Shawnee Peak, ME - 2/3 - 2/4 2017

I was lucky enough to spend Friday and Saturday skiing in the lakes region of Maine at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton, ME.  I highly recommend that mountain and the town.  And be sure to check out Sports Haus if you need any ski/board gear - the staff is experienced, knowledgeable, nice, and comprised of hard-core skiers.

My high school friend Joe asked me along to visit his friend Becca and her partner, Scott.  Scott helps manage the Sports Haus ski shops (three in Maine), is a former college racer, and super knowledgable and friendly.  He set me up on a Rossi Experience 88 demo (172 cm) that I loved.  I really like my Dynastar Powertrack 84 (169cm); however, the Rossis had the same stability but hooked up the edges earlier in the turn and held the edge later in the turn.  Had I demo'ed these before I bought the Dynastar, I think I would have gone Rossi.  If you are looking for any gear in the area, I highly recommend Sports Haus.  Another highlight was meeting Becca and Scott's son - an adorable 2-year old boy that behaved really well every time I saw him.  Love my kids to death, but my three-year-old girl doesn't behave that well when she is tired.

Back to the trip report!  There are pics below, but I can't say enough about the Lake Region.  It is a Summer Town that must be a great time in that season, but it also has a hidden gem in Shawnee (1300 vert) that probably gets passed by those heading on to Sunday River.  Shawnee was a one-hour ride from Portland (an hour flight from Jfk), and had a cool food scene.  If you go there, check out the Standard, a meat-focused gastro pub that also had amazing veggies including a veggie burger, sweet-and-salty brussell sprouts, and Mexican corn.  They had about 15 micro brews on tap, including Mast-something that tasted like heady topper.  I don't like the harsh-tasting IPAs (if that is the right language) but really like heady topper and the Mast IPA I had there.  

As for the mountain, there are main lifts that head up the north face (main line) and east face (usually only open on weekends).  There are some steep runs, and a lot of the narrower trails have the classic New England twist-and-turn.  There are some glades but they really weren't in play this weekend.  One advantage of the set up is that if you get separated, you can just take a lift to the top, as the main lifts drop off within yards of each other.  



We didn't take many pictures during our trip, but here is a sequence of stills from a few turns.  In the last picture before the headwall, you can see one of the many lakes visible from the mountain.  If you can make out the detail in the picture, the ant-like specs are folks ice-fishing near ice huts on the lake to the north-east of the mountain.  Here are some pics, including my new avatar; more descriptions below:

Wow. They just started liking our posts.. And then this.. So, we hope to get up there soon..

I've driven across that causeway in your last pic a hundred times.  It seems like a great place to have a cottage.  You can just about have slopeside and waterfront on the same property.

I hope your wife is doing well.  If you guys took a c or lirr to JFK, you could have like a 3 hour trip to get up there....

I totally agree.  At some point I d like to get up there in the summer.