Gunstock 2-22-2014

[Bostonian]

Date: 2-22-2014

Location: Gunstock Mountain - Gilford, NH

Conditions: Crusty, Soft, Spring

Trip Report: So today after weighing in the options of where to go today, I settled for being back at my home hill. Let me say that it was packed today, although the mountain skied very well. I only got in 11 runs, as I was again pressed for time today, plus Hotshot kicked my ass. But it kicked it in a good way! I began the day with hitting recoil, which has quickly turned into one of my favorite runs to start out. The ice was shimmering on the trees from the R#!n from last night, but luckily the damage wasn't too bad. More concerning was the warm temps, hitting in the high 40's... Basically, I hit all the runs from the top (including Hotshot), Red Hat (didn't do the bumps), Cannonball, and Ricochet (small bumps were hit). Now clearly, because the crowds were in full force, I only got 11 runs in today... But by far the highlight was Hotshot. The top was ice and crust, but once you got around that part the bumps started to soften and yes I did make it down. Once I got mid way down I started to feel the bumps alittle more, and I have to say that is by far the best trail on the hill. I wish I had more time, as I would have taken it twice knowing how to ski it a little better this time around. The best part is they did manicure it from last year (no pucker brush) and it ski'd wicked nice! I just wish I was a little more confident on the bumps!

Anyway here are some pictures:

Mount Washington:

Ice on trees:

More ice:

Lift Line goodness:

Obligatory summit pic

Summit from Tiger Tote Road

And now for the good stuff! Hotshot in it's glory!

Hotshot 1 - Looking down from the about 1/5 the way down:

Hotshot 2 - Soft bumps make me happy:

Hotshot 3 - This is where I got lost my legs a little, since it was a bit steep, lots of rock outcroppings and what not:

 

[Edd]

I skied there 8 days ago and was pretty keen to hit Hot Shot but it was nearly the only trail closed, even though several glades were open and skiing well.

Friends texted me from BW today and said the holiday crowds were insane.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[xlr8r]

I was there also on Saturday and had a very good day overall. I slept in till 8am as I figured the weather on Friday would make everything frozen first thing in the morning, I would rather get some extra sleep and let the sun work some of its magic. Got to the mountain at 10am to find the only parking left down at alpine ridge (interesting to see the remains of alpine ridge). So after booting up at the car, waiting in line to take a bus to the lodge, and waiting in line to redeem my groupon ticket, I was finally able to get in the panorama express line at 11am.

The place was crowded, more than I would have liked, but that was mostly expected. The singles line for panorama varied through the day with no consistency, sometimes there would be 40 people in the singles line, sometimes I would be the only one. So I was able to rack up a lot of runs even with the crowds. It was beautiful for the first few hours as the ice was showering off the trees up top. The icing did lead to a delayed opening up of the natural trails and glades for safety. Once open in the afternoon I did a few laps on hotshot, and my personal favorite of the day recoil glades. They kept panorama open an extra half hour which was nice, and then I moved over to the pistol and tiger areas for a few runs at dusk. It was interesting skiing the glades off of pistol with low light, but I wasn't the only one doing it. Saw a beautiful sunset at the top of tiger, and decided to call it a day at around 6pm after 26 total runs.

In total it felt like the first day of spring skiing, with nice hero snow in areas that were drenched with sun. Lots of families were out there for the day, the rentals line looked unbearably long. Now I do not know if this is just the result of the holiday week crowds being inexperienced, or some other reason, but I never had a single lift ride all day that did not stop or slow down multiple times. It got very annoying, and other people were noticing it as well. I understand one in a while the lift will stop or slow for accidents and whatnot, but this was about every 1-2mins on every lift. Is this typical of gunstock? Do they have the most over cautious trigger happy lifties?
It was my biggest gripe of the day, even more so than the crowds.

 

[Bostonian]

I was there also on Saturday and had a very good day overall. I slept in till 8am as I figured the weather on Friday would make everything frozen first thing in the morning, I would rather get some extra sleep and let the sun work some of its magic. Got to the mountain at 10am to find the only parking left down at alpine ridge (interesting to see the remains of alpine ridge). So after booting up at the car, waiting in line to take a bus to the lodge, and waiting in line to redeem my groupon ticket, I was finally able to get in the panorama express line at 11am.

The place was crowded, more than I would have liked, but that was mostly expected. The singles line for panorama varied through the day with no consistency, sometimes there would be 40 people in the singles line, sometimes I would be the only one. So I was able to rack up a lot of runs even with the crowds. It was beautiful for the first few hours as the ice was showering off the trees up top. The icing did lead to a delayed opening up of the natural trails and glades for safety. Once open in the afternoon I did a few laps on hotshot, and my personal favorite of the day recoil glades. They kept panorama open an extra half hour which was nice, and then I moved over to the pistol and tiger areas for a few runs at dusk. It was interesting skiing the glades off of pistol with low light, but I wasn't the only one doing it. Saw a beautiful sunset at the top of tiger, and decided to call it a day at around 6pm after 26 total runs.

In total it felt like the first day of spring skiing, with nice hero snow in areas that were drenched with sun. Lots of families were out there for the day, the rentals line looked unbearably long. Now I do not know if this is just the result of the holiday week crowds being inexperienced, or some other reason, but I never had a single lift ride all day that did not stop or slow down multiple times. It got very annoying, and other people were noticing it as well. I understand one in a while the lift will stop or slow for accidents and whatnot, but this was about every 1-2mins on every lift. Is this typical of gunstock? Do they have the most over cautious trigger happy lifties?
It was my biggest gripe of the day, even more so than the crowds.

I had noticed that the lift kept on stopping for a while... I don't know whether this was an issue with the tower sensors (getting a little out of whack, with the ice dropping off in the sun) or if it was really just a lot of families... But it was definitely a pain in the ass. In terms of crowds, they were very big, also I believe there was something going on at Pistol too (event wise), which added to the numbers. I am happy though they had big numbers, since hopefully it will translate to additional revenue to help with operations

 

[wa-loaf]

I understand one in a while the lift will stop or slow for accidents and whatnot, but this was about every 1-2mins on every lift. Is this typical of gunstock? Do they have the most over cautious trigger happy lifties?
It was my biggest gripe of the day, even more so than the crowds.

I was there Saturday with the kids. We were at the top of Panorama for about 10 minutes waiting for some friends to catch up. In that time period they had to stop the chair 3 times for people failing the dismount in one way or another. I think the end of vacation and a warm sunny day just brought all the amateurs out.

It was my first time there and despite the somewhat long lift lines they seemed to do a really good job dealing with the crowds. I did notice the lifties slowed the Pistol lift down often when little kids were getting on.

My biggest gripe was that they wanted 50 cents for an empty cup even after I bought a milk. Props for free stickers! I refuse to put any stickers on anything if they want me to pay for them (Talking to you Pats Peak ...)

 

[wa-loaf]

And we also found a Porcupine just hanging out in a tree at the edge of the trail.