# Sugarloaf - 4/16/11 Reggae Fest



## speden (Apr 17, 2011)

I wrapped up my season yesterday at the Loaf, so this will be my last trip report for this season.  It's been great reading everyone's reports this year and I'm already looking forward to next season.

They've lost quite a bit of snow on the lower mountain since I was there last weekend.  This was only my second time at Sugarloaf, so I was hoping for some hero snow so I could explore some of the steeper terrain, but a cold snap froze everything pretty hard.  It warmed up a little during the day, but not enough to turn it to spring snow.  Conditions were pretty variable with lots of scraped off areas, some loose, some sugar piles, windblown, chunky junk, etc.  I guess I would call it a technical day.  It was pretty windy too, especially up in the air on the lifts.  Timberline was closed all day, but fortunately pretty much everything else was running.

Reggae fest was fun.  It brought out a pretty good crowd, and not all of them were skiers.  I guess usually this would be an occasion for the girls to show some skin, but it was a little too cold for that yesterday.  Milling around the crowd I was thinking this is what a penguin colony would be like if penguins had beer, cigarettes, and loud music.   Inside the crowd it was warm, but out on the edges up above the beach it was a little breezy.  The music wasn't spectacular, with the bass sometimes distorted, but it was decent, and strangely enough sounded better the more beers I had.

Some pics:

The Whiffletree area lost a lot of snow during the past week.  Some of the trails are done for the season with lots of bare ground.  But there are still a few with good coverage.






One nice trail I tried off Whiffletree is called Buckboard.  It's narrow and winding, and there aren't very many trails like that at Sugarloaf.





Coverage was better over in the King Pine area, but some trails are getting thin.  I think this is Choker with some bare patches popping up.





Here's the King Pine base area.  I tried Haul Back off this lift, which runs down the lift line.  It's a straight, overly wide trail, but has good consistent pitch.  Would be good for some high speed runs in softer conditions.





Here's Bulwinkle's lodge over on the other side of the mountain.  Seems to be short on ski racks since everyone parked their skis on the snow.





Around mid-day the Superquad got annoyingly busy.  Over on the far right is the singles line.  This lift seems to be the worst bottleneck on the hill since most of the intermediates need to use it.





Here's a farewell shot of Spillway.  I think they are going to start taking Spillway west apart after this weekend, so I was glad I got to ride it before then.  I took the Sluice trail off of it, and it was mostly windblown and scraped off icy hardpack.  There was enough loose stuff collected here and there to check my speed, but I had to be careful.





The half pipe is still in action.





The calm before the storm as they were setting up for Reggae Fest.





The crowd started build as the ski day wound down.





I went out for a few last runs, and when I came back the crowd had really grown.





The mountain makes a nice backdrop for a party!  See you next year Sugarloaf.


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## Skimaine (Apr 17, 2011)

speden said:


> . . .  I guess usually this would be an occasion for the girls to show some skin, but it was a little too cold for that yesterday.



You must have missed the chick in the bikini.


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## thetrailboss (Apr 18, 2011)

speden said:


> .


 
Looks like Spillway East was having problems.  That sucks.  And I doubt that they would take it apart so soon considering that they still have a month of ski season left and they use that lift for late season skiing.


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## speden (Apr 18, 2011)

Yeah, I must have missed the bikini, but God bless them, there were a few girls making an effort. 

I don't get up to Maine very often, and one thing I noticed is there seem to be an unusual number of blondes in those parts.  Couldn't really tell if that was natural or a fashion trend.

Since I got back from this trip, the Sugarloaf steeps seem to have had an effect on my subconscious.  The last two nights I've had a dream where I'm skiing on an icy steep and my edges suddenly let go and I jolt awake.  Gotta get back up there...


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## speden (Apr 18, 2011)

Spillway east wasn't running for a good part of the morning, probably due to the wind.  It did open shortly after I took that picture.  When I rode on Spillway west the wind was whipping pretty good and it stopped twice.  I was kind of glad to get off of it.  They're probably extra careful about running it in the wind since the accident.

I think the plan is to start taking west apart this week, and keep east going for a while.  So west is now closed for the season, and east will run for another week and then it will also close for the season.  They need to get going on installing the new lift so will sacrifice having Spillway for the whole spring season.


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## rocojerry (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks for the report!

It was my last day of the year (I think), not the warm spring day I had hoped for -- but made the best of it and had a good time.  Last runs of the day were the best in my opinion --

Have a good spring/summer AZ'ers!  This time of the year I drop off the daily checkins--


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## speden (Apr 21, 2011)

rocojerry said:


> It was my last day of the year (I think)



That was supposed to be my last day too, but I'm starting to get the shakes and want a ski fix.  If I can hold out another week, that should pass... maybe.  Tomorrow looks like it would be a good day at Sugarloaf, but I can't get there.


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