New Hampshire 2024

indiggio · January 24

1/23/24

It’s the wife’s birthday “week”, so decided to head up to New Hampshire to celebrate by hitting a bunch of ski slopes on Epic & Indy passes, even through she no longer skis.

Outta the house at 6am to stay ahead of any potential feeeIng rain which was successful, as we only encountered a few sprinkles along the way.

Rolled into the first stop of the trip at Crotched Mountain. Interesting little hill that would be perfect for beginners, lots of variety of trails and the diamonds aren’t really all that challenging.

The mountain is outta the way, so I ended up skiing right onto the lift every run, even with it being Primary day in New Hampshire.

Snow was in excellent condition with chalky goodness everywhere, so there was no fear of setting an edge and arcing a turn.

The whole mountain has a space theme to it, with the park even named NCC-1701 for all the Trekkies out there. Also had a Rocket Fuel IPA at the bar afterwards.

Not a super challenging place, but was able to find a fun line right down under the only lift they had running today. Just a one-under-the-gun on the Epic pass.

Edited January 24 by indiggio

PSUFrankenstein · January 24

Nice! I didn't realize you had the indy pass also

indiggio · January 25

10 hours ago, PSUFrankenstein said:

Nice! I didn't realize you had the indy pass also

Yeah, got on the list and decided to pick one up to try and hit some new places.

indiggio · January 25

1/24/24

Woke up in the Lincoln lodge to see a couple of inches fell and the cars were covered. Had already rolled the dice on going to Cannon, as I had to reserve a date and get a Cannon RFID card connected to Indy. A PITA but whatever.

Rolled up the road as snow fell into the Franconia Notch and the funneled wind started picked up, big time! Come He’ll or high winds, I was skiing the Cannon.

Ip the Peabody lift and over to the Cannonball to the peak. Why am I the only person on this lift??? It’s 9:30, there’s should be many people on here?? About halfway up, the 10-15 MPH winds were well below actual, as the lift was slowing often. Midway up I was questioning why we do this again and again? After disembarking and heading down Upper Ravine in boot-deep, blown-in powder, I remembered.

Rode up with a local who recommended Hardscrabble, so gave that a whirl. Icy, bumped, hard, thin, everything the East can throw at you, but fun nonetheless.

After a short break, headed over to the Zoomer triple area. Zoomer & Avalanche had huge whaleS waiting to be pushed, on the other side there was fresh blown-in perder that made for some fun runs!

Afternoon the snow started changing over to not snow, so headed to the bar for a couple before heading out.

Back at the lodge it was hot tub and then to the Woodstock Inn brewery for some much needed dinner.

Morning view from the Lodge…

Cannon base…

Who they worship up here…

Meatloaf dinner, feels like I ate 20lbs. of lead…

momskeeztoo · January 25

I’ve only been to NH to ski once , and Cannon was closed. Are you going to Wildcat? That’s a fun mountain. Hopefully Epic didn’t wreck it.

indiggio · January 25

9 hours ago, momskeeztoo said:

I’ve only been to NH to ski once , and Cannon was closed. Are you going to Wildcat? That’s a fun mountain. Hopefully Epic didn’t wreck it.

Thought about hitting Wildcat, but others are staying too far, so not this time.
Still on the bucket list.

trackbiker · January 25

Waterville Valley is a good option for New Hampshire since you have the Indy Pass. It skis bigger than it looks.

indiggio · January 26

1/25/24

Decided to meet ip with more of the Blue bumpers down at Sunapee, so left the condo about 6:45am to get us there about 8:30, but spicy road conditions delayed the arrival by about 10 minutes.

Arrived in the parking lot to 34’ and broken clouds with some blue sky, but the top of the mountain was socked in.

Rode ip the front express and into the cloud to flat light and horrible visibility. Much of the runs back down were half in the clouds and then in the clear near the bottom.

The runs at Sunapee are crazy wide and the snow was soft butter, nearing the slower spring condition, but you could really open them up once you got down enough to see. Ip top there we’re surprise skeet spots that would take the skis out right from under you!

We attempted some glade runs but the snow in them was the rotten, thick stuff that’s waiting to grab a ski and wrench a knee, so no trees today!

After riding all the running lifts and the majority of the open slopes, we decided to bail on Sunapee and double-dip at Pat’s Peak.

Pat’s is a tiny little family oriented slope with tons of school programs that come to the mountain in shifts. There are lessons going on everywhere!

Unfortunately the lift system is all donkeys!

The snow was slow butter here too but visibility was excellent. The runs are short and the lift rides long.

They have a nice double-diamond, Hurricane, that’s somewhat steep and all natural bumps. Needless to say that was the ROTD as the snow was soft and the bumps a hoot!

For dinner we rode up past Cannon to Rek-Lis brewing for a couple of beers and a Hot Mess burger that was delicious but not really picture worthy.

Sunapee

Pat’s Peak

indiggio · January 27

1/26/24

The reason for the trip, FIS World Cup Mogul competition at Waterville Valley, the birthplace of freestyle skiing.

Up early because of crappy wintry mix forecasted for the day. Left the condo around 6:45 to drizzle, ugh! Drizzled most of the highway ride, but sleet started mixing in and tree er getting off. During the drive up snow started mixing in and by the time we got to the parking lot, it was full-on snow. Yes!

Met up with Slim and rode bump skis all day because…

Up the lower lift and the competition run came into view, Holy F! They’re gonna rip this thing?? It’s steep as shit, foggy, snowy, sleet, drizzle.

Rode up the adjacent lift and saw a cut through over to Lower Bobby’s named after Bobby Kennedy. At the top of the run, they didn’t have a Closed sign, so we rolled on down. Truly lipstick on a pig, as the underneath was a hint above boiler with some rocks popping through.

Watched some of the women’s qualifiers and then headed down. Up the lookers left lift in search of Wayne Wong Way. Beautiful untouched 3” of powder to Wayne’s, bah closed but it looked good enough to poach.

Rolled around to check out Won’s from below to find a massive exposed cliff! Ok.

Lapped that lift since nobody was on it and there were lots of freshies to be had.

After a lunch break, headed up the bubble and since I hadn’t been to Waterville before, Slim took me up the T-bar at the top. Yup once and done.

Back down to Lower Bobby’s for the women and men’s finals and awards. Seeing these people rip these bumps on video just does not do them justice until you see them do it live and the jumps are crazy!

Headed into town later for the USA team member announcements and interviews, but didn’t stay for the fireworks.

momskeeztoo · January 27

This makes me want to go to NH.

indiggio · January 27

Reading the Blue posts about the fog and rain and visibility, when they were interviewing the USA mogul team members, one of the girls from California was asked how she liked skiing in the rain to which she replied “We never ski in the rain out in California”. Then he asked Hannah Soar what she would say to the youngsters in the crowd to help them be better to which she replied “We used to ski in the rain when we were little, so ski in the rain so you’re used to it when you get to competitions like this one”.

Ski The East!

Johnny Law · January 27

Sick trip ! You got some really cool hills in and that's pretty good conditions for NH..... .... for many years the only EC skier on FWT was from Pat's peak, iirc it has some good steeps for 800 vert or whatever.

indiggio · January 28

1/27/24

After a quick breakfast at Flapjacks in Lincoln (recommended for good grub and they open at 7am, but it gets packed shortly after), we packed up the car and checked outta The Lodge.

Since it didn’t look like rain, I couldn’t pass up the chance for another notch in the ski belt, so decided to make our way to the mighty Mohawk Mountain in Connecticut, since it’s on the Indy Pass. Not only is it another new mountain for me, but also another state, so why not?

Over hill and Dale and into the back woods, the ride sure didn’t look like there was a ski mountain anywhere close as we approached a couple miles away. We turned into the road with the mountain label and there it appeared.

It’s only like 650’ of vert, but it’s sprawling with a lot of lifts and night skiing. Rolling into the parking lot about 1pm, the main lot was full, so had to go muddin’ into the overflow lot. Luckily a guy was pulling out pretty close, so the pike wasn’t too bad.

Getting a ticket off the Indy was painless and out I went to conquer this behemoth. Unfortunately all of the lifts are fixed donkeys and with all the families and beginners causing them to stop, it made for a real trial of patience.

Up the Arrowhead and right down the namesake trail. The snow was soft as the temps were in the 40’s and the air was very moist. The drop is short from the top and the runs flatten for a long while.

Up the Arrowhead again in search of some more fun and found an Experts Only lollipop which drew me in to find Wildwood and Chute. The “Caution Mogul Field Ahead” sign on Wildwood drew me in like a magnet, hoping to find some bumps to play in. Well, it did say “Mogul” and that’s about all there was, a single push pile part way down. Screamed down and back up Arrowhead to check out Chute.

Chute wasn’t anything to write home Mom about, blew past lots of beginners fighting their way in the buttery soft snow and cruised on over to the namesake triple chair, hoping that Route 100 would be open, but no luck as they’re hurting for cold & snow too, so just cruised Mohawk again.

Since the Deer Run lift was running, I had to ride it, it’s one of the rules. Made a speed run down Pine, which for the place should be a blue instead of a green.

Being in Connecticut I wasn’t expecting a whole lot and Mohawk didn’t disappoint in that respect, but for a local mountain you slide what you got. There were packs of teens having a great time in the spring conditions, families out with their little ones playing in the snow is what it’s all about. We gripe about what Blue provides, but if you hit some of these even smaller places, you appreciate what Blue provides, warts and all!

Looking up from the base…