Loon South Peak Expansion

[SteezyRob]

Never skied that glade. Any good? I'm generally not in favor of giving up gladed terrain for trails. Guessing it's not reliably open? Maybe that's behind the thought process of cutting a trail through it.

I've never been on it but it didn't really look anything special to me. Basically a straight shot, but decent length. As Zand said, South tends to struggle for snow. They said it is to increase downhill capacity, and since Undercut isn't open much they figured they could probably get away with just clearing out the rest of it.

 

[Smellytele]

Undercut was one of my favorite glades at loon. Not that there are many. Challenging.

 

[chuckstah]

By Loon standards it's a good long glade, but yeah South Peak is tough for good natural. Need more glades on North Peak.

There are many glades on N. Peak, ya just have to find them. (And avoid patrol, technically out of bounds). Undercut is really fun, but when I skied there quite often a number of years ago it was open zero to maybe 10 days a year.

 

[Zand]

There are many glades on N. Peak, ya just have to find them. (And avoid patrol, technically out of bounds). Undercut is really fun, but when I skied there quite often a number of years ago it was open zero to maybe 10 days a year.

Yeah Loon's patrol isn't very forgiving on skiing the woods from what I've heard. Which is why most of us here vastly prefer Cannon (when the snow is good).

 

[chuckstah]

By Loon standards it's a good long glade, but yeah South Peak is tough for good natural. Need more glades on North Peak.

There are many glades on N. Peak, ya just have to find them. (And avoid patrol, technically out of bounds). Undercut is really fun, but when I skied there quite often a number of years ago it was open zero to maybe 10 days a

Yeah Loon's patrol isn't very forgiving on skiing the woods from what I've heard. Which is why most of us here vastly prefer Cannon (when the snow is good).

Yeah, I prefer Cannon as well. I at least use my Indy days if not more. Miss the $25 resident days.

 

[SteezyRob]

Yes the Loon sidecountry looks very interesting. Would love explore one day.
Surely it can't compare to Cannon, though!

 

[chuckstah]

Yes the Loon sidecountry looks very interesting. Would love explore one day.
Surely it can't compare to Cannon, though!

Black mountain traverse is great. Once you get to the goods.

 

[Smellytele]

There are many glades on N. Peak, ya just have to find them. (And avoid patrol, technically out of bounds). Undercut is really fun, but when I skied there quite often a number of years ago it was open zero to maybe 10 days a

Yeah, I prefer Cannon as well. I at least use my Indy days if not more. Miss the $25 resident days.

Up to $45 for residents day this coming season

 

[Razor]

Always liked the glades at Loon. Ones like Mike's and Bucksaw are short but reasonably challenging. Walking Boss Woods, when open from the top, is a nice long glade that is fairly interesting. Always wanted to check out off trail to skier's left on Speakeasy but didn't want to go in there alone.

 

[machski]

I think what they are doing is trimming out the overgrowth of lower Undercut. When South first opened, the lower part was much cleaner and was a nice extension (normally, it dumps on Cruiser well above Escape Route entrance. But at one time you could ski it to down below that point on Cruiser and while not as steep, was a lot of fun). So I assume they are thinning that and then connecting to the new complex across and below Cruiser to keep it going. But yes, it doesn't tend to load up or hold snow as well as North Peak.

Some of the "OB" lines on North are actually within the resort footprint in between North and Gondi peaks. Damn good, some with mandatory air (what I used to call the fingers off the wrap around had that and were quite tight. Those are now roped OB at the access point). Still some not roped of you know where to look, but a lot of deadfall from last year in my favorite lines that has really hung up the good parts.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

I think what they are doing is trimming out the overgrowth of lower Undercut. When South first opened, the lower part was much cleaner and was a nice extension (normally, it dumps on Cruiser well above Escape Route entrance. But at one time you could ski it to down below that point on Cruiser and while not as steep, was a lot of fun). So I assume they are thinning that and then connecting to the new complex across and below Cruiser to keep it going. But yes, it doesn't tend to load up or hold snow as well as North Peak.

Some of the "OB" lines on North are actually within the resort footprint in between North and Gondi peaks. Damn good, some with mandatory air (what I used to call the fingers off the wrap around had that and were quite tight. Those are now roped OB at the access point). Still some not roped of you know where to look, but a lot of deadfall from last year in my favorite lines that has really hung up the good parts.

i've always eyed a few potential entrances on sunset off to the right before it bends.

 

[deadheadskier]

Loon has some super aggressive don't ski here signage. At least they did 4-5 years ago when I was last there. Seems quite lame and not something I've seen elsewhere in New England.

 

[chuckstah]

i've always eyed a few potential entrances on sunset off to the right before it bends.

Good stuff, gnarly. Continues across thHaulback all the way down.

 

[Zand]

Loon has some super aggressive don't ski here signage. At least they did 4-5 years ago when I was last there. Seems quite lame and not something I've seen elsewhere in New England.

Wachusett takes the case on threatening signage for skiing the woods, threatening arrest due to "old trees".

Which is a shame because they have some surprisingly fun pine groves to ski off the summit. And obviously not sitting in jail because of it.

 

[Granite1]

I don't think this will have much of an effect on crowding yet. When they finally build up the base area at south, that will bring more crowds for sure. This seems to be a similar size to the Seven Brothers area so pretty much just something to tie that parking lot in more than anything.

South Peak is the best kept secret in New England as far as base areas go. Usually can park within feet of the lift with access to nice uninterrupted 1500 vert cruisers as opposed to the main base which is generally a giant shitshow. It will be sad when they finally truly build it up and more people start going over there.

I agree, this is not going to go down well. The last place experienced skiers need to have hundreds of beginners.

 

[Granite1]

The plan is the build facilities over there to support a new learning area.

The plan is to have more Massholes spend millions at an already crowded ski area just 90 minutes of north of Boston.

 

[Granite1]

That was the talk in connecting to Riverwalk someone mentioned above.

I'm ok with connecting the north side of the Pemi to Lincoln. I'm not ok with a beginner area over there. Keep South Mountain for intermediate to advanced skiers and develop more trails/lifts/lodges for sure, a place for aspiring beginners to go to some day.

 

[machski]

i've always eyed a few potential entrances on sunset off to the right before it bends.

You are correct. Mid 2000's for whatever reason they were not as strict, wasn't roped and Loon had couple years in a row where they got hammered with snow. Great terrain, though those entrances are single track traverses out to the "front" of North. Remember back then they even dropped the rope and allow you to ski Upper Gondiline off of the top of Angel Street. That is a fun run with enough snow and all those boulders to launch off of.
I saw a few thinking Undercut in media think thus is becoming a pure trail but I have seen zero mention of snowmaking added to it so doubt it. The only actual "trail" at Loon without snowmaking is Triple Trouble, which in East Basin gets and holds the limited snow they get to be skiable. Undercut doesn't hold snow well as is, a fully cut open trail would be open maybe a week's worth of days a year. It hasn't been much more than that as is lately.

I know there was a plan to have a new trail come off the top and straight out above Cruiser to then come around gently and link into Cruiser after the top turn section to give a green way off the top of South. They didn't mention that but wonder if that is next up. Newbies can go up Lincoln and across Tote quad straight into Bear Claw, but they would need to bus back to South Base after from the main side as of now.

 

[SteezyRob]

i've always eyed a few potential entrances on sunset off to the right before it bends.

Yes if you look at satellite images you can see several chutes. I believe these are called the "Pine Chutes" but I could be wrong as I don't ski Loon often.

 

[IceEidolon]

SR went with SMI for the automated fans on lower Spruce this summer and Loaf is doing the same on lower comp hill I believe. Unsure of Loon's plans, but in the East Boyne has been mostly SMI for fans and HKD for everything else. I know SR tested the fully auto Klik Hydrants in Barker Basin a few years back. Don't think they have stuck with those however.

At least it's not likely to be TechnoAlpin!

The Klik system is really slick, and I'm a fan of using industry standard control components over proprietary hardware even if there's a size or initial purchase cost penalty. There's definitely an argument to be made that manual Klik is good enough, though. I'd be curious why they haven't stuck with Klik.