Greetings from Saddleback Mountain in Rangeley, Maine, where we just enjoyed the two best ski days of the 2012/13 season (so far). Sunday, February 24 was easily among the TOP 10 ski days my wife and I have shared in the nine years we’ve skied together. Monday, February 25 ranks among my TOP 10 powder days ever, with the perfect combination of the right mountain, the right snow, and a complete lack of competition for freshies. I’d say I wish you were there to share it, but I’d be lying. I was perfectly happy to have the place almost to myself . . .
We’d originally been scheduled to come up on Sunday and had a slopeside condo booked for Sunday and Monday night, but snow in the forecast forced us (it wasn’t that difficult . . .) to come up a day early so we’d be here ahead of the storm. It snowed hard all the way up Routes 27 and 4 from Augusta, and driving was slow and tricky. We saw several cars in the ditch along the way, a reminder to take it easy, and it was late Saturday evening before we pulled into the Rangeley Saddleback Inn. Because the snowstorm had sent many Presidents’ Week vacationers home a little early, we’d been able to book a room there last minute. It was clean, quiet, friendly and perfect for our needs. We also grabbed a late dinner at the Red Onion in Rangeley, one of our favorite burger places in ski country.
It had already been snowing up here for the better part of the last week, and it was clear even at night that there was plenty of snow to fill the glades and all the trails. The next morning, the three or four fresh inches of pure fluff that had fallen overnight was just icing on the cake. Every trail we found was in prime condition and even the glades were filled with deep and soft.
Saddleback Maine is already one of my favorite mountains in New England (it should be one everyone’s “must ski” list) but this visit moved it up a notch or two in the standings. There was NOBODY here. All of the people here for Presidents’ Week had left early to avoid the storm that was pounding much of southern and central New England, and the people (like us) who were scheduled to come in Sunday couldn’t get there early. We had the place to ourselves, skiing down on empty trails and right onto the lifts to go back up. We were still finding untouched powder lines ON TRAILS at noon on a Sunday. Unbelievable!
Though Marilyn can handle any groomed trail in the East, and can even conquer some bumps, she, like many Eastern skiers, is more comfortable on hardpack than she is on powder. So this was the perfect setup for introducing her to the wonders of untracked. The snow was light and fluffy on top of a soft-but-firm base, and she took to it like a duck to water. By the end of the first run she was deliberately seeking out untouched snow–something she’s always avoided before. I had fun showing her some tricks of the powder trade, and her enthusiasm made it a wonderful day on the slopes
But Monday was even better . . .We woke up to bluebird skies, no wind, 8 or 10 more inches of fluffy, light powder on the trails, and a mountain with nobody on it. There were less than a dozen people waiting for first chair. On a powder morning. On a great mountain. Outstanding!
A real powder morning trumps all relationships, even marriage. So Marilyn went off to practice her powder turns by herself on all the trails she’d skied the day before, including Red and Blue Devil, Silver Doctor, Parmachenee Belle and Grey Ghost (most of the trails at Saddleback are named for Maine trout flies). These are all blue square and easy black diamond trails to skier’s left off the main double chairlift from the base lodge. All had been groomed overnight but still had several inches of fresh powder on them—perfect for practice. But there was no way I was going to be content with groomed . . . not on a morning like this!
I kissed her goodbye at the top of the double, then went off on my own to explore the trails off the summit quad, which I reached via Peachies Peril, a bumpy, twisty black diamond that had only one set of tracks down it. I was all smiles by the time I reached the base of the quad, but things just got better from there. The few skiers and riders ahead of me all made a beeline to Muleskinner, one of the toughest trails in the east, and the Casablanca Glades and Chutes, one of the largest gladed areas anywhere in New England. In doing so, they bypassed Frostbite, which gave me spectacular turns through knee-deep fluff before anyone else thought to try it. Now, I like skiing in the trees, but if you can find fresh powder out on the trails, you can get in more runs more quickly and save the trees for when the trails are chowdered (Chopped-up powder = “chowder”).
Everyone also was ignoring Warden’s Worry and Supervisor and I got four runs before anyone else cut a track . . . yes, I had at least six (maybe more, I lost count) long runs on trails in untracked powder by 11:00. That’s more untracked powder miles than many Eastern skiers get in an entire season.
That took some of the edge off, and I went back to the double to see if I could find Marilyn. I wasn’t ready to ski on groomed trails just yet, but Jane Craig still had untracked lines and I made two more runs before I happened to catch up to my wife. By then, I was more than ready to ski an easy semi-groomer with her and watch her actively seek out piles of powder and untracked lines. She was skiing beautifully and I was very proud of her.
After she quit around noon, I took one careful run in Thrombosis Glades, one on Professor and one more on Jane Craig before my legs, too, told me it was time to quit. I’d skied untracked powder almost non-stop since 9 o’clock. I haven’t had a day like that in a couple of years (the last one was at Mad River Glen), and I can’t wait for the next one! May you’ll get a day like this sometime soon!
Now, weather is weather and you can’t always count on conditions like those. But what you can count on is that Saddleback Maine has less skier traffic than any other resort you are likely to visit. And many of the skiers are going to be hidden deep in the expansive glades where there’s plenty of room. Most of the rest are going to be on the groomers, leaving the in-between stuff for people like me to play on. Everyone’s happy. Great glades, great trails, great snow . . .what more could you ask for?
PS If you’ve skied Saddleback Maine and have wondered about neighboring Sugarloaf, or vice versa, or just wonder why you’d choose one over the other, you can read a resort comparison here.