Gunstock 2-10-2013

Date(s) Skied: 2-10-2013

Resort or Ski Area: The Mighty G

Conditions: Chopped Powder, Packed Powder, sunny and nice

Trip Report:

Nothing like the Big G on a crowded Sunday. So the day started with me getting there at my usual 8:30am. But rather than being the first in the lift line, instead I found this on Cherry Hill Road:This was certainly not a welcoming sight to say the least! Traffic was backed up to the now foreclosed Gunstock Inn. But glass half full, I think it is great that Gunstock got a ton of business today. I ended up parking the old Alpine Ridge Lot. If Gunstock were to cut some trails there, it would be a welcome addition to the mountain! Finally I made it to the first run of the day by 9:15, which was a welcome ungroomed Recoil. There were some nice soft bumps and it made for a great first run. Meanwhile, back down at the Panorama Quad was this scene:
A wicked long line, and a longer singles line. Finally made my way back up the lift and took a few more runs off the top. The ropes did drop on Hotshot which was great!!! I did make my way over at the pistol pod for a great run on Pistol. With lines getting even longer and the Tiger chair down, I ended up taking the the ramrod quad for a quick run on an ungroomed richochet, and then after that grabbed a quick bite to eat.

After eating I made my way over to the HSQ, only to meet with significant delays on the lift. I did get one good run off of flintrock, which was bumped up nicely with soft bumps that even I could ski! A view of mount washington in the distance:





Apparently the summit lift went down by the time I got to the top, but they did resuscitate the tiger Triple. I did a run down red hat (nicely bumped up) and also Cannonball, which to me was the run of the day. I cut the day short because of the crowds and the lift problems. But the key thing is I got turns in, skied hotshot when the ropes dropped (though forgot to turn Alpine Replay so it didn't record it!), and had a switchback! Also MAJOR kudos to the grooming team for not grooming everything out even with the large crowds!

Nice report----lines at the HSQ look rough. I wonder how much of the MA driving ban yesterday contributed to some pent up demand?
I was at Whaleback today for 1st chair until about Noon and it was the busiest I've ever seen it.....lines were 10 ppl deep at some points!

xwhaler said:

Nice report----lines at the HSQ look rough. I wonder how much of the MA driving ban yesterday contributed to some pent up demand?
I was at Whaleback today for 1st chair until about Noon and it was the busiest I've ever seen it.....lines were 10 ppl deep at some points!

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Combo of both the ban, the storm, and pent up demand. Also, the biggest dumps were in the metro areas and that triggers reflexes to ski in casual metro skiers that don't get out too often. Sunday are usually not as bad as Saturdays and day after the powder days are usually not as bad as the powder days themselves. This was a rare reversal of those trends and I think the driving ban had a lot to do with it. Otherwise, Saturday would have been crazy (I would never have gone to Cannon yesterday if not for the bad) and today would have been less crazy.

I think I choose wisely going to Mount Abram. Lines were the longest they've probably ever been there but the longest line was probably 10 minutes and that only lasted one chair, singles line considerably shorter. Average non-singles line was probably about 5 minutes. Still untracked powder on the sides of the trails (right up to last run at 2pm) and loose powder every where.

How was Whaleback minus the lines? I was thinking about going there but I want to save it until they have all the glades open. Maybe next weekend...

Thanks for the TR! Looking forward to getting out there next Sunday.

Sugarloaf had insane lines late morning today too. Cars were parked on the access road all the way down to the Welcome Center. :shocked:

Yesterday the longest line was maybe 3-4 minutes. I for one hope they make this driving ban in Mass a regular thing. :lol:

riverc0il said:

How was Whaleback minus the lines? I was thinking about going there but I want to save it until they have all the glades open. Maybe next weekend...

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My comment re: lines was somewhat tongue in cheek. While it was busy for Whale standards it certainly wasn't bad at all. At most a 1-2 minute wait during the "busy" times....mostly ski right on. You need to ski Whale when everything is open otherwise I fear you may not enjoy it if you don't experience the entire hill. Really best to wait until everything is open and then compare it against others in its niche (Crotched, Pats)
Right now only the east side is open...the Face is open but it was really wind loaded with varying degrees of pow, ice, rock, grass, pp. They have an easy glade Beluga on the east side open on thin cover but you will want to ski Jawbone, YOOYM, Blowhole and even Jonah's Revenge once those get going. Because they dont make snow or groom on the west side the thaw cycles seem to kill those trails quickly. I do think however a wetter/base build snow would really help.....perhaps the Upper Valley gets the 2-4" of wet snow/sleet that is forecasted for tomorrow.
Not the best day but very skiable, especially the groomers where the base is nice and hopefully lasts them into late March. Really can't beat $15 for ski on nice packed powder when most other mtns within 1:20 of my house would have me waiting in long lines for much more $$.

Hit Gunstock yesterday one of about what seemed like 300 people. It was great. Panorama was down all day due to windholds. Tiger lift was the place to be. Redhat was easily the run of the day on Saturday. Ride on all day.
We woke up with half the family sick on Sunday so bagged it and just hung out, maybe that was a good call based on the numbers there today.
Wish I could have hit Hot Shot though that is one of my favorite trails.

Got one run in at Gunstock today.......Redhat. Very nice. But when I got back down to the Panorama, the lift was out of commission. Too many people to even consider skiing from the other lifts. Received a complimentary pass for another day. Word of warning......if you buy from Liftopia, you will not receive any form of comp if there is a mechanical problem or you are not satisfied with the conditions and return within the allowed time.

stargazer781 said:

Got one run in at Gunstock today.......Redhat. Very nice. But when I got back down to the Panorama, the lift was out of commission. Too many people to even consider skiing from the other lifts. Received a complimentary pass for another day. Word of warning......if you buy from Liftopia, you will not receive any form of comp if there is a mechanical problem or you are not satisfied with the conditions and return within the allowed time.

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Welcome to the forum Stargazer!

Nick said:

Welcome to the forum Stargazer!

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Thank you Nick. Can't wait to get back out on the slopes!