Gunstock - 1/22/10

[speden]

Conditions: Sunny, upper 20's, no wind, packed/loose powder, in short... quite good

It's been about a month since I last went to Gunstock. On my last trip it was barely open, but now it's pushing close to 100%. I was worried it might be a little icy today, but no worries, there was zero ice. Snow was very good in the am, got a little packed down/skied off in the afternoon on the more popular trails. I moved over to the Pistol Triple in the afternoon, which was deserted if you don't count the park rats, since they just stay in the park.

Gunstock has some nice trails. Little bit of something for everyone I guess. Some long, some short, some steep, some flat, etc. Kind of reminds me of Sunapee in some ways.

Here's a bunch of pics for anyone interested:

View of the summit from the access road

Ugh, I was hoping it would be deserted this morning, but here's the ski rack before the lifts were even turning.

Here's the Tiger peak. You can see snowmaking on Stonebar at the bottom and the Tiger Steeps at the top.

The main summit

I think this is Upper Recoil

Probably Middle Recoil

This might be taken from Flintlock. Not a bad view.

More Flintlock I think

Anybody want to huck a small cliff? The building in the upper left is the top of the Tiger Triple

Here's the start of Stonebar. One of the few trails that isn't open yet. Not having this open was sending a lot of intermediates across the Derringer traverse, which got a little congested. This might be why the Tiger Steeps aren't open yet too.

Shot of the base area

The lodge. Nothing special really, but I like the trusswork in the roof.

My kids would have liked this. A tubing park. Wasn't open today so maybe it's a night time thing.

Parallax Glades. These are a nice beginner glade. It's pretty flat on top.

More Parallax Glades. It gets a little steeper near the bottom.

Here's the start of Blundersmoke Park

They have some nicely spaced features in the park. If you stop at the top of one and go full speed to the next one, you get just the right speed to make the jump. I like how they didn't chop off the sides of the jump features the way some resorts do. This lets people hit the sides or drop off onto them.

The Park has quite a few features. Probably this is the best park I've seen this year, and people were really hitting this stuff all day, doing spins and even flips off the jumps. The way it is set up seemed to inspire confidence in the park rats, so they were going for it.

 

[hiroto]

The new Parallax Glades looks nice. It is good to have more choices for introductory glades.

 

[snoseek]

Hot Damn that looks GOOD as Gunstock gets. I skied there a bit just due to proximity. Thats as good as I've ever seen Gunstock on a non-snow day. Those bumps on the lower part of the glade look nice also

 

[BLESS]

wow that does look good. I skied there once years ago at night and had a bast...is htta mt washington in the far distance from the summit pic you posted?

 

[speden]

wow that does look good. I skied there once years ago at night and had a bast...is htta mt washington in the far distance from the summit pic you posted?

Yes, I think that probably is Mt. Washington in the distance. On a clear day you can see for miles from up there.

 

[speden]

Hot Damn that looks GOOD as Gunstock gets. I skied there a bit just due to proximity. Thats as good as I've ever seen Gunstock on a non-snow day. Those bumps on the lower part of the glade look nice also

Exactly what I was thinking. The only time the snow would be much better is if it was snowing during the day. I overheard some regulars saying it was the best day they've had so far this year.

Looks like a warm snap is going to hit on Sunday night and Monday, with some possible rain. Hopefully that won't screw everything up.

 

[speden]

The new Parallax Glades looks nice. It is good to have more choices for introductory glades.

I wish more resorts would have glades like this. It's nice to ski in ungroomed conditions, provided there is enough snow. Gunstock has gotten quite a bit of snow lately, so the trail was in good shape. It seemed like I could stick my pole down a couple feet in uncompacted spots.

Seems like someone should create a special fan gun for snowmaking on glades. It should be perched up high, like 20 feet, on a pole that is covered in a plastic artificial tree trunk, so that it could sit in the middle of the glade trail without standing out. The gun would then oscillate a full 360 degrees horizontally and 45 degrees vertically, to evenly cover a wide area without requiring any grooming. A few guns like that could freshen a wide glade trail with a couple of inches of snow per night to keep them fresh.

 

[Warp Daddy]

it's been 5 yrs since i last skied Gunstock had a great day -----your reports got me wanting to go back for more

 

[speden]

Hi Warp, I hope you get back out to Gunstock sometime. It's probably changed a little in the last five years, but should still be fun. I know I enjoyed my visit there.

 

[Gunstock]

Speden,

Thanks for all the great pictures and words. Yes that is Mount Washington and we will certainly pass your words along to our park crew they have worked hard. Its been a great week, glad you were able to get up here and take a few runs with us.

 

[deadheadskier]

Is the Summit Quad liftline skiable? It does not appear to be on the trail map.

 

[Gunstock]

deadhead,

no the Panorama summit liftline is not skiable as it is very bony and rocky in some parts, Trigger does carry the line to the left and Hot Shot to the right.

 

[snoseek]

Also want to note how great the hiking is off the back of the mountain. There are tons of really nice little peaks with many different loop options. Go back and try it in the summer and you will see. As soon as you get away from Major and Belknap it's empty with lots and lots of trails.