MissySki
Angel Diva
Yesterday @lisamamot and I made the trek up to Saddleback Maine for the first time. Anyone not in the East may not be aware that they were closed down for 5 or 6 years before reopening this season under new ownership. I had intentions of checking them out before they closed, but never got around to it years ago. I made sure to put it as a must do on my list this year because I didn’t want to chance letting it pass me by again.
Tickets are really reasonably priced for 2021, I prepaid for my day pass the night before at $59. When we arrived we got ready in our cars and walked up the short distance past the lodge to some tents used for picking up online tickets. It was completely contactless and we just had to swipe our emails and out popped rfid cards. Super easy.
The mountain is set up such that for the most part the easiest terrain is to the right when looking at the mountain and the difficulty increases as you head to the left. We warmed up on a really fun black to blue groomer after seeing how lovely the run under the lift (Royal Coachman) looked. It was so great that we did a few more blue groomers. We quickly realized that Saddleback had not had the firm up that Sunday River did last week, everything was silky smooth and soft on every groomer we zoomed down. We then decided to move over and try our luck on the Kennebago quad to the summit. We stuck to a groomer there to start and test out the snow, so went down Tight Line. Initially this run looks a tad intimidating from the top, it’s a very steep drop in that quickly mellows from a double black to single black steepness, but again we found perfect soft and grippy corduroy the whole way down. Okay, time to try some bumps with the snow feeling so great! So we tried Frostbite and Black Beauty which had super fun bumps with a small dusting of snow on them and were pleasantly soft besides that. They were lovely! We then tried Muleskinner and eventually several chutes of the Casablanca glades (0,1,2, and 4). Casablanca is one of the areas Saddleback is well known for with their tree skiing, and it did not disappoint! If you ski Saddleback and like trees, you must check them out. We were continuously blown away by the great coverage and snow conditions everywhere. It was still full on winter at Saddleback with packed powder and NO ICE or hardpack to be found. It didn’t feel like we were on the East coast. Not to be forgotten, one of our favorite bump runs was Family Secret under the Kennebago quad. Neither of us usually likes bump runs under lift lines, but we did this one twice so you can definitely assume it was worth it! Also worth mentioning are Nightmare glades and Thrombosis glades, they were really fun and highly recommended.
For any boarders in the group, you should be aware that the top of the summit to the left of the lift turns into an up and down cat track. Very much like Western resorts and not so much what you see in the East. Even in skis and with poles there is sidestepping up or herringboning required a bunch of times (or there was yesterday anyhow) so keep that in mind. I didn’t see a lot of snowboarders overall, and the ones venturing that way were often walking. Though some stayed attached with one foot, and one such snowboarder that we spoke to said she usually brings poles to Saddleback for this reason but had forgotten them. I wanted to ski more in that area, but eventually the traverse got tiring and we didn’t feel like doing it anymore.
Overall this was one of my best days of the season, perhaps one of my best in the East in general. I literally cannot praise it high enough, we were totally blown away. The other great part for people who don’t like crowds is that we skied onto the lift all day. There were no lines at all. The place was empty and we rarely shared the trail with anyone else. It was a Tuesday, but I think most of us would agree that this is really rare for this season. I’m just sad I didn’t head up sooner since I think the warm up this week will reach them as well and obviously this will change things with the snow going forward I assume. Though spring must be great there as well. Put it on your list to visit this or next season East coast divas, it’s well worth the trouble getting there even if you aren’t close by.
Tickets are really reasonably priced for 2021, I prepaid for my day pass the night before at $59. When we arrived we got ready in our cars and walked up the short distance past the lodge to some tents used for picking up online tickets. It was completely contactless and we just had to swipe our emails and out popped rfid cards. Super easy.
The mountain is set up such that for the most part the easiest terrain is to the right when looking at the mountain and the difficulty increases as you head to the left. We warmed up on a really fun black to blue groomer after seeing how lovely the run under the lift (Royal Coachman) looked. It was so great that we did a few more blue groomers. We quickly realized that Saddleback had not had the firm up that Sunday River did last week, everything was silky smooth and soft on every groomer we zoomed down. We then decided to move over and try our luck on the Kennebago quad to the summit. We stuck to a groomer there to start and test out the snow, so went down Tight Line. Initially this run looks a tad intimidating from the top, it’s a very steep drop in that quickly mellows from a double black to single black steepness, but again we found perfect soft and grippy corduroy the whole way down. Okay, time to try some bumps with the snow feeling so great! So we tried Frostbite and Black Beauty which had super fun bumps with a small dusting of snow on them and were pleasantly soft besides that. They were lovely! We then tried Muleskinner and eventually several chutes of the Casablanca glades (0,1,2, and 4). Casablanca is one of the areas Saddleback is well known for with their tree skiing, and it did not disappoint! If you ski Saddleback and like trees, you must check them out. We were continuously blown away by the great coverage and snow conditions everywhere. It was still full on winter at Saddleback with packed powder and NO ICE or hardpack to be found. It didn’t feel like we were on the East coast. Not to be forgotten, one of our favorite bump runs was Family Secret under the Kennebago quad. Neither of us usually likes bump runs under lift lines, but we did this one twice so you can definitely assume it was worth it! Also worth mentioning are Nightmare glades and Thrombosis glades, they were really fun and highly recommended.
For any boarders in the group, you should be aware that the top of the summit to the left of the lift turns into an up and down cat track. Very much like Western resorts and not so much what you see in the East. Even in skis and with poles there is sidestepping up or herringboning required a bunch of times (or there was yesterday anyhow) so keep that in mind. I didn’t see a lot of snowboarders overall, and the ones venturing that way were often walking. Though some stayed attached with one foot, and one such snowboarder that we spoke to said she usually brings poles to Saddleback for this reason but had forgotten them. I wanted to ski more in that area, but eventually the traverse got tiring and we didn’t feel like doing it anymore.
Overall this was one of my best days of the season, perhaps one of my best in the East in general. I literally cannot praise it high enough, we were totally blown away. The other great part for people who don’t like crowds is that we skied onto the lift all day. There were no lines at all. The place was empty and we rarely shared the trail with anyone else. It was a Tuesday, but I think most of us would agree that this is really rare for this season. I’m just sad I didn’t head up sooner since I think the warm up this week will reach them as well and obviously this will change things with the snow going forward I assume. Though spring must be great there as well. Put it on your list to visit this or next season East coast divas, it’s well worth the trouble getting there even if you aren’t close by.
This will be the first season in eons that we will not have skied Sugarloaf either!
