12/18/04- First Day- Skiied Big Squaw today, lift tickets were . The day started of with 2 trails open(Kennebec, Fitz) but later Rip gorge and Allagash were opened along with lower squaw brook, bringing the trail count to 7. Conditions were good, mostly packed powder and machine groomed, with the exception of kennebec which was mostly man made. There was no food in the lodge or drinks we had to plug in a vending machine just to get a soda. :>)
12/28/04- Skiied at Hermon today at the Morning session, lift tickets were for a half day. There were 4 T2B runs open Cloudnine, Scenic, LakeView, and Lazy lane to Slowpoke. Conditions were great, snow was mostly packed machine groomed powder, base depth was around 8-20" on average I would say. We also discovered hermon installed trail maps and "helpful tips" on all of the chairs on the lift.
12/30/04- Skiied at Hermon today at the Evening session, lift tickets were for a 13 dollers half day. There were 5 T2B runs open Cloudnine, Scenic, LakeView, Slowpoke, and lazy lane. Snow was pretty good, a little skied off in a couple of spots but you gotta expect that at the end of the day. Lakeview was in the best shape I think. Conditions were packed powder with some hard pack in a few areas, great night of skiing overall.
1/9/05- Skied at Hermon today at the morning session. Lift tickets were 13 dollers for a half day. There was 5 T2B runs open, and about 6" of New snow. Trails open included Cloudnine, Scenic, LakeView, Slowpoke, and lazy lane, Though Big Bill Whitcomb frowns upon ducking the rope, longview and the two new trails had plenty of snow we skied those quite a bit to, even though they were closed. Snow was mostly powder and Packed powder on the groomers, and the base was probobly a solid 10-20" on the snowmaking trails. Best day out so far I think.
1/16/05- Skied Mt. Hermon again for the morning session. Conditions were suprisingly good especially considering the rain and warm weather we recieved a few days ago. The same 5 T2B runs were open and groomed out very nicely. There wasnt much snow in the woods so we couldnt duck the ropes this week :>(. Lakeview was my pick of the day, because they had made alot of "Fake Snow" on it and there was a small Table top at the bottom. Overall the skiing was much better than expected.
1/31/04- Skied Hermon morning session, Snow was fantastic, powder and PP everywhere. All trails were open. All the trails were in such good shape its hard to pick one, but I guess I'd have to say Jammer just because it was fun to ski it again since it didnt open last year. The terrain park is a joke there was some rolls a "spine" and a huge table top that was so big you couldnt do anything on it. Awsome day of skiing, best so far I think.
2/7/05- Skied at Hermon in the morning (4 hrs). Beautiful soft packed powder. Everything was open with the exception of Snake. Weather was great today with highs around 40 degrees (F). The park was alittle better this time, still nothing great though. I think we skied every single trail today. And both lifts were running, the ride on the T was interesting. The best trail today was probobly Jammer or Mini Heat. Another nice day on the hill.
2/13/05- Skied up at Big Squaw. They had just got about 25" which made the skiing sweet. Just lower mountain still, but really fun. It was crowded for Squaw mountain standards which still isnt very crowded. No lift lines to speak of. The ungroomed trails and the woods were awsome with powder alomst up to our knees. The best trails were Allagash, Lower Piscat, and The Ol' T-bar line. Beautiful day up at Squaw and I cant wait to go back.
2/22/05- Skied Saddleback for the first time evah. Its a BIG hill. Lift tickets were 35 big ones for a full day. They had just got about 6" of fluff which made for a real nice surface, mostly powder ,packed powder and some scrape were the conditions. Everything was open as far as trails and 4 of the 5 lifts were turning. About 3-5min lift lines but no crowds on the trails. The lodge is Big, still under construction but very nice. The best trails were Tightline, Blue Devil, and Royal Coachman.
2/23/05- Skied Camden Snowbowl. Tickets were 28 buckaroonies for a full day. All trails were open, even the "Glade". The snow was sweet, they had only groomed a few of the trails (with a Piston Bulley) and left the rest ungroomed which was nice. Not to crowded, especially on the ungroomed trails. The terrain park was set up nice with 3 step down jumps a variety of rails(kinked, A frame, Rainbow, Trapezoid, Flat Down.) and an A frame box. The best trails were NorthEaster and Spinaker.
2/25/05- Skied Hermon M., morning session. Everything was open, with great Packed powder conditions. No crowds or lines at all, which was suprising. The best trails were Snake and Cloudnine. The park was diffrent, it had a tabletop and a few piles of snow. Good morning of skiing.
3/5/05- Skied at Big Squaw. The conditions were beautiful, probobly the best I have ever skied anywhere. Still plenty of powder in the woods and the ungroomed trails. And the "Piston Bulley" did a fine job smoothing out 10 of the 12 open trails. We were the first people on the chair. And there were no crowds or lines all day(suprise,suprise). The conditions were solid packed powder on the groomers and DEEP (4+') powder in the woods. The best trails today were St. John, Rip Gorge and the Glade.
3/13/05- Skied at Squaw...We practically had the whole mountain to ourselves there was 2 people in the lodge when we got there and only 4 cars in the lot. Tickets were only and they had done a nice job grooming, but still leaving plenty of powder to go around. Even though though the upper mountain is not open this year, that didnt stop us. Thay had made one pass with the snowcat on 1 trail on the upper mountain(I assume for hikers) so we decided to hike. We got to the top of the east branch trail in about 40 min and skied down from there the headwall would only be hikeable with skins or snowshoes(and we were hiking in skiboots) the the snow was up to your waist in places. It was beautifull up there. The best trails other than East Branch were Rip Gorge, St. John, and The Ol' T-bar line. The conditions were 100% packed powdero nthe groomers and powder in the woods. Awsome day on the hill.
3/20/05-A beautiful warm day. This was the first time wede been here in a few years. And not to much has changed except for the fact they lost part of there lodge in a fire earlier this year and they are working on rebuilding that.
The snow was great spring snow. There was only a little scrape the first couple a runs before everyhting softened up. They had groomed a little bit, but let most of the trails ungroomed. And some really nice soft spring bumps were forming. The place was dead, no lines at all. Hardly ever saw another person on the trails. A fun day of skiing overall, its a steep little mountain.
3/27/05-A beautifulday at Squaw. THis was the least busy day I have ever skied in my life, probobly less than 30 people there. We expected to be skiing on Spring snow, but the primary surface was packed powder. They still have a ton of snow, well over a 3 foot base in most areas. Lift tickets are only 19 bucks. The place was so uncrowded that everybody who worked in the ski shop went out skiing for the day, they put a sighn in the lodge that read as followed "Gone Skiing, take a run, then swing back in and buy a ticket".
4-10/05- We started out on North Peak making a warm-up run on Dreammaker. The snow was soft spring corn and we were loving it. We then headed straight for whitcap. We did evrything off Whitecap except for Shockwave. White Heat was the trail of the day, the bumps were huge all over and the snow was sweet. Obsesion was really good up top, but there were alot of bare spots towards the bottom. However, SR did a great job marking them so it wasnt really a problem. After making many runs at Whitecap and Barker we had lunch at the Foggy Goggle. After lunch we headed for the west side of the mountain and took a nice run down Quantum Leap it had some sweet huge bumps on it. We did most all the trails at Jordan,there was still one glade open at Jordan but ti looked pretty thin so we decidedd not to do it. There was about 111 trails open and all hte maijot lifts.
This was a great day overall. Even though the temps were warm it was really only a problem on the begginer runs where water would collect. But the steeper trails were great and the bumps were ever so sweet, and so was the halfpipe. This day is definetly going down in the record books.
4/16/05-I was expecting it to be good, but I never expected it to be as good as it was. When we rounded O' my gosh corner, the entire mountain was covered you couldnt see a single bare spot.
We started out on the Superquad with a run on Hayburner it was all midwinter packed powder untill you got to Candy Side which was soft spring corn. The upper 3/4's of the mountain were all packed powder and powder untill around 11:00 and maybe 12:00 at the very top. We skied most all the runs off the superquad(none of which had any bare spots) and decieded to go to the top. We did a few runs from the top and then went for King Pine. King Pine was incredible, there was hardly anyone there and there was some soft bumps and tons of snow. Haulback and Ramdown were both great. Now it was time for lunch at the Bag. We headed back out at about 1:15 and the snow was still sweet. We skied off SPillway and Superquad for the rest of the day. We also played around in the New halfpipe for awhile.
It was probobly the best day of skiing this year if not ever. There was seriously only 2 or 3 barespots on the whole montain. Even the Natural snow trails and glades had at least a 8-15" base left.
4/20/05-Decided to hike up Big Squaw for a few turns. Kennebec was the only trail left that was skiable from tob to bottom. There was still a good base on kennebec. It wasnt a very long hike or run, but it was still fun. The snow was a edgable hardpack with some loose corn and slush. There were a few bare spots but they were very avoidablde. We didnt see another person or car at the mountain. It was very peaceful and quite at the top.
Kennebec will probobly be skiable for atleast another week or two. Even though it wasnt a long run it was still skiing therefore it was fun.
5/1/05- Last Day- When we drove up to the mountain I was suprised at hom much snow was left on White Heat. The trails on Barker all had T2B coverage, you didnt have to hike or ski grass anywhere(although you could if you wanted). It was a good turnout, and it didnt rain to much. Just showered of on. There was seven trails open including: Ecstasy, Jungle Road, Upper Punch, Sunday Puch, Monday Mourning, Cascades, and Right Stuff. The best trail was Upper Sunday Puch to Monday Mourning. Right Stuff had good coverage, but it was the busiest trail so the moguls were all irregular shaped in places. Monday Mourning and Sunday Punch had some decent lines of moguls that were fun tio hit. There wasnt many lift lines at all, whicjh was suprising. I think more people were drinking then skiing.
Overall the skiing was really impressive considering it May 1st and all the rain we had. It was a great last day and it was fun watching all the people skiing the grass.
