First Trip to Snowies/Albany for some Hoosiers

[Walleye65]

Heading to Albany Lodge for first trip to Snowies. Few intermediate riders on 144 Summits. Ride trial for a while..jump off when we see an open area...smart enough not to venture too far off without GPS. We stay away from the steep as we have no avi gear. Have a handfull of fly-in/rent Togwotee trips under our belts but first time hualing our own sleds out. Any advice ? Does Albany Lodge sell trial stickers ? They have trail maps ? Does lodge serve reasonable breakfasts and dinners ? Any cell service at lodge ? Any and all words of advice/wisdom welcome. Riding March 5, 6, 7.

 

[pitchervy]

Yes on the trail stickers, maps and food. The AT&T service is sparse, but works. The lodge has WIFI, but seems to be fed by 2800 baud dial up...(slow)
Great place to ride for newer out west riding. Don’t hesitate to trail ride over to Rendezvous in Ryan Park for lunch and gas. VG food and nice people. Brad in the Rental shop at Albany is very helpful as well. Enjoy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SRXSRULE]

Heading to Albany Lodge for first trip to Snowies. Few intermediate riders on 144 Summits. Ride trial for a while..jump off when we see an open area...smart enough not to venture too far off without GPS. We stay away from the steep as we have no avi gear. Have a handfull of fly-in/rent Togwotee trips under our belts but first time hualing our own sleds out. Any advice ? Does Albany Lodge sell trial stickers ? They have trail maps ? Does lodge serve reasonable breakfasts and dinners ? Any cell service at lodge ? Any and all words of advice/wisdom welcome. Riding March 5, 6, 7.

Yes they sell trail passes, and have maps. Cell service is OK, better then it use to be. They also sell gas there. They do serve food all day, pricing is fine, food is pretty good, service is ok at best. Breakfast usually doesnt start until 8:00am, which seems like about 2 hours later then it should be.

If you end up renting any sleds from them, take a video of the entire sled showing every mark and ding on it. They have been known to make "mistakes" and charge people for damage that was already there.

Groomer leaves from albany so you normally have smooth trails in the morning. Should stay better since your riding mon-wed.

You might also consider taking one day and trailering around through centennial and go unload up top at the Green Rock parking lot. 20min drive or so. This is just an option for something different, you unload at 10,000 ft and are closer to some of the better riding areas. The trail ride up and back to albany for 3 days gets old IMO.

 

[Walleye65]

Great info and thanks for the replys! Not sure we will run into the soft over the hood type powder...and many areas may be beat down after weekend..but sounds like area has a lot of snow regardless.

 

[SRXSRULE]

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-106.32227487792969&lat=41.39506980922846#.WpbfHK6nHIU

This is a good weather link for an "on the mountain" forecast.

You will also find out the wind never stops blowing there. 30mph is pretty much normal. Albany is more sheltered from the wind, but once you get up top its windy almost every day.

 

[Walleye65]

Wow there's a lot of sleds at Albany Lodge !! Just peaked in on webcam and there's 12+ rentals warming up and another 15 ish sleds in front of hotel...(plus a bunch i'm, sure not in can view).
I don't see a lot of new snow before Monday..be pretty beat up by then i'm sure...but we are still pumped !

 

[SRXSRULE]

Wow there's a lot of sleds at Albany Lodge !! Just peaked in on webcam and there's 12+ rentals warming up and another 15 ish sleds in front of hotel...(plus a bunch i'm, sure not in can view).
I don't see a lot of new snow before Monday..be pretty beat up by then i'm sure...but we are still pumped !

Thats nothing, there is a large parking lot right before the lodge that will have 30-40 trucks in it and the lot up top at greenrock will have 150 trucks in it the next 3 days.

With warm temps and sun this weekend its going to get beat down. Just take a GPS with you and get a mile or 2 away from the trails and you will find plenty of untracked snow in the trees and north facing slopes.