Friday, April 3, 2026

Skiing Ragged Mountain (Day 39/Indy Day 31)

Skiing Ragged Mountain
Friday, Apriil 3rd, 2026

Runs: 14
Distance: 13.22 miles
Elevation: 14,026 feet
Max Speed: 37.5 mph
Avg. Speed: 18.3 mph
Moving Time: 49 minutes, 47 seconds
Total Time: 2 hours, 41 minutes, 58 seconds

It's officially April, which means that the skiing is going to get silly, it's likely going to rain every weekend, and the looming cloud signaling the end of season is not too far away. To celebrate, Sarah and I decided to ski in pouring rain at Ragged since we had Good Friday off of work! I scooped her up just after 6am, we got breakfast at Hooksett, and made it to the parking lot around 8:30am and started cackling when we saw we were one of like, five cars there. I guess nobody else wanted to ski on a rainy Friday morning in April? Crazy! We got dressed in the comically empty lodge and threw on matching purple ponchos I snagged off of Amazon. We looked absolutely goofy and were already having a blast. We got to skiing just after 9:00am!


Mountain Report
Currently at Ragged Mountain
The 2026+27 Stash Pass is on sale now. Grab yours today!
The groomers are in prime spring form right now. Smooth corduroy in the morning giving way to soft, buttery corn snow as the day rolls on. This is the season's final stretch and conditions are going out on a high note. Come enjoy it.
For the Ski Touring Enthusiasts. The Uphill Route remains OPEN to mid-mountain. Please check in with our Guest Services team before heading up for the latest route information.

Runs 1-5
Run 1: Summit Six Express - Upper Exhibition - Birches
[0.74 mi; 2:49; 1,138 ft; 31.7 mph max; 15.9 mph avg]
Run 2: Summit Six Express - Exhibition
[0.84 mi; 2:52; 1,093 ft; 31.0 mph max; 17.4 mph avg]
Run 3: Summit Six Express - Upper Ridge - Newfound Ridge - Lower Crewcut - Town Meeting
[0.96 mi; 3:23; 1,063 ft; 32.0 mph max; 17.0 mph avg]
Run 4: Summit Six Express - Upper Ridge - Newfound Ridge - Main Street
[0.93 mi; 3:01; 1,125 ft; 30.5 mph max; 18.6 mph avg]
Run 5: Summit Six Express - Upper Ridge - Headwall - Upper Chute - Lower Chute - Main Street
[1.00 mi; 3:59; 1,109 ft; 26.7 mph max; 15.0 mph avg]

Our plan was just to work out way across the mountain. It still had all of the groomers/snowmaking trails open, which was a welcome surprise! They announced that this was their closing weekend, but they still had PLENTY of snow left. We were wondering/thinking that Exhibition was probably hard and fast by the looks of it, but there was one (1) person ahead of us on the chair and we saw him go down and it looked nice and soft! Also on this chair ride, we got torrentially downpoured on... fun! Lots of giggles were had before the first run.

Once we got off the chair we turned right onto Exhibition, and it was a delight! Easy turns on fast snow. We decided to start with Birches and work our way over - Birches is a fun one! Labeled as a black, probably because of a short double fall line and it's a little narrower than the blues (but by no means a truly difficult trail). It was in fantastic shape, and sopping wet, we got right back on the Summit Six Express!

Run #2 was a joyful run down Exhibition all the way. Run #3 was down Upper Ridge to Newfound Ridge to Lower Crewcut, which was... open! It was one of two ungroomed trails open (the other being Headwall) and it was dicey, but skiiable, I guess? We crossed it off the list and continued onto Town Meeting, which was super fun to making wide, sweeping turns on.

Run #4 was Upper Ridge to Newfound Ridge, which had a little crevasse (as we kept calling it) about 5" wide and a few feet deep, gotta watch out! We took this down to Main Street and again, it was just a treat.

We shared candy cigarettes I bought at Hooksett on our fifth ride up the Summit Six Express. The rain was on and off all morning so far, my pants were soaked, but the poncos were working their magic! Run #5 brought us down Upper Ridge to Headwall - I joked about straightlining it to get a new PR, but then I discovered it was ungroomed and was mostly dirt and rock, so I pumped the breaks and screamed down while making a few turns (classic). We followed Upper Chute to Lower Chute, which was a nice banked turn run, but not so nice that we couldn't see anything because of the fog that had rolled in. Oh well!

Runs 6-9
Run 6: Summit Six Express - Blueberry Patch - Raggedy Andy - Main Street
[1.11 mi; 3:21; 1,132 ft; 29.9 mph max; 19.8 mph avg]
Run 7: Summit Six Express - Blueberry Patch - Lower Ridge - Pines
[1.14 mi; 3:42; 1,099 ft; 32.3 mph max; 18.5 mph avg]
Run 8: Summit Six Express - Upper Ridge - Lower Ridge
[1.13 mi; 4:16; 1,093 ft; 27.5 mph max; 18.0 mph avg]
Run 9: Summit Six Express - Upper Ridge - Newfound Ridge - Main Street
[0.85 mi; 2:50; 1,053 ft; 28.4 mph max; 18.0 mph avg]

Continuing onto the further looker's left side of the mountain, we followed Blueberry Patch for Run #6, which was an instant favorite, with super fun rollers! From there, we followed Raggedy Andy to Main Street. The fog was pretending to lift, which was fun! We had the most fun peeling the frozen rain off of the chair backs and throwing it at each other, though. 

Run #7 was Blueberry Patch to Lower Ridge to Pines. Lower Ridge was fun with a few dirt islands to dodge. Run #8 was Upper Ridge to Lower Ridge, which was another favorite one. We were lucky - the sopping wet snow wasn't sticky at all, and actually pretty fast, so minimal skating was required! We took a quick break to use the bathroom after Run #8 (we also wrung out our sopping wet mittens) and got back our for a victory lap down Upper and Newfound Ridges (I wanted a photo of the crevasse) to Main Street. 

Runs 10-12
Run 10: Spear Mountain Express - Showboat - Showoff
[0.75 mi; 2:07; 973 ft; 31.4 mph max; 21.4 mph avg]
Run 11: Spear Mountain Express - Flying Yankee
[0.92 mi; 2:38; 984 ft; 32.6 mph max; 20.9 mph avg]
Run 12: Spear Mountain Express - Cardigan - Turnpike - Homerun - Barnyard
[1.21 mi; 4:23; 1,047 ft; 29.6 mph max; 16.6 mph avg]

We continued onto the Spear Mountain Express. We were definitely starting to feel colder now that we had a little break and were still sopping wet (not our upper bodies, though - thanks ponchos!). We flew down Showboat and Showoff, which is always a super fun one, and it was nice to finally ski Flying Yankee without a race or literally anybody else. We were getting ready to put a bow on the day once we got to Run #12, so we followed Cardigan, which then became the pick of the day. SUCH a fun trail, especially with the spring corn. Sarah took Jug Handle, I took the "headwall" onto Turnpike, and then we cut over to Barnyard, and the Barn was still open! There was one snowmaking pipe to hop over and a patch of grass to ski through, but it's always so fun and worth it.

Runs 13-14
Run 13: Barnyard Triple - Home Run - Turnpike
[0.35 mi; 1:21; 184 ft; 24.5 mph max; 15.5 mph avg]
Run 14: Spear Mountain Express - Cardigan - Jug Handle - Turnpike
[1.29 mi; 3:18; 1,030 ft; 33.3 mph max; 23.4 mph avg]

To wrap things up, we rode the Barnyard Triple (the lifty sang "skiiiiing in the rain... just skiiiiiiiing in the rain...") and we skied down Homerun to Turnpike, back to the Spear Mountain Express for our two more skip the last. We both decided Cardigan to Turnpike was our favorite of the day, and down we went! I took Jug Handle just to mix things up this time, and we giggled all the way down.

Back at the lodge, we joyfully changed into dry clothes, bought matching sweatpants that were 50% off, and started the schlep home. I wanted to get home a little early so I could nap before Ray's big Rocky Horror Picture Show themed Passover that night. We had lunch at Hooksett, and I was cozy in bed by 3:30pm!

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