Sign of the Times?
 

Just returned from a five day visit over the New Year's holiday. Enjoyed the fireworks in Meredith. My son-in-law and grandson had a great few days at Gunstock. Skiing, tubing, et cetera. The mountain was pretty crowded for the few days. Interesting with the economy in the condition its in. Also saw a for sale sign in front of the Boston Seafood Shack at the Weirs. Their sign says see you next spring, but the for sale sign stands in front of the building. And Michael's Restaurant was pretty quiet. It was hard to tell whether it's open or closed. It's going to be interesting to see how many businesses open for the coming 2009 season. It's clear many of the building projects have stopped. And read a rumor that Burlwood may not open for the season. The owners have talked about remodeling the building, but others think it's gone for good. I guess we'll find out in May. Let's hope the Weirs manages to get through what could be a difficult 2009.

My grandparents have had a stall at Burlwood for as long as I can remember (at least 20 years, I think). The cost has become too much for them, however, and they are searching for an alternate location. If they are representative of other tenants, I can understand why the management would consider closing.

Remembering The Weirs....
 

It has a very storied history, and will be here long after many of us are not.
Long Live The Lakes Region!
Love,
T

Crowds
 

The larger crowds at Gunstock seemed to match the larger attendance at pre-season ski sales this fall. Although I prefer to have the mountain "to myself", I think it's great to see so many folks out there enjoying a wonderful sport.

skiing
 

Funny I would log on and find this thread.
Went to Wildcat yesterday (1/4/09, Sunday) and found no crowd at all (although there is seldom a crowd at Wildcat) and most of the place in a state of dis-repair. Just about all of the wooden pegs on the ski racks are broken off, and the racks themselves are all rotted.
The bathrooms...my god, no thank you.
And, we found it strange that even with very cold temps for three or four days, there was little terrain open, and the snowmaking guns were silent.
Finally we asked a young looking ski patrol employee what the deal was. He
said that although the mountain is state owned, a private company leases it and runs the ski operations. No money to repair anything. And strict orders to halt all snow making. Don't know if this is accurate info, but it made sense.
Also went to Waterville on Sunday December 21st. Perfect, perfect conditions. Fresh powder, and it fell all day...but just noone there.

2009 is going to make 2008 look like "the good old days". It's going to get real bad.

Canon
 

I went to Canon on Friday afternoon. Went skiing for 4 hours and still feeling the pain today. No lift lines at all. Small crowd it seemed. The snow guns were going all day, so you'd hit that snow but there were some pretty treacherious ice underneath.
Oh, and you'd think this day in age that some ski area would have invented a non slippery floor inside their buildings. Walking in ski boots on the floors is like walking on ice. Always fun to sit back and watch someone carrying a tray of food across the floor.

sign of the times
 

Yes, Gunstock was very crowed both 1/3 and 1/4...we left at 1:30 on Sat and 11 on Sun due to the slopes getting croweded quickly, the limited terrain for the volume resulting in icy conditions before lunch, and the wind and cold. The first few hours were very good, however, and we are hoping that the Terrain Park and other runs open soon to spread out the crowds.

Gunstock was making tons of snow and grooming all weekend to expand available terrain, so it should be much better this weekend.

One new thing is the hand-held scanner. When the lines grew the scanners weren' used as they needed to keep folks moving. And the scanner catches our family's passes maybe 50% of the time. Should be interesting during Feb vacation weeks! ;-)

GB

As far as I know the Mt is not state owned.It resides in the White Mt.National Forest and is leased from them.On their website it says that Wildcat is one of the last vestiges of independent family owned New Hampshire ski areas.

The down economy was reflected at Cannon last week. I figured there would be lift lines and crowds as it was a school vacation week.

Wildcat Mountain
 

A little further East, I was at Sunday River last week. It was crowded but they had enough lifts and trails open so you didn't feel it. I made my plans late this year (a couple weeks before Christmas) and when I called around to several of my favorite resorts the only condo I could get for that week was at Sunday River or Smuggs; everyone else was full.

They blew snow the whole week but it was still treacherously icy on our last day there. Also, wind shut the lifts down (all of them) for 1 1/2 days while we were there. Tons of people pulling in for the weekend on Friday as we were pulling out.

Cannon is almost never crowed on x-mas week.They did show up on Friday and Saturday,at least for Cannon.Were pretty spoiled about having no liftlines.I'm there every weekend so next time there look for the big blonde guy and yell out "is there a siksukr here"?Eeer..maybe not huh?

Wildcat
 

Sad to see Wildcat (one of the best in NH) go downhill like that.. Guess the state cant afford such trivial items.. Dems need to go!

Again,the Widcat Mountain is NOT state owned.This is bad info.

Always thought it was on state land and leased to a private company.. So it is owned by the state if this is true.

The Wild Cat
 

FYI, back in the day when I skiied every weekend, and mostly at Cannon and Wild Cat, they have been run down and the toughest ski conditions in the State, for at least the 30 years I skied them. Cannon is famous for their blue ice slopes, Wild Cat is wind blown, cold as cold can be and icy as anything. Both places have always looked run down, every 10 years someone comes along and puts a coat of paint over the last coat of paint to try and make the places look better. The reality is they are what they are, the toughest conditions, hardest slopes, icy and dingy accomidations. Add this all up and you have real skiing for the hard core!

WILDCat
 

Cannon has actually done a LOT more to improve the mountain than Wildcat in the past 10 years.They have installed 4 new lifts along with a whole new beginer area with it's own lift(Tuckerbrook).Now they have the final approval for reopening Mittersill next door that will effectively increase the size of the ski area 50%.A new lift will be installed there as well along with snowmaking.Wildcat on the other hand replaced the old Gondi with a detach quad about 8 years ago and that's about it.

Ownership
 

To set the record straight:

Cannon Mountain's facilities are state-owned, on state property (Franconia Notch State Park, which sits within Federal property, White Mountain National Forest.)

Wildcat Mountain's facilities are privately owned, on Federal property (White Mountain National Forest) and operate on a special use permit from them.

The big thing about Wildcat is that it faces northwest. All winter long, it gets no sun. It can be quite challenging, weather-wise, to ski there in winter. BUT, the tradeoff is the best thing about Wildcat. All winter long, snow blows off the summit of Mt. Washington and over to Wildcat. They also get a good deal of naturally-falling snow that no one else gets. Since it faces away from the sun, the mountain keeps its winter snowpack. Wildcat has always been my favorite place to enjoy midwinter conditions in spring. I have had my best ski days up there in March, April, and May... in deep snow... even had some powder days up there in mid-April after everyone else was closed.