MadPadraic
Active member
Date(s) Skied: 3/2/2007
Resort or Ski Area: Gunstock Ski Area
Conditions: Light Powder (1 to 8 inches) on top of a flat hard surface. Very good.
Trip Report:
Our intentions were to hit Cannon by 10am, but a delayed leaving, massive traffic on 495, etc etc ruled that out. When we learned that Cannon was closed, we gave Bretton Woods a call to consider night skiing; closed. After bumming around Lincoln for a while, we decided to swing by Gunstock on the way home. Supposedly, Gunstock reported no new snow on their website, but I can't personally verify that. If so, they were negligent. We arrived there around 5pm and the conditions were excellent.
The good: No crowds and the snow was absolutely excellent. I was here on Feb 15th--after the epic storm--and the lower mountain conditions were better yesterday! We started with three runs off of the pistol chair. Blundersmoke park had nice looking features in it, which I'm sure were fun if your into that sort of thing. Even better, there was lots of deep snow around the features which made for fun runs. Pistol, the run not the chair, had been groomed too recently, and the fresh snow wasn't very deep.
We spent the rest of the night on the Ramrod chair. Every accessible run was in good shape. For once, Ramrod race was actually open to the public, and it was sweet.
Smith had the shallowest powder, but was in good shape. Phelps had nice soft snow and even some untracked powder and a beginners park with nice little jumps and some rails. Tiger was in very good shape. The snow was deep and the decent pitch made it lots of fun. The major major negative is that nets were errected between the Tiger, Ramrod, and Recoil runouts that essentially forced you to walk quite a ways back to the lift. If the Tiger chair had been open this wouldn't have mattered, but as it was, it was enough of a deterant that we only hit the run a few times. However, the snow was forgiving enough that on our last run of the night we were able to coast all the way from the Tiger run out to the main base lodge! Ricochet was the run of the night. There were some cute little bumps on the top, but not enough to build a rythm. The trail clearly hadn't been groomed, and even parts of the trail that had been tracked repeatedly were still in very very good shape. Crowds were completely non-existant.
The bad: (Minor): the parking lot was poorly plowed, and we saw cars getting stuck.(Major, but not in their power to control): My friends skis were stolen when we changed. This happened very quickly. We were in the lodge by 9:58 and I was back outside to protect the skis by 10:05. (Major, in their power to control) Guest services was empty by 10:05 and no security personnel were on hand. As a side comment here, no ski areas ever permit bringing equipment into their lodges, but it seems that they should keep their ski check open until closing. At the very least, they should leave out the ski racks so you can secure your gear with a lock, and maybe, just maybe have security staff and guest services types on hand until closing. Here, the racks had all been taken inside and the ski check was closed. I once had my Snowboard stolen at Steven's Pass, but there security was on hand. They checked video footage and dispatched staff to the parking lot to look for my board.
Other complaints. last run was at 9:47 not 10pm. The Tiger chair was down, which IMHO has their best night skiing terrain. However, they did seem to allow hiking up to it before 9 or so. Wind didn't seem to be a factor, so I assume that they decided not to run it because of the small crowd. Also, if they aren't going to run Tiger, then they should remove the ropes and nets that prevent you from cutting back to Ramrod quad. Really, they should consider adding a cutback further up the trail, even if they only open it on uncrowed nights.
Other than the theft, it was a very good night. I wish we had made it our initial destination and had a chace to enjoy the upper mountain.
Resort or Ski Area: Gunstock Ski Area
Conditions: Light Powder (1 to 8 inches) on top of a flat hard surface. Very good.
Trip Report:
Our intentions were to hit Cannon by 10am, but a delayed leaving, massive traffic on 495, etc etc ruled that out. When we learned that Cannon was closed, we gave Bretton Woods a call to consider night skiing; closed. After bumming around Lincoln for a while, we decided to swing by Gunstock on the way home. Supposedly, Gunstock reported no new snow on their website, but I can't personally verify that. If so, they were negligent. We arrived there around 5pm and the conditions were excellent.
The good: No crowds and the snow was absolutely excellent. I was here on Feb 15th--after the epic storm--and the lower mountain conditions were better yesterday! We started with three runs off of the pistol chair. Blundersmoke park had nice looking features in it, which I'm sure were fun if your into that sort of thing. Even better, there was lots of deep snow around the features which made for fun runs. Pistol, the run not the chair, had been groomed too recently, and the fresh snow wasn't very deep.
We spent the rest of the night on the Ramrod chair. Every accessible run was in good shape. For once, Ramrod race was actually open to the public, and it was sweet.
Smith had the shallowest powder, but was in good shape. Phelps had nice soft snow and even some untracked powder and a beginners park with nice little jumps and some rails. Tiger was in very good shape. The snow was deep and the decent pitch made it lots of fun. The major major negative is that nets were errected between the Tiger, Ramrod, and Recoil runouts that essentially forced you to walk quite a ways back to the lift. If the Tiger chair had been open this wouldn't have mattered, but as it was, it was enough of a deterant that we only hit the run a few times. However, the snow was forgiving enough that on our last run of the night we were able to coast all the way from the Tiger run out to the main base lodge! Ricochet was the run of the night. There were some cute little bumps on the top, but not enough to build a rythm. The trail clearly hadn't been groomed, and even parts of the trail that had been tracked repeatedly were still in very very good shape. Crowds were completely non-existant.
The bad: (Minor): the parking lot was poorly plowed, and we saw cars getting stuck.(Major, but not in their power to control): My friends skis were stolen when we changed. This happened very quickly. We were in the lodge by 9:58 and I was back outside to protect the skis by 10:05. (Major, in their power to control) Guest services was empty by 10:05 and no security personnel were on hand. As a side comment here, no ski areas ever permit bringing equipment into their lodges, but it seems that they should keep their ski check open until closing. At the very least, they should leave out the ski racks so you can secure your gear with a lock, and maybe, just maybe have security staff and guest services types on hand until closing. Here, the racks had all been taken inside and the ski check was closed. I once had my Snowboard stolen at Steven's Pass, but there security was on hand. They checked video footage and dispatched staff to the parking lot to look for my board.
Other complaints. last run was at 9:47 not 10pm. The Tiger chair was down, which IMHO has their best night skiing terrain. However, they did seem to allow hiking up to it before 9 or so. Wind didn't seem to be a factor, so I assume that they decided not to run it because of the small crowd. Also, if they aren't going to run Tiger, then they should remove the ropes and nets that prevent you from cutting back to Ramrod quad. Really, they should consider adding a cutback further up the trail, even if they only open it on uncrowed nights.
Other than the theft, it was a very good night. I wish we had made it our initial destination and had a chace to enjoy the upper mountain.
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