Basecamp podcast: Gunstock GM Tom Day on a very strange summer at the New Hampshire ski area

The podcast can be streamed at skijournal.com/podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. (File)

It was a weird summer at Gunstock Mountain Resort. 

The Gilford, N.H., ski area found itself in the headlines back in July when the entire management team resigned due to an ongoing feud with the Gunstock Area Commission — a five-member board appointed by the Belknap County Delegation with the responsibility of managing country-owned Gunstock. Summer activities were immediately shut down, and the upcoming ski season seemed to be in doubt.

After two weeks of Granite State-based political sniping — leading to resignations from the GAC and the return of the Gunstock management team —  Gunstock re-opened to the public and began preparations for winter. 

On the latest Basecamp podcast, hosts Eric Wilbur and Mike Specian chat with Gunstock general manager Tom Day, who led the charge for the staff to resign back in July. 

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Highlights from this edition of the Basecamp podcast

On Gunstock’s entire management team resigning: 

Day: “We sat down, they started the meeting, and I stood up and said, ‘Obviously, you feel that our roles here are diminished.’ We’re now sitting in the audience instead of sitting at a table participating like we should with an $18 million business. I said, ‘So I will resign and I’ll give you two weeks notice to help us help you guys through the transition. And my CFO stood up and said the same thing, our director of resort services stood up and said the same thing. Then the resources director stood up, snowsports director stood up, the facility director stood up, and everybody resigned. We walked out the door.” 

On the political climate Gunstock faced in order to re-open: 

Day: “I do think what happened is there were a lot of politics going on where people weren’t aware of who they had elected. The delegation appointed people, not for their knowledge of the ski business, but political appointments. So that’s what woke a lot of people up to the fact of what was happening here. Gunstock, you know, is five generations of local people that sit here. And it touched a nerve and it got a lot of people aware of what was going on.” 

The podcast can be streamed at skijournal.com/podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon.