Super Bowl Sunday Skiing

After heavy rain this past week I was wondering what the trail conditions would be like on the ski slopes. My destination was Bretton Woods for some afternoon skiing on Super Bowl Sunday. It was cold, partly cloudy with an abundance of sunshine. I was VERY surprised with the amount of snow on the ground as I drove through Twin Mountain, let me rephrase that, by the lack of snow as in bare ground. The rain really took a toll on the snow pack.

On the ride over - Mount Madison

Presidentials in the clouds

I reached the parking lot and found it full in front of the lodge but there was plenty of space to be found in the other lots. Ski areas always struggle to draw a crowd on Super Bowl Sundays, many offer discounted lift tickets for this day. I'm not going to complain, it means minimal lift lines.

Thin cover in the glades

We need some snow!

As I was expecting, lift lines were short or nonexistent and I was able to get in a lot of runs. On my first ride up the lift I discovered just how dire the snow situation is. Some of my favorite trails were closed, all glades were closed. The snow guns were blasting away!

Half a slope is better than no slope

Waumbek Trail

The snowmaking and grooming crews have done a great job with providing some decent skiing on what would otherwise be NO skiing. Only trails with snowmaking and grooming were open, all others were closed. That meant only 44 of 102 trails were open. There is no significant snow in the forecast over this coming week - bummer.

Bode's Run

Crawford Ridge Trail

I went to the top of Mount Rosebrook and made a run for the bottom using High Ridge to Outer Bounds to Avalon down to Crawford Ridge and arrived back at the Bethlehem quad. It was back to the top and down Bode's Run.

Snow Guns blasting

Coos Caper Park

With short lift lines I made several more top to bottom runs. Somehow I ended up on Coos Caper Park with its series of jumps. First time down was a trial run but it was so much fun I had to do it again!

A few more runs and I decided to call it a day. I managed to squeeze a lot of non-stop skiing into an afternoon. Snow conditions were better than expected and the trails were very fast. At least the weather is forecast to be cold this week and I expect the snow guns will be going 24/7.

Where's the snow?

Sunset on the drive home

I have one final thought...THNK SNOW!

Having Fun in the Great Outdoors!