| Even in a season like 2006-2007, when weÆve all been sitting back, crying in our
beers ... "the weatherÆs lousy, thereÆs no snow, the skiing stinks" ... Sunday
River, which I tend to think of as ôold reliableö has been, well, Old Reliable!
Whenever Sunday River has a chance to make snow, they make snow. Lots of it.
Tons of it. Huge mounds of it. This year is certainly no exception.
On New YearÆs Eve, friends Ralph and Jeff and JeffÆs son Jake joined me at
Sunday River to find out just HOW Much snow theyÆve made in this
warmer-than-average December.
I should say right up front that Ralph and Jeff arenÆt the kind of guys to
find a nice green circle and cruiseàif they canÆt find steeps and bumps and a
challenge, theyÆre not happy.
In other words, theyÆre a ski areaÆs worst early-season nightmare, as theyÆre
expecting snow on all the difficult trailsàdifficult to ski, difficult to groom,
and difficult to keep snow on!
We started by heading up from the South Ridge lodge, and aiming for Aurora
Peak. Northern Lights was smooth and a great warm-up. A few runs down that, and
we decided to see what was happening over at Spruce Peak, Barker Mountain, and
Locke Mountain.
All three had good conditions, with snow guns keeping the trails fresh, and a
healthy wind spreading the new snow over entire trails. By lunchtime, weÆd had
enough fast runs to make a break welcome, and the pulled pork sandwiches at the
North Peak Lodge had us ready to go again.
WeÆd noticed some interesting looking conditions on Airglow, so headed up
there. Wellàall of us agreed that it was one of the best trail/snow condition
combinations weÆd seen in years! Great steeps, huge whalebacks...play time!
Constant snowmaking that gave us fresh conditions each runàwe spent the
entire afternoon there! Jeff and Ralph are both better than I am, so I was
grateful for the excuse to slow down once in a while and check up on Jake (who,
unfortunately, will soon also be better than I am!). By the time the lifts
closed, we were all happily exhausted, having spent more time and gotten in more
runs, and in MUCH better conditions, than weÆd expected.
ThatÆs pretty typical of Sunday River. YouÆll almost always find better snow
than you expect. If itÆs crowded, thereÆs a quiet corner somewhere to hide (and
with their superb lift system, you can still get back up the mountain quickly).
If itÆs cold and/or windy you can usually find a trail thatÆs in the sun and out
of the wind. Old Reliable.
So watch the weather forecasts. If you see that Sunday River has had a couple
of cold nights recently, youÆll know they have fresh snow. Get out there and
take advantage! | 
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