Mount Sunapee

[loafer89]

Area skied: Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire

Date skied: February 24th, 2008 from 9:30am - 3:00pm

Surface conditions: Machine groomed, packed powder, hardpacked.

Weather: saphire blue sky, no wind. Temperature 19F at 9:30am, 36F at 3:00pm

Warren and I got a bit of a late start due to a late wakeup this morning. We arrived to a very crowded mountain and had to park at the end of the second parking lot on a nice icy incline:???:. The driver next to me was discouraged by how far he had to park and was asking the parking attendant for the best way to Cannon:blink:.

Despite the auspicious start, we booted up and hoofed it to the base lodge, I handed in my coupon for free skiing for Warren and we where on our way. Our first run was off of the North Peak Triple and as soon as we got off Warren saw the enterance to Cataract Glades, so guess where we took our first run:

The snow in the glade was very firm, not icy but not very carvable either and not the most enjoyable tree skiing experience but decent considering the rain/freeze of early last week.

We took the Sunbowl Quad up and skied Stovepipe/Williamson Trail which had somewhat icy granular snow on it and if fairly flat and boring, but made Warren Happy. We rode back up to the summit and skied down Upper Ridge into Ridge Glades (firm granular snow) and down to one monster of a liftline at the Sunapee Express.

Warren and I decided to ride up using the singles line and this worked well for the next four runs that we used the quad chair for and minimized the liftline wait to 5-10 minutes. I have never done this before, but was comfortable with it as I could see my son a few chairs ahead of me each time.

Packed powder was found on Skyway Ledges where they had blown snow during the week and the view of Sunapee Lake is very good:

Packed powder was also found on Westside/Chase Ledges and Hansen-Chase with recent snowmaking. Upper and Lower Blast-Off where much the same with some of the best snow on the mountain comprised of the trails with recent snowmaking.

We skied off the North Peak Triple and down Goose bumps and Upper/Lower Flying Goose and both had groomed granular-semi packed powder snow. We skied Cataract Glade a second time to a 20 minute wait at the Snowbowl Quad.
Back to the summit again and down Bonanza/Chipmunk and then on to the South Peak Learning Area.

Warren had a desire to ski every inch of a new mountain for him, so we skied down Explorer into the Calypso Terrain Park and back up to Province /Sunnysidedown trail.

We ended our day by taking three runs in the terrain features on Jet Stream and Pipeline and I skied a box for the first time.

 

[hammer]

Nice report...sounds like you had to deal with some looong lift lines.

 

[loafer89]

Nice report...sounds like you had to deal with some looong lift lines.

Today was easily the most crowded day with the longest lift lines of the season thus far and after having Saddleback to ourselves last weekend, today felt uncomfortably crowded.

 

[jack97]

I went there the same day with my daughter and family friends, it was a last minute trip. Lines where long but the mountain has a good way of dispersing the crowds. And I was surprised on how the glades are holding up, no ice, def firm and edge-able.

The only sad part is that they plowed down the bumps on goose.

 

[hiroto]

I wonder if it is accumulation of tail end of MA vacationer and start of NH vacationer.

 

[hammer]

I went there the same day with my daughter and family friends, it was a last minute trip. Lines where long but the mountain has a good way of dispersing the crowds. And I was surprised on how the glades are holding up, no ice, def firm and edge-able.

The only sad part is that they plowed down the bumps on goose.

I wonder why the plowed them down...real shame. It's not like they need another groomed trail...:roll:

 

[jack97]

I wonder why the plowed them down...real shame. It's not like they need another groomed trail...:roll:

Last week niar event left the bumps frozen, then they had a 3" of natural. They left the lift lines bumps intact but the surface was variable, some sections had edgeable troughs and others were iced, really had to slow down and feel the surface to get good footing. I figure the bumps on goose was harder due to the pitch and that trail gets expose to wind, any natural dusting would get blown off, so it makes sense to plow them.

The other factor is that they had a big race on sunday about 200 racers, lynx was used and closed to the public. Maybe they wanted to groomed all the trials on the triple for the kids to warm up and to have an extra trail for other skiers.

If they don't re seed goose, I might go to okemo,

 

[RISkier]

Last week niar event left the bumps frozen, then they had a 3" of natural. They left the lift lines bumps intact but the surface was variable, some sections had edgeable troughs and others were iced, really had to slow down and feel the surface to get good footing. I figure the bumps on goose was harder due to the pitch and that trail gets expose to wind, any natural dusting would get blown off, so it makes sense to plow them.

The other factor is that they had a big race on sunday about 200 racers, lynx was used and closed to the public. Maybe they wanted to groomed all the trials on the triple for the kids to warm up and to have an extra trail for other skiers.

If they don't re seed goose, I might go to okemo,

Glad we didn't go to Sunapee on Sunday. Lynx is probably my favoriate trail at Sunapee and when the rest of the mountain gets too busy to tolerate you can usually find some solitude riding the Triple and skiing the trails in that area. I would not have been a happy camper if we'd driven up and found that terrain closed. Increasingly I find weekend crowds at Sunapee pretty brutal.

 

[hammer]

Glad we didn't go to Sunapee on Sunday. Lynx is probably my favoriate trail at Sunapee and when the rest of the mountain gets too busy to tolerate you can usually find some solitude riding the Triple and skiing the trails in that area. I would not have been a happy camper if we'd driven up and found that terrain closed. Increasingly I find weekend crowds at Sunapee pretty brutal.

That's why I avoided going there around Christmas week...the crowds must have been terrible when the Triple was closed.

 

[jack97]

Glad we didn't go to Sunapee on Sunday. Lynx is probably my favoriate trail at Sunapee and when the rest of the mountain gets too busy to tolerate you can usually find some solitude riding the Triple and skiing the trails in that area. I would not have been a happy camper if we'd driven up and found that terrain closed. Increasingly I find weekend crowds at Sunapee pretty brutal.

I like the triple and the bumps on goose, sometimes I just do that all day.

What surprised me was that the race was not listed on their event calender. I was there and saw the gates on lynx. We had to park in the third lot when we got in at 9:20, a ski ambassador at the lot told us about the race and the numbers. IMO, totally bush league in sunapee's part.

BTW, we got in entrance at 9:05, but the local police stopped us for speeding...... we were on the tail end of a three car line and just following traffic. The officer stopped us and gave a warning but it was more of the warning to the rest of the cars, we just got picked b/c it was convenient.

 

[RISkier]

In reference to stuff not being listed on event calanders I sense that happens quite a lot. Perhaps I don't look through web sites in sufficient detail but have had a few occassions where we've gone to mountains and found quite a bit of terrain was closed for racing. I had looked at the Sunapee web site on Saturday and saw no mention of racing on sunday. One time when we went to Wa both Smith Walton and Challenger were closed much of the day. There was no mention on the main page of the web site.

 

[jack97]

In reference to stuff not being listed on event calanders I sense that happens quite a lot. Perhaps I don't look through web sites in sufficient detail but have had a few occassions where we've gone to mountains and found quite a bit of terrain was closed for racing. I had looked at the Sunapee web site on Saturday and saw no mention of racing on sunday. One time when we went to Wa both Smith Walton and Challenger were closed much of the day. There was no mention on the main page of the web site.

Ragged, BW and Cannon does a good job of listing them. Only reason I tolerate it is that the lift system does a good job of bringing skiers up the mountain. In terms of Wa, yeah they don't list all their events but they have announced big races like the sate championships.

Sunapee has a lousy lift system... poor capacity overall. IMO, management knows it.

 

[SnowRider]

Word from a guy from the mountain was Sunday was record breaking sales. That mountain gets more popular by the day.

They need a high-speed in the sunbowl area and it would have been nice if there exspansion proposal didnt get shot down.

But really, look for this area to develop a ton in the next few years.

 

[Puck it]

Word is that they are bringing a high speed quad from Okemo to replace the Sun Bowl Quad which came from Okemo also. No timeline though.

 

[RISkier]

Word is that they are bringing a high speed quad from Okemo to replace the Sun Bowl Quad which came from Okemo also. No timeline though.

I know that putting a high speed quad in the Sun Bowl has been discussed. It's probably needed to disperse skiers a bit. I'm not thrilled cause I think the absence of a high speed lift in that area keeps folks on the front side. I've heard folks say they never ski off any lift at Sunapee other than the high speed quad. If you're a groomer skier Sunapee has lots of great terrain and, in my opinion, it's very well run. It's the closest semi "big" mountain to us but it's really gotten to be a zoo on weekends. We've not gone this year and my guess is we'll not go unless conditions still look pretty good in late March or early April.

 

[jack97]

Last year, the sunbowl was service by a fix triple. This year, I heard they put in new gears in the lift b/c it kept on stalling last year and they had to run it slower. Also, they replaced the chairs (prolly from okemo) to make it a quad.

It's self serving, I wouldn't mind a hs quad in the bowl, the only run I would do is the bumps at lift line. If the bump field gets scattered w/ newbies, I can pick a new line, since they seed a wide bump trail (which is a good thing).

 

[Puck it]

What are you talking about? That quad has been for quite a few years. The whole lift came from Okemo. I believe it was a double in the Sunbowl.

From website: On July 1, 1998, Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, acquired the first lease ever given by the State of New Hampshire to operate Mount Sunapee. That summer, the Summit Triple was replaced with a high-speed quad, and the Sun Bowl lift was replaced with a quad chair lift.

 

[jack97]

What are you talking about? That quad has been for quite a few years. The whole lift came from Okemo. I believe it was a double in the Sunbowl.

I stand corrected, yeah they replaced it two years ago. Last season, my time was cut short due to an injury, so last year has been a black hole. Also, knocking my head on those bumps isn't my memory any good either.

BTW, it was a triple, I started going there on a regular basis for the past four seasons, it might have been a double previous to this.

 

[Puck it]

Dude, Read the post from their website. It was put in in 1998. Did you hit your head as an injury? I have going there since 2000 and it was never a triple.

 

[jack97]

Dude, Read the post from their website. It was put in in 1998.

Dunno, the section of the writeup doesn't make sense. It said the sun bowl lift was replaced with a quad chair lift. I think its a typo.


"On July 1, 1998, Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, acquired the first lease ever given by the State of New Hampshire to operate Mount Sunapee. That summer, the Summit Triple was replaced with a high-speed quad, and the Sun Bowl lift was replaced with a quad chair lift. Snowmaking capacity increased and we purchased three new grooming vehicles and a Pipe Dragon for grooming the half-pipe. A halfpipe and a terrain park were created to enhance the skiing/riding experience."



here's their history page;

http://www.mtsunapee.com/mtsunapeewinter/aboutsunapee/history.asp