by capecodtele » Tue Mar 10, 2015 7:18 am
Went back to Cardigan on Sunday 3-8-15 with my son. Got there at 9 am, a few people around but not too many. We skinned up the Duke all the way up to the top and then kept going up into the snow fields to a level area below the Firescrew summit. Snow conditions on the way up were a mix of nice powder and sun crust depending on the trail exposure, but there is lots of snow. The snow fields had similar variable conditions between powder, sun crust, and wind buffed. On the way down, the snow fields skied nice and you could go anywhere you wanted..no rocks showing and only a few spots where there was blue ice on some of the drops. The Duke skied better that expected as the sun crust really wasn't a factor. There is so much snow out there...my son wiped out into a brook crossing and when trying to get out of there here was up to his chest in spots (about 3-4 feet deep). As the weather warms up and things start to corn up, there should be a long spring season for turns on the upper mountain for a while.