# Sugarloaf/USA Reggae Fest weekend - April 8-10, 2005



## Greg (Apr 11, 2005)

*Date(s) Skied: *April 8-10, 2005, 17th Annual Budweiser Reggae Festival

*Resort or Ski Area: *Sugarloaf/USA, Carrabassett Valley, Maine

*FRIDAY, 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM:*
*Conditions: *Variable spring conditions - corn/loose granular, some hardpack higher elevations/steeper terrain, mashed potatoes on the lower mountain. Sunny, some clouds PM, warmed to the 40's, Light winds. No lift waits.

*Trip Report: *Joe and I left southern NH around 4:30 AM and reached the Access Road around 8 AM. We took our time getting ready in the base lodge and were ready to head out shortly after 9:15. When we first arrived, I saw this fellow whom we referred to as the Wolf Man and I asked him if I could take his picture. His only request was that I give out his Web site address - www.attilahelmets.com. Yes indeed, this was Reggae Fest weekend!

We boarded the Super quad to start our weekend and took a few runs off it to get warmed up. The snow was still a firm flash frozen spring mix, but it gradually softened up after each run. Because we skied so much throughout the weekend, I can't remember exactly when we skied each trail, but after a few runs off the quad, we headed over to check out the some of the trails off of spillway and the King Pine area. The snow was still a bit firm off the spillway chairs, but each run got better. Unfortunately on my way back to the King Pine chair, I got tangled up in the mashed potatoes and quickly face planted with my lips, nose and goggles taking the brunt off the impact which was at a pretty good clip. I released out of both skis and found them several yard up the trail with the tips pointing straight down into the snow. It would have been really nasty had the snow not been so soft. I still had my bell rung pretty good and decided to take 5 by the King Pine chair to collect my thoughts. I was pretty shaken up and skied rather timidly for the next few runs.

Widowmaker and Haul Back were softening up nicely. Ripsaw with its ungroomed and bumped terrain was a bit too firm when we skied it and the lower section was skiable but thinning quickly. It was soon time to try our favorite run - Misery Whip. We had scoped it out earlier, but as we got closer to 11 AM, we felt the warm spring sun would have softened it up enough. We weren't disappointed. The Whip was in fabulous shape. We would ski it a few more times this day.

Somewhere around 11:30 AM, after we unloaded from Spillway East, I noticed a fellow that looked like Bob R skiing to us. We recognized each other right away and after introducing him to Joe we were on our way. We very easily talked Bob R into trying the Whip and he seemed to enjoy it a lot. I think Joe's animal approach to the top of the Whip caught bob R off guard. :lol: I believe we also skied Haul Back which was in great shape. We then decided to head over to Bullwinkles to try and meet up with Charlie, ALLSKIING and AZ member Terry. We had a few beers while we waited and met up with Charlie and Jay, and Terry and wife, Tammy around 1:30 PM. Around 1:45, we were off to ski Lower Tote Road. We then hopped on the quad and skied a few trails off King Pine. Around 3:30 PM, Charlie, Jay, Joe and I said goodbye to the AZers to hit the Timberline quad to do a final top-to-bottom run off the summit. We road the Timberline chair up twice and hit Timberline (a great cruiser) and then header over to Gondi Line. Our last run was down the very steep Gondi Line covering all of da Loaf's 2,800'+ vertical.

We all met up with ALLSKIING and his friend, Terry as well as Bob R for a beer at the end of the day outside the Widow Maker lounge. We then headed back to the condo for a few (okay, maybe more than a few) beers as well as a great chicken dinner that Charlie whipped up. A great way to start an epic weekend!

Click *HERE* for Friday pics.

*SATURDAY, 10:00 AM - 4:15 PM:*
*Conditions: *Bluebird! A bit breezier than Friday. The snow stayed very firm most of the morning and was tricky to ski until the afternoon. It stayed a bit cooler than Friday all day. The early morning lift lines were long, but the skiing crowd thinned out as the day progressed.

*Trip Report: *Charlie, Matt, Jay, Joe and I boarded the Snubber lift around 9 AM and then headed to the base to get lift tickets. Matt ducked into the ski shop to buy a helmet, so Joe, Jay and I boarded the Doublerunner lift while Charlie waited. Jay wanted to ride his alpine board on Boardwalk for a while so Joe and I hopped on Spillway East while we noticed Charlie and Matt board the shorter Spillway West. We yelled to each other to meet at King Pine, but unfortunately didn't see them for the rest of the day. Apparently they spent much of the day enjoying the woods off the Bucksaw chair.

Joe and I struggled on a few runs down Haul Back which was flash frozen corn, hardpack and loose granluar piles that had me twisted up on a few occasions. We saw Frank and John at the Super Quad and flagged them down. We took a run together over towards the Timberline lift and then skied Timberline together. Joe and I then decided to head over to Bullwinkles for lunch and after a burger and something that resembled a sausage grinder, we headed back out.

We took a few runs off the Super Quad including Skidder which still hadn't softened up and was a bit miserable to ski. We eventually made our way back to King Pine and again hooked up with Bob R. We also bumped into Jay as well. Soon ALLSKIING and Terry made the way over and we all enjoyed a few runs down Haul Back together. We all agreed we'd try to meet up at The Bag later that evening. Joe and I finished off the summit down Timberline and I believe Candy Side which was a fun run of bumps and mush.

After a dinner at the Double Diamond we all met up with ALLSKIING and Terry and Bob R at The Bag & Kettle for a few beers. Joe and I bailed at about 10 PM. Joe made the observation, Sunday AM, that if we stayed any longer at the bar we would have just been trading bar time for ski time the next morning. Matt hung out with the AZers for the rest of the night.

Click *HERE* for Saturday pics.

*SUNDAY, 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM:*
*Conditions: *More bluebird! Warmer with temps above freezing from the start.

*Trip Report: *Joe and I were happy in our decision to call it an early night. Got the car packed and said goodbye to Charlie and crew and headed up to the mountain. We scored a pair of lift tickets on the walk up for a bargain price of $59. Boarded the Super Quad and immediately found the trails to be in great shape. We ripped a few runs off the Quad and then a run down the Bucksaw trail and sampled some of the woods that Charlie and Matt must have skied the day before.

We then met up with ALLSKIING and Terry around 11 AM at the quad and I suggested we ride Timberline for them to experience the summit. We had skied the Timberline trail earlier in the day and I would almost call it packed powder. It was that good. Perhaps Packed LSGR is more accurate but it was still great to ski. It was a bit mushier by the tim we skied it with ALLSKIING and Terry, but still nice. We then rode the Timberline again with them and bid farewell to them at the summit. It was then time to ski off the summit on the White Nitro Extension snowfield. The trail was in incredible shape with ton of edgeable spring corn snow. The only icey hard pack anywhere on it was just before the Spillway X-cut where I almost bit it. It was a major rush and set the stage for what would be an incredible three more hours of skiing which included bumps on Lower Winter's Way, Hayburner and then a number of runs down the glades called Kick Back which on skier's right of Hayburner. We had a blast jumping in and out of the woods onto Hayburner along the trails right lip as well as hitting a few jumps. We were having so much fun we didn't want to leave and ended up skiing until 2:30 PM. We ended our time at da Loaf as well as our ski seasons on Misery Whip, the 7th time of the weekend. It was a great run and we then cruised Poleline back to the base. Had a great meal and a couple of beers at Geppeto's and got rolling about 4 PM. Got to Joe's at 7:30 and I made my way back to CT rolling in at 10:40 PM. Friday was an excellent day, but the skiing on Sunday was even better!

Click *HERE* for Sunday pics.

*Summary:*
The conditions for Reggae Fest were absolutely incredible. The mountain has a ton of snow and this was a great way to finish off the ski season. Like last year, it was more about the skiing for me and we skied as hard as we could most of the time. Despite Sugarloaf being so big, it's a really easy mountain to get around. It was great to meet Bob R and AZer Terry, as well as getting the chance to ski with ALLSKIING and his friend Terry. Jay was blast to hang out with and I was glad we were able to meeet up with Frank and John for a run. I wish I had the chance to see Matt ride though. A special thanks to Charlie again for organizing another great trip! So...this concludes my best year of skiing to date...
:beer:


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## Vortex (Apr 11, 2005)

It for me is always  fun meeting new people and hanging out.   Your report was great.  I'm glad my fall did not make the pictures. :wink:


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## riverc0il (Apr 11, 2005)

> So...this concludes my best year of skiing to date...


 :shock; 

there's still more to go, didn't give up yet man!  heh.  glad you had a good weekend, great report.


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## awf170 (Apr 11, 2005)

wow it still looks like midwinter at sugarloaf, no where else looks like they come close to the snow sugarloaf has


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## awf170 (Apr 11, 2005)

its stupid they close on the 24th it should be open a few more weekends... atleast run the superquad... i think they should change to sugarloaf for the late season instead of kilington. They could keep spillway and boardwalk open... With the cold temps up there and northin exposure they could be open into june


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## Terry (Apr 11, 2005)

I gotta tell ya it was an incredible weekend! It was great meeting up with you guys. Sat we quit early- about 2:30 and hung out at the beach for the last show. Sun we skied off the spillway and timberline chairs till about 2:00 and then packed it in. Saw BobR sun morning, but didn't run into anyone else. Sure was fun!!! Got 66 days in now, and hoping to go to the River the next couple of weekends!! Should make 70!
 :beer:


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## Charlie Schuessler (Apr 11, 2005)

awf170 said:
			
		

> its stupid they close on the 24th it should be open a few more weekends... atleast run the superquad... i think they should change to sugarloaf for the late season instead of kilington. They could keep spillway and boardwalk open... With the cold temps up there and northin exposure they could be open into june



This is typical for a Sugarloaf season to end...stay open for one weekend after Reggaefest and then close it down...remember, it's all about the money...


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## Charlie Schuessler (Apr 11, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> ...a great chicken dinner that Charlie whipped up...



...it was Spicy African Chicken Stew, a dish that shows off the flavors of West Africa, peanuts, tomatoes & hot pepper...


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## awf170 (Apr 11, 2005)

Charlie Schuessler said:
			
		

> awf170 said:
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ya i no but still..., hopefully i can get up there next weekend


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## Charlie Schuessler (Apr 11, 2005)

I believe Friday afternoon is the definition of GREAT SPRING SKIING!

The eastern side of the mountain was super…I found the only trail we journeyed through that was not spectacular was the iced-over Gondi-Line from the summit through the middle section…

Saturday was too cold, too late into the day for the mountain to loosen up...however the glades here and there were in great shape…it is my understanding that they didn't open the Bucksaw Chair right away, thus it and the surrounding trails were empty when we swang over from the King Pine Chair around 11:00 or so…it seemed the western side of the mountain was abandoned and time flew by….

It was nice too see Bob again, the knee looks like it is holding up.  It is nice to meet Terry & Tammy from Maine.

Originally being from Long Island (which seems a hundred years ago) congratulations to Dave and Terry!  Great effort to get there and spend three days skiing the LOAF!  Not many Long Islanders’ can say that…although I am aware that there is one fellow from LI that can claim that…


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## ALLSKIING (Apr 11, 2005)

That was one great weekend had a blast. Thanks to all for pushing me to make the trip it was well worth it. Sugarloaf is a sick mountain, An experts dream. I could not imagine a better place to ski after a big dump, those snowfields with a foot+ of powder  I will load some of my pics in the gallery in a few hrs.


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## bvibert (Apr 12, 2005)

Great TR, sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend!  :beer:


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## Greg (Apr 12, 2005)

Bob R said:
			
		

> I'm glad my fall did not make the pictures. :wink:


You should have kept quiet...




 :beer:


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## Vortex (Apr 12, 2005)

I thought joe was not able to get the picture in time.    All good things in all good time Greg. :wink:


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## Brettski (Apr 12, 2005)

hey....if you're not falling, you ain't skiing


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## ALLSKIING (Apr 12, 2005)

Bob R said:
			
		

> I thought joe was not able to get the picture in time.    All good things in all good time Greg. :wink:


How does that Knee feel after the weekend?


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## Angus (Apr 12, 2005)

In an earlier post, I wrote that last weekend would be my 1st trip to sugarloaf since the '85 winter. I was a regular from '82 to '84. My son and I skied Saturday and had a great time. Here are my comments...

The great thing about the mountain is also the worse thing about the mountain - it is far, far away. The snow cover, even after the deluge the previous weekend, was still fantastic - 3-5 feet at the top of the moutain.

I haven't seen it written, but an employee was telling us that they lost part of the access road near the upper parking lots due to the rains and it took all week to re-build it!

I was falling asleep at the wheel as I arrived back home at 10:45 saturday night.

Saturday started cold as has been noted, but the wind was strong too. Both timberline and king pine chairs were on hold until 10ish which backed up the quad pretty well.

The cold temperatures made the skiing pretty tough for my son - turned 9 last week - early in the day. I don't think, he had ever heard so much scratching from his skis before. Combining the hard pack with the slope steepness of sugarloaf - we're regular s. nh (sunapee) vt (okemo) folks,  it took some adjustment time for my son. I, myself, noticed a huge difference too - I kept leaning back when skiing the steeps and wishing my edges were sharper!

The afternoon was fantastic. We skied the Timberline lift right after opened in the morning and thought the conditions were pretty poor. In the afternoon after the temps had warmed and the PM sun had worked its magic, the trails were fantastic up there. Nice addition to the mountain and the views of Abram, Crocker, backside of saddleback and the Whites are great.

On the other side of the mountain, the King Pine area is a mix bag for me. When skiing there last, the trail(s) were accessible - if memory serves me right - from the gondola and a t-bar. the t-bar terminated at the cross-cut (or above) and essentially there were a series of chutes that you'd ski down to get to the various trails. 

It was use to be much hairier, steep and very narrow with lots of small pines sticking out of the snow for good measure. Now, everthing is wide open.

I would agree with others that the snow was very good over there and we had a blast skiing widowmaker & the other trails in that area of the mountain.

The highlight for me was bringing my son down gondi line. The top lip makes you pause, you can't see what you're going to ski below. And when stick your neck out over the lip and look down, all you really see is the old mid-station! In reality, it looks a whole lot scarier than it really is once you've cleared the lip.

Unfortunately, the trail was just plain hard packed snow when we skied it around 1 PM. Once I convinced my son that I wasn't trying to end his life; and he got down below the lip, he skied it without any problems and had a big smile at the bottom!

Sugarloaf is really two mountains. The top half is steep and cold - an expert's paradise, while the bottom half has gentle cruisers and is relatively sheltered, perfect for the intermediate/novice skier looking for long cruisers. On Saturday, the top didn't soften up until between 11 or 12 with some places - i.e. gondi line, never softening up. The bottom was soft mid-morning on and the base area had lots of slush & water by closing time.

It was a great to be back there and my son and I are already planning a weekend next year. 

One more note, there is a beauty to the western maine mountains that can't be rivaled IMO in New England, even to wildcat. just rugged wilderness.


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## Vortex (Apr 12, 2005)

ALLSKIING said:
			
		

> Bob R said:
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Thankx for asking Charlie made mention also.  Sunday I thought I had done some more damage, but Monday I felt fine.  Today my knee was still stiff in the morning, but no problem.  I have proclaimed I'm better.


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## Vortex (Apr 12, 2005)

Angus said:
			
		

> In an earlier post, I wrote that last weekend would be my 1st trip to sugarloaf since the '85 winter. I was a regular from '82 to '84. My son and I skied Saturday and had a great time. Here are my comments...
> 
> The great thing about the mountain is also the worse thing about the mountain - it is far, far away. The snow cover, even after the deluge the previous weekend, was still fantastic - 3-5 feet at the top of the moutain.
> 
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Next year you have to join us.  I want to get more kids involved also.


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## ALLSKIING (Apr 12, 2005)

Bob R said:
			
		

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Good news..Three days at the Loaf and just stiff is normal. I was sure stiff Mon Am.


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## Joe (Apr 14, 2005)

What a great way to end the season.  This year I made it out a total of eight times including the three at the loaf.  Just need to get my newborn on some skis to get more time on the hills, soon enough though.

It was great to meet so many new people this year and hope we can do it again!  The skiing was great and it was tough to call it a weekend on Sunday as the mantra became "one more run".

A bit sore after three days of hard skiing but nothing unexpected except for how powerful that sun was. Sun burned to a crisp!  8)


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## Vortex (Apr 15, 2005)

Seems like Sun burn all around.  Parts of my nose have grown back.    Great to meet you Joe.  One of my highlights is still seeing you launch into Misery Whip... glad your still alive. I think disturbing is Greg's term.


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## Greg (Apr 15, 2005)

Joe said:
			
		

> What a great way to end the season.  This year I made it out a total of eight times including the three at the loaf.  Just need to get my newborn on some skis to get more time on the hills, soon enough though.
> 
> It was great to meet so many new people this year and hope we can do it again!  The skiing was great and it was tough to call it a weekend on Sunday as the mantra became "one more run".
> 
> A bit sore after three days of hard skiing but nothing unexpected except for how powerful that sun was. Sun burned to a crisp!  8)


Well, well, well. Just look who graced us with his presence.... 

I love the avatar - the "Animal on Misery Whip".


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## Charlie Schuessler (Apr 15, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> Joe said:
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I believe he developed that technique on Triple Trouble at Loon.... :wink:


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## ALLSKIING (Apr 15, 2005)

Glad I met Joe he is a cool dude. 8)


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