ml242 wrote
Any other comments about the bush and smuggs? How were the goods you found?
The Snow quality was good and hadn't gone through any thaw/freeze cycles. It snowed all day at both places but, they probably only picked up an additional 6-8", less than farther south. But, this was a preplanned trip that we decided on more because of the snow they had already received. We started things off at both places by heading off trail where we found waist deep snow. Of course on the trails and glades there was chopped up powder everywhere that rode really nice. But, when I use my powder skis, I'm just attracted to off trail and untouched pow. We went in a group of 5. 2 boarders and 3 skiers. And of course everyone followed me into some crazy areas.
At Smuggs we used up the tickets off the Ski card between the 5 of us and parked up near Madonna and only rode the 3 main lifts over there. Those pics of Freefall was a really cool point. We went through some scraped off super steep, narrower than my skis chute to bypass the closed trail. When we came out, the powder that drifted down below was untouched and deep. That was my favorite run of the day there. Also experimented with riding the Sterling lift to finish the day. We kept to skiers left for plenty of untouched the farther out we went and dropped into the parking lot. Unfortunately, it wasn't the parking lot we were parked in but, it was still a great run. Another point off trail I found a ravine that headed to a larger ravine. It was filled up from drifts and was some of the deepest snow I've come across all season. That was a fun run but, led to a hike out that took some time.
We stayed at the Golden Lion down the road from Sugarbush. This was the forth consecutive year I have been to the Bush for free off Warren Miller. I love going midweek and have never seen the place crowded. Most of our riding came on the Castlerock double and Heaven's Gate triple. Tons of untracked in the woods off them and the best runs of the day by far. I had always wanted to hit Stein's run because it looks pretty steep and sustained. But, every time we go there it is iced over and closed. This time it had huge powder bumps but, I still scraped down to some slick hard ice underneath. That trail must get hit with the sun daily because it is always like that when I've been there. The powder bumps made it the best I've seen. We made that our last run. There was one point we got into some off trail woods with some deep untracked powder. It led to a stream that one of our guys got soaked in. We ended up having to hike up another ravine here. It was steep and seemed like it would be easier to take off my skis and hike out but, when I did I sunk to my hip and had to crawl out since every step walking I sunk to that depth. I still have yet to get into Slidebrook but, that will probably be next time I go. Last year I spent most of the time at Mt Ellen aside from a few hours of runs off Castlerock and Heaven's Gate. The place seems so huge we can never see very much of it in a single day.
We had a great time those two days. It's always fun to seek out deep untracked snow in the woods even if it gets into some thick stuff or involves a hike out. I kinda get burned out from the drive. I post the pics while I'm there and then kinda forget to talk about it. It was by far my best experience at either mountain. Last year, learned a lesson about wind at Smuggs and rode a tbar until we left early with comp tickets. Came back and half the mountain was iced over. The other half lightly iced over. We busted up the ice in 2 glades and just rode those two runs the whole day. Sugarbush seems to always get added onto the end of a long trip and I feel worn down by the time we get there. This time was different. I'd like to get up there sometime with someone who could really show us around. We did learn of some really cool runs off those two lifts from someone who boards there regularly a few years back. And because of that have stuck near those areas we were shown. But, would really like to explore Slidebrook especially with someone familiar with it.
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