# Sugarloaf 3/9/13



## Conrad (Mar 9, 2013)

*Date(s) Skied: *March 9, 2013

*Resort or Ski Area: *Sugarloaf

*Conditions: *Soft Snow

*Trip Report: * Had a great bluebird day at the loaf! As a ski lift enthusiast, this the sunny skies were perfect for photographing the lifts. But there was also great skiing to be had too. Predictably it was a busy day at the mountain, but within reason. Obviously the singles lines were pretty good, but the lines at King Pine and Skyline never seemed to reach more than 10 minutes.

One thing I had resolved to do was go as far in to Brackett Basin as I could go. While it was neat to explore, I didn't really have that great of a run because when I finally dropped in, I had already lost a lot of elevation and the terrain wasn't that steep. Plus it ended up being an hour long ordeal (roughly), traversing for 20 minutes, skiing down for 25 minutes, and riding back up to the base lodge for 15 minutes. But I'm glad I did it because it was neat to explore. The next time I ventured into Brackett Basin I did Sweeper 2 which is the last glade in Brackett Basin before a lengthy traverse into the isolated "Eastern Territory." This suited me fine as the 10 minute traverse with some hiking was enough to scare off most people, yet it was still relatively easy to reach and it brought me back down to King Pine Quad.

In other news, I took lots of photographs of the lifts, probably 2/3rd's of the photographs I need to write reports on all of the lifts for the French ski lift website remontees-mecaniques.

Here is a selection of photographs.



Have my skis staked out for the first chair of the day:



Great view of Sugarloaf from deep within Brackett Basin:



Main lifts artery:



An adventure awaits: (not sure why this is blurry, it was fine on my end)




The ghostly remains of the old gondola:


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## salsgang (Mar 9, 2013)

sweet. Thanks for the report. It was killer at Saddleback today too. Great day to ski in Maine.


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## Conrad (Mar 9, 2013)

salsgang said:


> sweet. Thanks for the report. It was killer at Saddleback today too. Great day to ski in Maine.



Glad you too got out skiing today at a Maine mountain!


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## salsgang (Mar 9, 2013)

Conrad - judging by your signature you have not been to Saddleback yet this year. Stay straight on route 4 and avoid the temptation to turn right on 27. You gotta visit there at least once a year from UMF!


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## Conrad (Mar 9, 2013)

salsgang said:


> Conrad - judging by your signature you have not been to Saddleback yet this year. Stay straight on route 4 and avoid the temptation to turn right on 27. You gotta visit there at least once a year from UMF!



Ha ha, I actually might head up there next weekend. But it will depend on a few things, mainly how I will get a ride. I might be doing a project for my terrain analysis class on Saddleback so it will help a lot to visit the mountain. There are two different people I think I can get a ride with, but I'm not worrying about that right now because first of all I need to go down to a government office building in Farmington and see if I can get some high quality aerial photography of the mountain. Then I can start planning a trip to visit Saddleback.

By the way, I have visited Saddleback in past years and did enjoy it. I went a day last year, a day 3 years ago, and a weekend a decade ago (back when t-bars outnumbered chairlifts).


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