Sugar 12-5-08

[BaZinGa]

The morning started early, but the lack of sleep was well worth getting in a few runs with the entire mountain to ourselves! 2slikstix & I met up with Hardware for some pretty awesome 'early' season turns at Sugar.



Hardware on 1st chair:









The slowest eva lift ride up:









The $$$ shot:





Hardware & 2slikstix at the top to Tom Terrific:





And of course a shout out to...





The conditions were pretty good, but variable throughout: there was POWder, corn, a few icy spots and a couple of death cookies (near the top of TT). TT started off pretty nice for the morning, however a lot of the good stuff was scraped away by early afternoon. All you huckers will be happy to know that there were at least 2 or 3 good launch points down TT.



We found an extremely deep and soft base at the bottom of TT (~ 3 feet from what I recall - 2stix will have to confirm as I was retrieving a ski from the powder monster...)



The crowds were non-existent... we skied onto the lift each time down with no problems. After lunch a few more people showed up, but still no wait for a chair!



Pretty much the only bummers for the day were:

- snow guns a blastin' all day (note: full face protection a must - unless you like ice exfoliation!) [how 'bout making some snow on Big Red instead ]

- and the dude that confiscated our lunch time brews! (apparently there's a no brown-bagging clause since there's a bar upstairs... not that we had any such brown-bags. So note to self save the cans for the lift! Good thing the van was stocked )



I'm giving today an 8 out of 10 for pretty darn awesome early season conditions with a lot of pow to spray around. 2slikstix should have a few more pictures and some video footage to post later...

[codyblank]

very nice. lovin the cloud photos.

[ut_hucker]

Those are really nice pics. I can't believe they haven't made snow on Big Red, especially with as much natural as they have had.

[2slikstix]

The day started at 3am when my alarm went off. Stoked for some powder and to meet some new members, I began the drive. Picked up Drew (NCSUSking) in Raleigh, then it was hammer down to the west. After a pitstop and biscuit in Wilkesboro, we arrived at Sugar arount 7:10. Guns ablaze on the mtn.

Rockstar parking as we were 1st in the lot. Hardware showed up within minutes. We got our tix as soon as they opened the windows, and had first chair by 8:10. Awesome conditions were the order of the day. Not a foot of fresh, but loose powder on top of groom. Even Tom Terrific had been groomed. We got first tracks on that, and tore it up top to bottom all day. My new skis did me proud on the hardpack and groom. Skiing with friends is alot of fun.

We skiied till about 2 pm, till the legs burned. At lunch, the Lunchroom manager asked us to turn in our beers, (should have known better), but they do still provide trash cans under the lift for the hammee throw of empties.

Drove down and got a christmas treeand headed back to the flatlands.

AWESOME DAY. Id give it an 8 out of 10 stix as well.

Great to meet you Hardware and NCSU. Well do it again!!









Hardware







NcsuSking on Tom Terrific

[2slikstix]

Drew on Teh only open Black, Tom Terrific.



Hardwares turns











Sugar is remodeling the entrance to the Lodge.

[davidski]

Really nice TR , I should still stop at Sugar some of the time



The groom with a nice top layer looked good everywhere and Tom Terrific usually has a glaze and a sheen -- it's pretty unique to catch it under those conditions, that must have been fun

[bfeller]

Nice TR. We need to make the run from Raleigh in the next few weeks for some weekday skiing. I just couldn't make the trip yesterday - I had a seies of meetings with the contractors finishing the repair to my house. Things on that project are ready to hit the home stretch.

[BaZinGa]

@bfeller 157267 wrote:Nice TR. We need to make the run from Raleigh in the next few weeks for some weekday skiing. I just couldn't make the trip yesterday - I had a seies of meetings with the contractors finishing the repair to my house. Things on that project are ready to hit the home stretch.



Sounds good! I like M-Th trips (Tues./Wed. trips to Beech will be bomber when they get a little more open... right now it's hard to pass Sugar for less runs)

[bfeller]

Anyone up for a day trip out of Raleigh this coming week on either W/Th/Fri?

[marzski]

@2slikstix 157182 wrote:The day started at 3am when my alarm went off. Stoked for some powder and to meet some new members, I began the drive. Picked up Drew (NCSUSking) in Raleigh, then it was hammer down to the west. After a pitstop and biscuit in Wilkesboro, we arrived at Sugar arount 7:10. Guns ablaze on the mtn.

Rockstar parking as we were 1st in the lot. Hardware showed up within minutes. We got our tix as soon as they opened the windows, and had first chair by 8:10. Awesome conditions were the order of the day. Not a foot of fresh, but loose powder on top of groom. Even Tom Terrific had been groomed. We got first tracks on that, and tore it up top to bottom all day. My new skis did me proud on the hardpack and groom. Skiing with friends is alot of fun.

We skiied till about 2 pm, till the legs burned. At lunch, the Lunchroom manager asked us to turn in our beers, (should have known better), but they do still provide trash cans under the lift for the hammee throw of empties.

Drove down and got a christmas treeand headed back to the flatlands.

AWESOME DAY. Id give it an 8 out of 10 stix as well.

Great to meet you Hardware and NCSU. Well do it again!!



/QUOTE]



Great TR . . . so jealous. We are heading that way Friday for the weekend. So people can get on a chair before the official opening time of 9am? We're staying at Smoketree so can easily get up and out early.