# Sunday River MLK 3 Day Weekend



## ss20 (Jan 20, 2014)

Time Skied: Sat/Sun 8:00-4:15      Mon: 8:00-2:00
Weather: Sat: flurries, 20s    Sun: 1" of new snow, 20s   Mon: Flurries, 20s
Conditions:  Packed powder, ice, beach sand

FINALLY got to ski the River for the first time!  Arrived Friday night at the Snowcap Inn after a 6 hour bus ride.  Got up bright and early Saturday to get first tracks.  Got the 2nd gondola up and went to Aurora.  Did all the peaks to get a sampler of the place.  Even with all the trees and naturals closed there is still a ton of options.  Skis a lot bigger than the 800 acres they have.  Can't wait to come back when everything is open.  Saturday was alright.  A little icy, crowded.  Sunday was a lot better.  Picked up an inch of snow and no crowds after 2:00.  Discovered Blackhole, which has to be one of my favorite trails.  Top 50 feet was "point and shoot" skiing.  Turning was not an option.  Monday was the best of the three days.  No crowds, and Vortex opened up, ungroomed, after 3 days of snowmaking.  Lapped that half a dozen times.  

Hate to say it, but White Heat is so overrated.  Steep for a few turns but nothing real exciting.  I prefer Black Hole much, much more because it is steeper, narrower, and a lot less crowded.  

Complaints:  Whatever bozo in Mountain Ops thought it would be a good idea to run snowmaking on the lower part of American Express, the busiest spot on the mountain, and then open it without a groom should be fired.  They were blowing snow Saturday night till 9:00 on Sunday, then shut off the guns.  I thought, "this will be quite interesting in a few hours".  Sure enough, I'm coming back to the Chondola at 3:00 and AmEx is covered in full-sized moguls with ice in between.  They should've shut the guns off at 7:00 and put a groomer on it before it opened.  2 hours of less snowmaking won't kill ya.  Also, the quad at the base of South Ridge was closed till Sunday afternoon, resulting in massive lines at the Chondola.  I know mechanical issues happen, and the quad's closure wasn't what upset me, but there was NO organization at the Chondola line.  Chairs were going up half full, while lines were spilling out of the queue.


Lock lift line


Black Hole


Oz trail.  Big mistake.  Blue ice of death EVERYWHERE.  One and done.  


Downdraft on Spruce.  Another one of my favorites, but the lift is so slow I only did it a few times the whole weekend.


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## Boston Bulldog (Jan 20, 2014)

I'm a big fan of the River. Oz is great with a ton of snow, it always seems that when they report say 6 inches, Oz gets 8-9. Was the Blind Ambition glade open? I love that one.


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## bzrperfspec77 (Jan 21, 2014)

Sweet. I am heading up Friday morning til Sunday. Thanks for the trip report, I was wondering what was going on up there besides the reading the snow reports on the SR website. 

I totally agree that White Heat is overrated. The first 1/3 is a bit touch and go with the mass of people that go there but after that its a sweet run.


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## ss20 (Jan 21, 2014)

Thanks for the future tips.  Blind Ambition was not open.  I poached Last Tango to try out some trees.  It was OK.  2 inches on top of ice. 

BTW, I looked at Poppy Fields while traversing on Kansas.  That's some serious tree skiing.


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## MadMadWorld (Jan 21, 2014)

Looks like fun the wife and I are going to try and make it a weekend the first week in March.


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## catherine (Jan 21, 2014)

Heading to Sunday River tomorrow morning for two nights.  Thanks for the insights.  This is my third trip but I haven't yet to experience it in good conditions.  First time most of the lifts were closed because of wind, second year we couldn't see because of the fog.  Third time lucky


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## catherine (Jan 21, 2014)

60% chance of snow and arctic temps!


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## catherine (Jan 24, 2014)

Just got home from 2 days at Sunday River.  Cold for sure but the conditions were great, no crowds and plenty of Jaeger


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## sf77 (Jan 25, 2014)

Seems like you had a great time ss20 and pretty good snow! From your description, the glades seemed to be a little precarious though.


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