# Sugarloaf 5-02-08



## loafer89 (May 2, 2008)

Area skied: Sugarloaf, Maine

Date skied: May 2nd, 2008 from 8:30am - 2:00pm

Surface conditions: machine groomed, variable, packed powder, spring snow, heavy wet untracked snow.

Weather: sunny, 37F at 8:30am, 54F at 2:00pm

Sugarloaf:







Kings Landing:









Today was my first day of skiing in May at Sugarloaf and my first ski day in May anywhere else except for at Killington. Warren and I arrived to the mountain at 8:00am and where on slope taking our first run down Kings Landing. Sadly enough we skied down torwards Kings Landing to check out Double Bitter which despite the ski conditions report that it was opened, proved to be closed with a rope across it:???:

Kings landing was okay with a variable surface mix of packed powder, hardpacked and lots of snow/ice cookies. The bottom half of the trail was very nice with smooth soft spring corn.

Warren having fun on Lower Kings Landing with edge to edge cover:







Hayburner was my favorite with great groomed and spring snow for 100% of the run and we took four runs down it today. At the bottom of Candy Side I heard a yell out of my name from the Superquad above and sure enough we spotted BobR with his son. We later met up and exchanged greatings and Warren skied down Skidder with them while I skied Hayburner.

We moved on to explore the rest of the mountain and skied torwards Sluice and through the woods to Ramdown which might have had great powder earlier in the week, sadly the powder had been baked by the strong early May sun and was like skiing an Elmer's Glue nightmare. Turns where very hard to make and best if you could find a fresh line in the former powder. Boardwalk is a mix of new snow, corn and bare spots, skiable but not very fun.

Boardwalk:







We tortured ourselves once more and skied down Bubblecuffer which was only practically skiable on skiers right which still had fairly deep cover and small moguls covered in cement like wet powder. These runs would be perfect with more skier traffic to pack down the snow, but that would be a double edged sword as it would also thin out the cover that much faster We continued to Gondi-Line with big moguls on skiers right.

Lower Bubblecuffer:






Lower Gondi Line:







In the afternoon we skied Skidder Kings Landing with beautiful corn snow as well as skidder with tons of loose spring snow. We skied into The Yard which still has huge hits and fairly decent cover, though the enterance into it is a bit thin and tricky to negotiate around the bare areas.

Skidder:


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## 180 (May 2, 2008)

How are the moguls?


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## loafer89 (May 2, 2008)

180 said:


> How are the moguls?


 

There are not very many areas that have moguls on the "officially" opened trails. Skidder has been groomed flat every night lately with the sub freezing temperatures we have had. I think Spllway has moguls and parts on Gondi Line and Bubblecuffer have moguls covered with a new coating of 4-6" deep heavy wet snow.


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## ALLSKIING (May 2, 2008)

Lots of sweet snow left.....Thanks for the report.


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## TheBEast (May 2, 2008)

Coverage looks amazing for May!


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (May 2, 2008)

Move over Sugarbush...I think Sugarloaf is the king of spring..mad steezy yo


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## Newpylong (May 2, 2008)

GrilledSteezeSandwich said:


> Move over Sugarbush...I think Sugarloaf is the king of spring..mad steezy yo



For sure.


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## snoseek (May 2, 2008)

That looks like a sweet day!

That kind of skiing is worth the extra drive I think. I can't beleive how much snow is left there. I bet you could hike and patch ski those SQ trails for another month! It's nice to see areas like loaf, bush, jay stepping up not for money but for loyal skiers. That speaks volumes.:flag:


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## loafer89 (May 2, 2008)

snoseek said:


> That looks like a sweet day!
> 
> That kind of skiing is worth the extra drive I think. I can't beleive how much snow is left there. I bet you could hike and patch ski those SQ trails for another month! It's nice to see areas like loaf, bush, jay stepping up not for money but for loyal skiers. That speaks volumes.:flag:


 

It's very likely that Hayburner and Kings Landing will have snow into June this year at least in large patches. If you look carefully at the pictures of Kings Landing you can see that the trail edges have snow that is deeper and higher than the trail itself.


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## Angus (May 2, 2008)

Welcome to spring in western Maine! I bet Saddleback's coverage is equal or better than Sugarloafs. There will be snow on the AT between Saddleback and Sugarloaf into early June I bet. I'm envious.


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## Johnskiismore (May 2, 2008)

Thanks for posting this report, that looks like a lot of fun!


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## Vortex (May 4, 2008)

Just got home from 3 days at the loaf. The wet weather made today a short one.  Friday was the best spring day on snow this year for me.  Alot of Sunday River folks made the trek north. Alot of familiar faces.  Big props to hear Boss hogs' band. sounded great  Sat afternoon.  A real good jam.  just playing in the NCP.


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