We enjoyed blue skies, warm sunshine and NO wind atop Mt. Ellen at Sugarbush today. It was a gorgeous day to play on the mountain!
The views from the 4,083-foot summit were spectacular. It was super-clear in the morning as you looked to New Hampshire's White Mountains. Then, without warning at midday, people were mesmerized by localized clouds forming on the western edge of the ridge. The cloud spilled over a bit to the eastern side of the ridge and we skied through it for a while. It was very cool.
The Mt. Ellen side of Sugarbush opened on Friday for the season. We figured any Saturday crowds would then be split by the two mountains, so off we went to Mt. Ellen. We were right; there was no lift line at the bottom quad and just a short line at the slower Summit quad. We joined skiers in doing laps atop the snow-spackled summit area.
We skied on both natural snow trails and snowmaking trails. There was good coverage on each, although you had to watch for some rocks and grass on steeper pitches of the natural snow trails.
We enjoyed carving turns on the well-covered Rim-Run, Elbow and Lookin' Good. Upper FIS has patches of bulletproof ice showing in places, but if you planned your turns you could avoid them and have a nice run down the double-black pitch.
Our favorite run of the day was on the expert Bravo trail, which runs under the closed North Ridge Express Quad. From the feel of the snow you could tell it was all-natural snow. Small bumps had formed and it proved to be a fun, challenging run!
Sugarbush had all trails open and all lifts running today except the North Ridge Express Quad and Tommy’s Toy lifts on Mt. Ellen. Apparently they are doing maintenance on the North Ridge high-speed quad and they've had to wait for necessary parts.
It was a fantastic day to be in the mountains today! Did you get out? How was it?
