Has Anyone Been to Sugarloaf? Any Thoughts?

I saw something on Facebook about them offering cat skiing on their still relatively new sidecountry development Burnt Mountain next season.  Costs 20 to 30 dollars a ride depending on the time of day.  It's more expensive in the morning.  Since last season, I've been expanding my horizons and skiing less groomed terrain and more trees and bumps.  I even got in The Slides twice.  Since they're on the Max Pass, I am thinking of doing a trip there next season as I will have already paid for lift tickets.  Looks like the mountain has very good sustained vertical and is quite possibly the only eastern mountain that could rival Whiteface on that front by just looking at pictures and the trail map.

It's 5 and a half hours from Potsdam, and requires one to go through Canada.  The general area looks to be very isolated, and is not in day trip reach of Boston, so I assume most people stay on-mountain.  The closest thing that could qualify as a city is Sherbrook in Quebec.  I'm guessing it doesn't get particularly crowded outside of vacation weeks for that reason.  Is there on-mountain lodging that doesn't break the bank?

Looking at the trail map, I can already see that the best lifts are Skyline, King Pine, and Timberline as they serve all the good upper mountain terrain.  The lower mountain looks to be a long runout for the most part rather than being steep almost the entire way to the bottom like Whiteface.  How good are they at getting all the lifts open by Christmas?  Do they typically get a lot of natural by then?

In addition to the cat skiing and regular terrain, I'd also be interested in skiing The Snowfields, which is the only above treeline skiing in the east.  From what I've seen, it looks similar to The Slides at WF, sans avy gear requirement.  How difficult is it to catch them open, and is there a particular point in the season when one has a better chance of catching them open?  (for example, one has the best chance of getting in The Slides during the spring).

I've been there many times my sister has a townhouse where burnt ridge spills out. Really good skiing but they don't take kindly to Jersey people.

I find that the skiing is good at places after it snows a lot.

20 or 30 bucks a ride sounds expensive. How long of a hike /skin is it out there? I can't imagine it's that long.

Tjf:  read my signature line.  I'm not from New Jersey.  I've lived in various locations in New York my entire life.

RA:  I honestly have no idea what cat skiing typically costs or should cost.  I believe it's at lesst 1.5 miles traverse from the top of King Pine.  I'm sure it's quite easy if you have AT gear and are experienced with earning turns.  However, I do not own such equipment and have zero experience with hiking to ski besides Slide In at WF.

You have been gaining experience hiking since you started walking. 1.5 miles might make it worth the $ if you can afford it though and are there on limited time with killer conditions.

If you hike across it takes about 30 minutes. If you skin up from the bottom it's a couple miles.  

I thought it would take much longer than that.  Sounds like something to do on a weekend when they're are lift lines everywhere.  Then again it would probably take me longer than it would take you guys.

There's a trail across the descending Ridgeline. Pretty tight but it's not that hard to ski when you get to the bottom of the Ridgeline you take your skis off and you hike up the boot pack that everybody already packed in.

All I know is there's a traverse off the top of the King Pine lift.  I assumed that most people would just loop back out to near the base of the mountain, but I guess it's easier to hike directly back up if taking multiple laps.  I probably wouldn't be up for that since I'm really not a good hiker.  I get these splitting headaches every time I try to go on one.  The snowcat picks you up somewhere on the bottom.

Thanks for the info.  I know it can be a touchy subject to disclose how to get into off trail areas like this.

Does anyone have an answer to my question about the Snowfields?

I'm still confused about your comment regarding the snowfields being the only above treeline skiing in east. Maybe you meant lift served. I dunno. You do realize the only reason it's like that is because of a wildfire, right???

These kidz from Jerz sure are something.

Yo, TJ --- is your sister hot?

campgottagopee wrote

I'm still confused about your comment regarding the snowfields being the only above treeline skiing in east. Maybe you meant lift served. I dunno. You do realize the only reason it's like that is because of a wildfire, right???

Well it's the only in bounds terrain in the east that's above treeline, and it actually isn't directly lift served.  It's a short sidestep up like The Slides at WF.  I don't care how it got that way.  It's still the same experience regardless and I'm not even sure you know the truth.

campgottagopee wrote

These kidz from Jerz sure are something.

I am from New York.

CampSpeaksWithForkedTongue!

I am no expert on the Loaf but I have skied there a few times. For my preferences, VT has twice the snow for half the drive. That said, the Loaf should be a must do bucket list area for most seasoned east coast skiers.

Here is how you want to do it: group ski trip with your college skiing friends. The bed base at the Loaf is huge, maybe the biggest in the northeast since it is so remote from population centers. Get a large condo or a few smaller ones and make it a big trip with your friends. Cheaper hotels off mountain but the ski in/out at the Loaf is nice. You will have crowds on any weekend; despite the distance the Loaf is a busy place. On mountain isn't going to be budget friendly but at least you don't need to worry about tickets.

Maybe you'll get lucky with conditions, the Loaf is probably a fabulous mountain when conditions are top notch. But not that great when everything is hard pack boiler plate (which is how I have experienced it a few times). Boyne focuses early season at Sunday River and the Loaf is well known for going late. If you want more terrain open, later is definitely better.

I haven't been since they extended the traverse up to Burnt but it has been officially open for hiking for a few years now. $20-30 to save a mile hike is crazy in my opinion. Hike it with your friends, it will be a good experience.

The frontside of the "snowfields" aren't really snowfields, those are wide trails with snowmaking and grooming. I've never been there when conditions were good for the backside snowfields. Probably good skiing if you catch it right but just assume you won't catch it right, especially if you are going early to mid season. Late season would be better odds for that I would imagine.

For your lifts, it depends what you are looking for. You probably won't be skiing top to bottom too much... The Loaf is better skied in pods (IMO) with a top to bottom run when you want to hit the lodge. Trails off the Super Quad are steep up top before flattening out down low so don't overlook that lift for decent skiing. Timberline gets you to the summit but you'll need two lifts to get back, generally speaking. Don't bother skiing the condo serving lifts unless you are staying off those trails.

OnTheSnow gives it 200 inches on average which is about the same as Whiteface, but I'm pretty sure it holds onto it slightly better due to latitude.  I'm convinced there isn't anyone at Clarkson who skis as much as I do, so I will probably end up going either on my own or with some of my ski friends I met on here, specifically Glade Runner.  He wants to try to go in early to mid Jan, but I think I'll try to convince him to do March.

I called the lodging desk just to ask about pricing and availability, and I got the impression that it's very much affordable compared to on mountain lodging at other mountains.  They have a lift called Snubber that makes just about all their lodging ski in ski out.

I am not a good hiker and I don't like it at all, and I'm sure I'd do even worse trying to do it with ski equipment.  I would definitely pay for the snowcat ride to avoid it.

Looking at the map, the front of the Snowfields furthest to the west are trails with snowmaking and grooming, further east, you get into the natural terrain.  The main mountain is a full northern exposure, so I assume the back side isn't open much due to it facing more to the south.

snoloco wrote

I am not a good hiker and I don't like it at all, and I'm sure I'd do even worse trying to do it with ski equipment.  I would definitely pay for the snowcat ride to avoid it

Look man, I know you don't get a lot of practice wal....er I mean hiking down in New Jersey but come on Loco, 30 bucks to skip a 30 minute traverse? That's soft kid, like this ain't the right sport for you soft. I know 60 year olds that climb all day harder than I ever will. You can do this.

I get these splitting headaches every time I attempt to go on a hike.  It literally feels like my head will explode it's that bad.  Also, I'm always looking to get the most time out of my ski days, so I would not want to spend likely an hour hiking.  Keep in mind that while you could do it in 30 minutes, I would probably be much slower.

She got a lot of money.

Drink water and have your friends kick you in the balls a few times. You need to toughen up.

Someone mentioned that it takes two lifts to reach the Snowfields due to how the lifts are laid out.  I think they set it up this way to avoid wind problems.  They used to have a base to summit gondola going right up the fall line, but they replaced it with a fixed quad going up the west ridge of the mountain, which I assume is in a more wind protected area.