Sugarloaf Mountain Patch (Blue Triangle) — c. 1970s

A vintage Sugarloaf ski patch from Carrabassett Valley, Maine, estimated to date from the 1970s, cut as a triangle on deep blue with a blue merrowed border — a white outlined peak with a jagged snowline near its apex, SUGARLOAF in white caps across the base. The triangle is the mountain. There is nothing else on it and nothing else needed.

That triangle is the mountain itself. Sugarloaf runs above the treeline — the Snowfields, the only lift-served above-treeline skiing in the East, where there are no trails because there is nothing to cut a trail through.

On the right day it is the closest thing to western skiing available in this part of the country. On the wrong day it is a wind tunnel with ice in it.

Above the treeline there is no reference for anything. No trees to judge pitch against, no edges to the trail, no indication of speed. People who have skied their whole lives come off the Snowfields genuinely rattled the first time.

Embroidered on twill, merrowed edge. Photos are the condition report.