# Ragged Mountain 1/17/2010



## deadheadskier (Jan 17, 2010)

*Date(s) Skied: * Sunday, 1/17/2010

*Resort or Ski Area: * Ragged Mountain

*Conditions: * Packed soft snow, not quite corn, but spring like

*Trip Report: *

I decided to take route 4 and New Canada road instead of 104 today. This is almost 20 miles shorter and is definitely the fastest way.  Even getting caught behind some slow pokes, it was 10 minutes faster than normal.  New Canada Road is perfectly fine to travel in a FWD sedan if you have decent tires.  I'm sure in the spring it should be avoided, but this will be my route during mid-winter.

I typically get there around 9 and have been in the front parking lot every time so far this year.  Today, I was in the one just across the street, which is still very convenient.  They did use all of their parking lots and had a line of cars parked down the road.

After hearing how busy yesterday was and how skied off it got, I wasn't expecting things to be so great.  Today was also quite busy, but if 10 minutes in the singles line for the 6 pack and ski right on in the singles line for the Triple is as busy as it gets, you won't hear me complaining.  Snow skied beautifully from start to finish.  A couple of minor scratchy areas, but I thought the snow was great. 

Met up with 2knees for a couple of runs and got to meet his wife and two cute little girls who were taking a lesson before skiing with their dad.  Best bumps on the mountain right now are Reggae Glades.  While not 'stellar', they're fun enough.  A few Ski Patrolers were on the trail and were impressed with 2knees, shouting to 'eat em up'.  Bumps on Birches will need significant snow and traffic to build up.

Glades on Spear are boney and in need of snow, but I for one am glad they're open.  If you're not quick on your feet, yes you'll damage your boards, but for me that's part of the challenge of skiing woods.  Guns were lined up Showboat, so hopefully that gets going for next weekend.  If they seeded that trail, I think it could be one of the better bump runs in New Hampshire.  Hope Bob Fries is a lurker and reading this. 

Had one casualty today.  Threw a twister off a water bar and spun out of my binding.  If my brother didn't have my camera I'd show a picture, but I have the Rossi/Look PX bindings and the heel piece is now past vertical.  Weirdest thing I've ever seen.  Was a bitch skiing down on one ski and I was glad I had a second set of skis in the car.

For the first time that I've noticed this season, the Discovery Center was open.  It was great to see the master plan.  The woman working it said what many others have and that the plan is a HSQ for Spear next season.  They hope to start building some single family homes up on Spear as well.  Pinnacle peak development is probably 5 years off.  Ambitious plans though with about 100 more acres of skiing and 2 or 3 lifts.  Pinnacle's summit is a bit higher and the base a bit lower, so it will probably ski a couple hundred feet of vert bigger than the main mountain.  One idea they're kicking around is cutting some of the planned glades on Pinnacle and offering cat skiing in the coming years to give people a taste of what's to come.  Very cool.  They really need to take a few pages out of the Saddleback handbook and plaster their website with all of their plans. It might help generate interest in the Real Estate they need to sell to fund the ski area expansion.


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## playoutside (Jan 17, 2010)

Skied there Saturday. Gorgeous day (felt like March) and I didn't think it was all that skied off. I hadn't been there since 2005 and really forgot how much I like it. I'll definitely be back.

Yesterday was insanely crowded, but it was so nice out that it didn't matter so much. I give Ragged staff a lot of credit with dealing with an overwhelming crowd. They did what they could with the liftlines...they were a mess at times...but every chair was full going up. The most impressive was that they kept up with the lodge insanity...tables cleared, trash emptied, bathrooms maintained...wasn't in the lodge long, but it could have been unpleasant with the enormous crowd.

Here's the liftline around 1:30. This was after they reconfigured the liftline for the triple...before that the lines were backing into each other creating a sea of humanity!


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## polski (Jan 17, 2010)

Any guess how much new snow they'd need to open the ravine?


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## deadheadskier (Jan 17, 2010)

8-10 should do it if it's wet snow.


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## speden (Jan 17, 2010)

I've been wanting to check out Ragged, but will probably wait until they pick up some new snow.  They sure have been slow to get the open trail count up.  Seems like it is just getting to where everyone else was weeks ago.

That's great that they are planning to do the HSQ on Spear for next season.  Should be a big improvement.


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## deadheadskier (Jan 17, 2010)

Not much they can do about the glades.  I too have felt that things move slowly in terms of trail count expansion, but there is a reason for it.  They really only have the capacity and available snow guns to work on one trail at a time.  Because of this, it appears they really blow a deeper base than needed to open trails. Flying Yankee was hammered with snow.  If I had to guess, the average base depth on that trail is four feet.  

Guns are set up and ready to go on Showboat, which will hopefully come online next weekend.  Once that opens, the only thing left really are the glades and out Easy Winder.


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## polski (Jan 17, 2010)

I'm eyeing Ragged as a possible destination tomorrow (decided against Magic, forecast now of icing there) but am concerned they might not get quite enough new snow to open the glades. Have a combination of non-blacked-out vouchers that would make it a cheap day for the boys and me but would prefer to hold out for the ravine to open. I dunno ... gotta make a decision and go to bed ...


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## Greg (Jan 17, 2010)

deadheadskier said:


> Best bumps on the mountain right now are Reggae Glades.  While not 'stellar', they're fun enough.  A few Ski Patrolers were on the trail and were impressed with 2knees, shouting to 'eat em up'.



They must've been talking about someone else. 2knees is just a sundown poser after all....

Seriously, glad you guys hooked up for a bit.


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## 2knees (Jan 18, 2010)

nice seeing you again bro.  ragged has more potential then i could imagine.  had fun there.


waterville on saturday.  ummm, guys, for a "major" resort you might want to ditch the j-bar and get a magic carpet that the public can use.  I cant take 2 little ones up at the same time by myself.  that was really lame.


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## Johnskiismore (Jan 18, 2010)

HSQ on Spear next season, cool.  Glad to see plans taking shape!  Cat skiing to Pinnacle that will be pretty nice!  A couple of my buddies were there yesterday and said they had a blast even with the crowds.

Good to hear positive news about Ragged!


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