Mt. Sunapee - 1/6/11

[speden]

Conditions: Sunny, 20's, minimal wind, loose granular/frozen granular

Pretty good conditions at Sunapee considering the weekend melt. Coverage on the open trails was very good, surface was pretty firm but very edgeable and some trails have a fair amount of loose granular on top. Crowds were minimal with ski on lifts all day. Mostly it was passholders and schools/ski clubs there today, and one moron who paid full boat (me). Sunapee doesn't seem to do Liftopia or my ski card, but they do have daily specials. Today it was get a free lunch with a ticket, so at least I got that, and the ticket counter woman was glad to actually have someone walk up and buy a ticket today.

I'd only planned to ski a half day, but was having such a good time I didn't stop until 3:30. I borrowed my sons skis today since they are narrower and a little shorter than my all mtn skis, and they worked well on the firm surfaces. Felt like a sports car compared to my minivan like skis. I think I'll be borrowing them more often.

Some pics:

I think this was on the Sun Bowl side, probably Lower Cataract. The snow was a littler firmer over here, but I had my best runs on this side for some reason.

Nice looking bump line on Lift Line. I'm not a bumper, but I tried it near the bottom and it was softer than I expected. Saw quite a few people hitting it today and they seemed to be having a good time. Later in the day when my legs were tired I found some super easy bumps over in the beginner area on Calypso. I would like to learn to ski bumps better this season, so that was a good confidence booster for me to find some mini bumps I could practice on without fear.

I think this is probably West Side.

There's also a bump run on flying goose, but I only saw a couple tracks on it and I'm guessing these bumps are pretty icy with a dusting of snow over them.

They just hammered the Goose Bumps trail with snowmaking. I saw them taking the guns down and it's just buried with huge whales. When Sunapee lays down a base, it's got some staying power.

This is one of the summit trails, maybe Ridge. The summit trails had more loose snow than on the Sun Bowl side.

 

[4aprice]

Nice pictures. Looks like a beautiful New Hampshire winters day. Those bumps on Sunbowl look entertaining.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[WoodCore]

Nice pics!! That's alot of snow on Goosebumps, unfortunately they'll probably groom it out before they let the GP have fun on those whales.

 

[zinger3000]

Thanks for the great pics.

The first time I went to Sunapee was on a Thursday. I didn't know about Free Lunch Thursdays, so it was a nice surprise to get the meal voucher. I went there 3 weeks ago on a Thursday (Dec 16), but didn't get the free lunch because it was still early season rates.

 

[57stevey]

Nice report! I always seem to hit good conditions at Sunapee.

As far as discounts go, I have used the All Star Rewards card that comes with the Ride & Ski (CHAD) card (it must be available in other ways?) - 40% off non-holiday weekdays.

 

[speden]

Nice report! I always seem to hit good conditions at Sunapee.

As far as discounts go, I have used the All Star Rewards card that comes with the Ride & Ski (CHAD) card (it must be available in other ways?) - 40% off non-holiday weekdays.

Yeah, it's hard to beat Sunapee in southern NH for snowmaking and trail count. I wish they cost a little less during the weekdays, but I guess that's what pays for the snowmaking. I've gone on the two for one special on Wednesdays, but then it tends to be more crowded.

 

[WinnChill]

Yeah, it's hard to beat Sunapee in southern NH for snowmaking and trail count. I wish they cost a little less during the weekdays, but I guess that's what pays for the snowmaking. I've gone on the two for one special on Wednesdays, but then it tends to be more crowded.

Nice pics Speden! Magic Mondays are $45--I'm thinking of heading back up for that this week!