skyline
[0.58 mi; 2:32; 607 ft; 24.1 mph max; 13.7 mph avg]
Run 18: Chair 1 - Easy Mile
[0.85 mi; 3:35; 610 ft; 23.7 mph max; 14.2 mph avg]
Run 19: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Backdoor - Milky Way
[0.64 mi; 4:36; 623 ft; 23.8 mph max; 8.3 mph avg]
Run #16 brought us back down Skyline, was skied super well now that it was a bit softer. Andrew skipped this one because he was being nice and getting Linnea's other skis from the car. Once he was back, I decided to get CRAZY and ride up with Linnea and Andrew for Run #17, and nearly immediately got a nose bleed (thankfully it was a short and small one), and then got hit by the chair on my way off. I learned my lesson to never break up with Sarah and Mom again! We followed Bunny's Boulevard Down and then back up and down Easy Mile after. Now it was around 1:00pm and we were all a bit hungry, so we hit Milky Way again and got some food! Andrew and I got cheeseburgers from the cafeteria, while the other three brought their own foods. I got a lovely hard cider from the bar, and we all had about 1,000 french fries between the five of us (they were insanely good, especially for lodge fries).
Runs 20-23
Run 20: Chair 1 - Bunny's Boulevard - Skyline
[0.59 mi; 2:20; 604 ft; 25.8 mph max; 15.1 mph avg]
Run 21: Chair 1 - Skyline
[0.57 mi; 2:06; 600 ft; 22.3 mph max; 16.3 mph avg]
Run 22: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Lasky Lot
[0.48 mi; 2:50; 607 ft; 27.0 mph max; 10.2 mph avg]
Run 23: Chair 1 - Road Way - Duane's Drop - Backdoor - Milky Way
[0.63 mi; 3:26; 614 ft; 25.6 mph max; 11.0 mph avg]
Energy was waining after lunch but we rallied for a few more. Personally, I rallied for no reason other than I had done 19 run and wanted to hit at least 20. We hit Bunny's again for #20 and then Skyline for #21 since Andrew missed Skyline the last time. We brought Linnea and Andrew over to Lasky's Lot for #22, which did have a bit of a pond at the bottom, and then we split up for the final run - Sarah, Andrew, and I went back to Milky Way to hit the jumps again (Sarah and I hit the jumps to get a little air and go "woo," while Andrew was hitting 360s) while Mom and Linnea went around Easy Mile. Sarah and Mom did go for one final last run afterwards for a "mother daughter moment," but my legs were cooked and I was NOT skiing well at this point, so it was time to wrap up!
I was TIRED at this point. Two days of spring skiing plus very little sleep to whatever mystery illness I was dealing with had me BEAT. We did rally for a very G-rated apres in the adorable lodge. I had a lemonade, Andrew had a coke, and Sarah, Linnea, and Mom all had shirley temples. The drive home was long and slow, but it was SUCH fun weekend! I definitely felt like garbage the next day, but now, writing this on Tuesday, I'm starting to feel better and eager for what weather this upcoming weekend brings!
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