Attitash 3/12/2016

"Remember that time we went spring skiing in early March?" BadDNA captioned his photos of Attitash yesterday on Facebook.  That pretty much sums up the conditions:  sheets of hard packed ice beginning to soften up underneath a nice layer of corn snow, thin in spots, warm, and sunny!

We began by taking the Flying Yankee Quad to mid-mountain for our first warm up run.  Our plan was to take the middle highway which meandered and wound it's way down the mountain.  We came around our first corner into a heavily shaded spot and were greeted by a sheet of glare ice that we cautiously skated our way across.  I ski-skated up to BadDNA and said, "well that kinda sucked.  I hope we don't have more of this to look forward to."  We looked across the way and saw that our planned route was closed, leaving us with "Moat," which looked to be a steeper, more advanced intermediate trail to make our way back down.  The trail was hard frozen groomer base with a thin layer of corn on top of it, which wasn't making it look too inviting.  

Meanwhile a group of three younger teenagers skied down from the trail above Moat and stopped at the headwall.  One was a girl who seemed fairly new to skiing and was pretty unstable on her skis, and her friends were trying to coax her down the trail.  Another woman had skied down the trail and was standing next to me watching the group, and I looked at her and said, "That poor kid looks about the same way I feel right now."  She just chuckled and said take it slow and easy!  I don't think she was with the group of teenagers, but after the girl wiped out a few times and was obviously having a crisis of confidence, she skied down to them and helped coach the girl down the remainder of the trail by showing her how to do easy stem christie turns.  I thought that was very kind, as I've been stuck in similar situations in that past and have had a complete stranger help me finish skiing down a trail I had no business being on.  

After we finished our run, BadDNA and I decided to head over to the western side of the mountain, which looked like it was more sun exposed and wouldn't be as icy.  We headed over to the East Double Couple Chair and took several runs down Thad's Choice and then Spillway.  The conditions were as expected, soft and corny, getting thin in spots.  By about noon or so, it seemed most people had headed inside for lunch and had decided it was beer-thirty.  The chairlifts and slopes emptied, but the deck was full and there was a decent band belting out rock songs from the 80s.  

BadDNA and I headed up the Summit Triple.  One interesting thing about this chair is that it crosses over the Flying Yankee Quad.  It's pretty cool to look down and see the other chair moving up the slopes as you're heading up.  If you want to be evil/a prankster, your call, it's also a good opportunity to knock your skis together and send a pile of soft corny snow splatting down on another skier's head.  We stopped and got some nice pics from the summit:









We took Upper Saco, to Lower Saco, to Chicken's Option, to Ammonoosuc, to Lower Cathedral back to the base.  What a fantastic trail!  Upper Saco and Lower Saco had these short, steep headwalls with flat runways, I'll call them, after them so you could stop and regather yourself.  The views of the surrounding mountains were amazing.  As it was getting toward later afternoon, the snow was beginning to set up and things were getting firm, so we decided to call it a day.  Though we barely scratched the surface in trails, this seems like a great mountain with a lot of varied, steep terrain, with fun, windy trails.  This is definitely one we'll return to next year, hopefully when there's more snow and more open terrain.  

Nice report great views . I like that combo of upper lower Saco ,Amun , and Cathedral too . Caught it on a cold crisp day in January when we were there several yrs ago . Fun trail combo ,enough length and variety to hold your interest BUT that chair is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW  

warp daddy wrote

Nice report great views . I like that combo of upper lower Saco ,Amun , and Cathedral too . Caught it on a cold crisp day in January when we were there several yrs ago . Fun trail combo ,enough length and variety to hold your interest BUT that chair is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

Yes, agree with Warp..

Also, I love to hear when people take the time to coach people off runs or on the runs. I am nowhere near certified though have at least enough basics under to me help people down a run. When we see people that need help, we always make sure of to do just that.

How much longer does Attitash have?  Pico closed yesterday sadly...

Warp, how are you mending?

Ray : hip is better , walking 1 3/4 miles working out 3 times a week  still some stiffness , but still have a groin issue 5 months in . Groin is aching not pain just constant ache when walking .Its a PIA but i can sleep and walk just not at the pace i used to

But i remain confident , i am almost 73 afterall and at that age things take time to mend regardless of how in shape one is .

The groin thing may be the residual. Of a pretty nasty fall i had several seasons ago at speed at Tremblant when i hit a death cookie from a groomer near the edge of the trail and sailed thru air , landing hard and threw up a helluva roostertail . That never really healed up . So i always slathered myself with ICY HOT every time i went skiing ., smelling like a menthol factory

I just hope it mends ."......thanks for asking and thanks for your excellent vids they kept this "antsy old grump " vicariously in the game this season

I'm not sure how much longer they'll have.   It seemed like it was getting pretty thin in many spots.  If they make snow this week they might stretch it out for another week, but otherwise I'd say this upcoming weekend will be the last.   Or at least the last I'd want to buy a lift ticket to ski it.  This may have been my last day of skiing for the season, but if so, it was a  decent day.   I'd still like to hit Cannon if I can squeeze it in before they throw in the towel.