No Bull Ski Report for Ascutney Ski Resort:

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

 

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Is Ascutney Mountain Falling apart?

Report from below the Doogie line...

My daughter had an MVC Jones Series (J4) race Monday at Ascutney, so as I've been trying to do all season, I purchased a ticket and skied.

Unfortuantely, not much was open. Well, the report says 40 of 57 trails, but, I think those 17 closed trails represent 17 of the 20 or so legitimate ways to get from the top to the bottom. Most of my runs were on Lower Exhibition and Screaming Eagle (the race trail), or off the top it was Gateway and Cloudspin dropping into The Face to get to Screaming Eagle. All groomed frozen granular runs. I think Upper and Lower Snowdance were the trails to skiers right side of the mountain that were open and skiable. And thats about it.

But, oh so many sweet looking trails. Lots of crisscrossing trails, and short runs here and there, but everything looked challenging, interesting and steep. With good coverage and everything open, you could easiliy spend a day here and not get bored. I was surprised to see that the upper part of the detachable quad lift line was actually a trail with some pretty gnarly rocks sticking out of the ground, tree stumps and the remains of the trees all over the place, and steep! Such a shame it wasn't open.

The Face was typical of some of the open trails - very wide and steep, but only skiable for about 20-30 feet along the left side, just enough to get to the start area on Screaming Eagle. God help any poor soul who went down there who wasn't involved in the race becuase they were going to run smack into 150 kids and their gear.

Overall, the mountain reminded me of Magic. Maybe not as tall, and probably a bit more compact, but similar with respect to unique, challenging and interesting trails.

On the down side, it's really sad to see Ascutney deteriorate. This is the 3rd year I've been there and each year the base area facilities slip further into disrepair. At one time someone put some good thought and planning into the facilites, and I suspect they were very nice and functional, but now they just seem to be waiting to implode and disintegrate. The lack of maintainence extends to the mountain as well. Lifts shacks crumbling, signs falling down, tower pads torn and falling apart, lifts missing chairs, the high speed quad never runs more than 600 fpm, and on and on and on.

I'd definietely like to get back there after some good dumps of snow - I'm sure it would be a lot of fun to ski the whole mountain.

 

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