“Why would you want to go skiing now?  The snow’s lousy and there aren’t many trails open.”

About half of the people that I told I was headed to Sugarloaf and Sunday River on Sunday gave me variations on that theme.  And, they all got the same basic answer back; any skiing is good, early season skiing sets my legs and balance up for long days when there’s more snow, and how do you know how the snow is going to be???  Plus, this is when you want to make sure your equipment is all in perfect working order (Note:  Get your skis tuned first!  Early season snow is often hard as rock due to warm days and cold nights; sharp edges are a must).

Okay, so…I’m patting myself on the back.  The answer to that question is…the snow was MUCH better than we’d expected!

As soon as we got the word that Sugarloaf was opening Sunday, we decided to make a long day of driving up there in the morning, getting a few runs in, and then heading to Sunday River, as they had more trails open.  That’s a lot of driving; nearly 3 hours to get to the ‘Loaf, then a couple over to Sunday River, then home.  But…how else to see what Maine has to offer for early skiing this year?

A big cup of coffee and a full moon on one side of the car, sunrise on the other, isn’t a bad way to start a morning.  No traffic at that time of day, either.  By 8, we had Sugarloaf in our sights, and SNOW.  Not mid-winter snow, but a lot of white…and a lot of excitement for us.  And a totally weird vibe; Sugarloaf, the “party hard” mountain, was relaxed, mellow, no signs of hangovers on the skiers.  Just a quiet sense of anticipation as everyone stood in line, patiently waiting for the SuperQuad to open.  Not all that many, either; the hardcore were out, the rest were waiting for “more snow”.

All I can say is, sucks being them!  Conditions at the top of Tote Road were amazing; hard corduroy that turned into wonderfully smooth, easily edged “powder” after a couple of runs.  The entire blue section of the trail was fast, fun…and made up for Lower Tote Road.  That, unfortunately, was such a collection of “death cookies” that it was more like skiing on golf balls than on snow.  However, it had some advantages for early season; it really forced us to focus on balance and control; you definitely didn’t want to let your skis control you on it.  Bizarrely enough, because it was a consistent surface, the ice balls didn’t kick us around the way they normally would…it was safe, but bumpy and hard work.  Plus, as mentioned earlier, our skis were tuned; after last year’s ski testing, Susan & I had decided to buy each other Blizzard Magnum 7.6s as early Christmas presents, so we had new, sharp edges to work with.   However, everyone we talked to agreed; it was worth putting up with that section for the beautiful conditions at the top.  And, of course, as the day wore on and the sun hit that section, it was likely to soften.

Unfortunately for us, we’d made the committment to head for Sunday River, so didn’t get to enjoy that transition.  Boots off, skis in car, on the road again.  One more cup of coffee, and a long, twisty drive down Route 142 from Kingfield to Dixfield.  I hadn’t driven it for years, and it’s been redone since then; fun drive.  We reached Sunday River about noon, and it was immediately apparent that there was a totally different scene there.  Driving up to the Barker lodge, cars were parked halfway down the access road; it wasn’t just the hardcore skiing there, it was everyone.  As we walked up to the lodge, there were more people waiting in line at the Barker quad than were at Sugarloaf in total…and half of the skiers were inside for lunch.  The atmosphere was loud; not only with skiers, but also with snowguns of all shapes and sizes firing everywhere you looked.  Sunday River’s not fooling around; they’re clearly pulling out all the stops to be ready for the Thanksgiving weekend.

And, all of that snowmaking translated to more runs than we’d expected!  We’d been told that T2 and Upper, Middle, and Lower Sunday Punch would be open, and they were.  But, the big news was that Right Stuff was open as well, with HUGE amounts of snow.  By the time we hit it at around 1, it was acting like a diamond-and-a-half; skier traffic had built up big, soft moguls with harder patches in between, creating the kind of varying terrain that our legs and our skill level are used to mid-season, but not yet.  Hard work, but fun…this wasn’t the typical “find a line between the grassy patches” that we’d expected!  A couple of those runs, and we were ready to give our legs a little break, so we took Jungle Road over to Sunday Punch, where the slightly gentler slope meant less variation in snow conditions.  Off to the right side where there had been fewer skiers, there was as much as a foot of soft granular snow to play in; easy and fun.  T2 was behaving itself, as well; the sun had softened things a bit before we got there, and a couple told us that it was the best it had been all day.  Alas, our day was over, as we had to head back for another meeting, so no more chances for fun!

Amazingly enough, as we headed to the car, there were still skiers coming in, looking to make the best of the last few hours…we probably were asked “how’s the skiing?” a half dozen times before we took off.  Looks like anticipation is high this year!

So, in a nutshell…we got in 7-8 runs total at the two mountains, found amazing conditions for this time of year, got to check out our equipment and clothing, and had a ball!  Oh, and remember…ticket prices are about half what they will be, so training comes cheap!  If you’ve got the time, get out there; after what we saw Sunday, we can’t see any reason to wait.  The regular season’s almost upon us, and as we reported before, fan guns are extending it at both ends. Don’t make the mistake of waiting too long! You are already missing some great skiing!