Today was a perfect day to take advantage of a free ticket to Loon. My dad and I arrived at 8:30 A.M. to a nearly empty parking next to the mountainside rentals building. Governor Adams base lodge was similarly vacant. My expectations of a light weekend crowd due to the holiday proved correct with ski on lift lines all day on the Kancamagus Quad with only the ticket scanners holding up the line. Ski on lifts all day on the East Basin Double and ski on past noontime on the North Peak Quad with very short waits before noon. Gondola was walk on until 9 A.M. and a four minute wait at 9:30 A.M. Given the short lift lines, the trails still exhibited quite a bit of traffic. I can not imagine this place on a weekend!
Loon is amazingly dedicated to the bumps and puts a lot of mountains to shame with the amount of bump coverage, especially considering their resorty image. That said, most of the bumps sucked this afternoon. Bumps on skier’s left of Lower Flume were firm and scrapped. Same for bumps over on Lower Rumrunner where lines were better and less scraped but still poor conditions. The short bump pitch under the Gondola on Picaroon was a cool idea for introducing bumps to the intermediate skier. But this short bump shot was also scraped and firm. Bumps under the Double Chair lacked good lines and were spread out (i.e. slip slider formed bumps) so I stayed skier’s right under the lift where the snow was softer. Triple Trouble was a treat with good lines. Bumps were on the larger size and still rather firm but not too bad. Definitely the best bumps of the day. Triple Trouble reminds me a little of Middle Hardscrabble at cannon with its twists and unrelenting bumps.
The groomers started off very firm on frozen granular conditions that seemed almost scrapped from the get go. Perhaps recent rain fell at loon? Skier traffic took its toll across the mountain but thankfully the sun was out in full force with blue cloudless skies to gradually warm things up. The snow started getting mashed potato mixed with scraped down low (very odd combination) and staying generally firm and scrapped up top. My overall impression is if people think Cannon is an icy expert mountain and they ski loon on the weekend a lot, they ought to give Cannon a shot! It is definitely no worse than Loon for scraping, that is for sure. People were saying “best conditions of the season!” They were either out of their minds or they don’t get out much.
Surprise best run of the day was Mike’s Way! What a great tree trail! This is arguably one of the better in bounds tree runs in the White Mountains. I would put it in my top five overall. You slide in via a narrow entry and then the glade opens up from Fox’s Folly to the Gondola. There are great lines everywhere to the point that not no two runs would be the same. Conditions were definitely thin with stump and rock showing but the snow was an edgable packed powder with green coloring mixed in from the trees. It was a great run. I wish I had time for two more such runs. Of all places, Loon was the last area I expected to find a quality tree run such as this. Skidder off angel street was also a pleasant surprise but not of the same quality.
Overall, today was a great day! Incredible views of the Presidentials, Bonds, Franconias, Cannon, etc. Blue skies and no clouds all day. First day without the ear flaps on the helmet this season. To top it all off, ski on lift lines at Loon on a weekend with the entire mountain open. If Loon was not so expensive and crowded, I would likely ski there more often as it does have a lot to offer.
