For the first Saturday of December, I headed back to the Mad River Valley for the first time in two weeks to ski at Sugarbush. The last time I was there it was opening weekend and I skied alone. Today, I was joined by none other than the world-renowned Pro Skier Darren White. It was my first time skiing with him this season and it was great to re-connect, as well as watch one of the most talented skiers this side of the Mississippi put on a clinic. The man can rip!

Pro Skier Darren White makes a mockery of Organgrinder.

It was a busy day at the resort, but lift lines were never really too long. In fact, there was practically no wait for most of our rides up. However, there were moments on the hill where there was an uncomfortable amount of people, specifically on intermediate trails. While they did have around 40 runs open today, which were serviced by four lifts, a fair amount of the terrain was better suited for advanced and expert skiers. Eleven of those open runs were off Castlerock, an expert pod, alone. So, any time you got onto an intermediate trail, especially off the Super Bravo Lift, you could find yourself around a lot of people. Still, though, the runs weren’t always busy. There were just moments where that was the case.

The snow overall was pretty good. High traffic areas, and areas prone to wind, were wind blown and fairly icy, but outside of those areas you could usually find some decent snow. The trails they had open with natural snow only were a crapshoot, but that’s not too surprising given how early it is in the season. Some of these runs had a good amount of snow, with a low concern of hitting rocks, while others were fairly rocky. Personally, I don’t mind the risk and I appreciate it when resorts let us decide if we want to ski this stuff or not, instead of just saying ‘No, you can’t ski it.’ We hit several natural snow-only trails, and a glade, and neither of us suffered any core shots. I’ll take that as a win!

Surprisingly, given how popular the run is, my run of the day was likely Jester. I found the snow to be great on it today. Some of the turns were a little slick, but aside from that I thought it skied well. That glade I mentioned earlier was probably the worst thing we skied. The entrance was nice, but once you were in there, it was pretty rocky. Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the glade.

Overall, it was a great day at Sugarbush. The runs were fun and the snow was good. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring. I may head to Jay Peak, Smuggler’s Notch, Whiteface or somewhere else. I’ll probably make the call early tomorrow morning, but I will say that Jay Peak probably has the edge here. That deep snowpack is calling my name!

Never Quit Skiing,

Lincoln

SKIING THROUGH THIN COVER AT SUGARBUSH

AN EPIC POWDER AFTERNOON AT WHITEFACE!