A path to prosperity for Loon Mountain

Loon Mountain has 73 trails and 13 lifts covering 403 skiable acres with a 2,190-foot vertical drop. (Loon Mountain)

I have been known to be a pack rat of certain things. Unfortunately, Ski Magazine was not one of them. 

More than a few years ago when filling out a survey for the next season’s “Best of” awards, I likened my home mountain, Loon Mountain, to chicken parm. It will never knock your socks off, but it also will never disappoint. It’s a safe choice for a filling meal or satisfying ski day.

The resort has spread out since that comparison was made. South Peak has brought the mountain closer to downtown Lincoln. If things go according to plan, the two will be even closer beginning next season — Loon’s 60th — with the installation of the first pulse gondola in the East that will shuttle guests from the Riverwalk Resort to the base of Timbertown, Loon’s beginner/intermediate area on the lower reaches of South Peak that opened in December 2023.

Across the three peaks, there are 403 skiable acres with 73 trails and glades with 13 lifts — five high speed — with 2,190 vertical feet.

The main mountain

With 53 percent of its trails rated as intermediate, Loon is a cruiser’s paradise. Investing heavily in snowmaking and groomers has helped ensure the mountain has good conditions even when it doesn’t fall from the sky. The mountain makes a ton of snow and grooms nearly every trail on a nightly basis — and to some, maybe too often.

Loon claimed it spent more money than any resort in New Hampshire on snowmaking upgrades entering this season, adding more than 100 semi-automated snowmaking hydrants on Loon Peak and North Peak on the original side, and expanded its snowmaking capabilities on South Peak, including on the Upper and Lower Stinger trails, giving Timbertown 100 percent coverage.

The intermediate terrain is where it shines the brightest with trails including Flying Fox, Picked Rock and Blue Ox in the middle of the mountain. Blue Ox has retained the old style, winding its way through the trees and feeling the best out of any of the original trails.

Except for near the summit, the terrain near the gondola line is not particularly steep, but it makes for steady, low-angle cruising with a few good dips, like the S-curve on Flying Fox.

For beginners, Exodus provides the easy way to leave from the summit and joins Bear Claw at the Loon Peak end of the Tote Road quad, which takes people back and forth to South Peak, for its meander across the mountain.

There is a magic carpet and beginner Kissin’ Cousins double chair in the West Basin area.

Where the intermediate Upper Picked Rock and Flying Fox meet Upper Bear Claw and many people exit the Kancamagus 8 chair and head toward the gondola and North Peak is the Grand Junction. This is a congested section of the mountain where skiers and riders of differing abilities come together in the middle of the mountain. It is an area where one should ski defensively, especially during busy periods.

East Basin, which was the first expansion area at Loon, has the steeper terrain with Angel Street being the most popular of the trails, although Big Dipper is a favorite for spring bumps and Triple Trouble is a treat when it has enough coverage.

The Flume and Walking Boss are steep off the North Peak, and Camp III is the popular on-mountain lodge for enjoying a meal or beverage, especially during the spring. Sunset off the top is a must-do for an intermediate skier — best to get it early because it does have the reputation of getting skied off.

The lower half of the mountain is where the terrain parks reside, and Loon has them for all abilities with the Progression and Little Sister parks, to the looker’s left of the gondola. The Little Sister park can be done up big for events, which makes for easier spectator viewing from the base area. The Springboard park is the next step up, and that is on the old NASTAR trail off Seven Brothers. The Loon Mountain Park has more than 1,000 vertical feet and is the place to go big. While there is a superpipe, it has been a while since it was used with any regularity.

It is not the best mountain for tree skiing, with the summit at North Peak at 3,050 feet, so it does not get quite as much natural snow as its taller neighbors Cannon and Waterville Valley. Walking Boss Woods at the eastern edge of the resort is probably the best of the glades.

There are three primary lifts on the main section of the resort. It always has had a four-person gondola, with the current one having been on the line for more than 25 years. The bubbled Kanc8 debuted in December 2022 in West Basin, and the North Peak quad has been in operation for about 20 years.

Among the projects for the second half of Loon’s Flight Path 2030 are upgrading both the gondola and North Peak chairs.

“It’s one of the higher-priority lifts, being the first one we opened, the last one we close, and it runs dual seasons,” Loon general manager Brian Norton said of the gondola. “That’s why we haven’t necessarily replaced it, because it’s a real challenge to replace a lift that you rely on nine months out of the year.”

What that replacement might look like is still up for debate, whether it is an 8-person gondola, a Kanc8 lookalike or a chondola like at fellow Boyne resort Sunday River.

“To me, the gondola is kind of iconic of Loon,” said Norton, adding that a potential replacement would have more than four seats. “What’s cool about a gondola from the winter perspective is that it has the highest utilization of any lift in the Boyne network.

“When it’s busy, there are four people in that gondola 100 percent of the time. It’s also low-capacity, so there’s a value to that on the winter side.”

He also pointed out that outside of winter, a gondola makes a trip to the summit accessible to all.

Norton also said that, yes, a straight line up the Kanc8 would lead to the Tote Road for easy access to South Peak — the exact spot is the pump house just above the Tote Road — but it would have meant additional delays with the Forest Service. It also meant a lot of people being dropped off at that spot above the family ski zone.

South Peak

Delays and Forest Service seem to go hand in hand, and when South Peak opened for the 2007-08 season, it had been decades in the works.

The pod of trails, which can be reached by the fixed-grip Tote Road, are excellent top-to-bottom cruisers. Snowboarders should be careful on the flat runout on the intermediate Boom Run.

For access to the Timbertown area and Escape Route parking lots, you will want the intermediate Cruiser, which receives a heavy dose of traffic, so it can get skied off by the end of the day.

Ripsaw is the steepest trail at Loon and has a double diamond rating. While it might not compare to double diamonds at bigger resorts, it does do a solid job of keeping the number of skiers who should not be on the trail to a minimum.

While the second diamond gets the attention, the single diamond Twitcher is just as fun. It is a bit milder than Ripsaw with a shorter and less steep headwall at the top of the trail, though it clearly has more skier traffic and can be a spot where skier traffic can make conditions difficult. It then splits into Lower Twitcher or Jobber.

Lower down on South Peak is Loon’s newest section, Timbertown, giving advanced beginners and lower intermediates a lift to progress. It includes a Wildwood glade.

“For someone who’s been skiing at Loon for 25 years, the terrain over there is not very challenging, but it’s just so different and it’s refreshing to go over there, and I love skiing at South Mountain,” Norton said. “I’ve just been infatuated with Timbertown. I just kind of like the winding trails, the big wide-open, beginner stuff over there.”

Timbertown has been open Friday to Monday but the lift is scheduled to spin during the entire Massachusetts school vacation week, a very popular time for the mountain because of its easy proximity to the Boston area.

Norton said the new quad at Timbertown has changed how the mountain flows. Before the lift opened, the vast majority of people would take a shuttle bus from the Escape Route parking lots to the main part of the mountain, where people could boot up and catch a chair. Because it has the ski school, rental building and ski competition center, he said 70 to 80 percent of guests would end up at the Governor Adams Lodge.

With the lift in operation now, the number of buses needed to take people to the lodges has been cut drastically, because people are booting up at their car and accessing the trails via Timbertown.

“The first day last winter that we had that lift running — I park cars down there all the time, especially Saturday mornings,” Norton said. “The hosts and the parking lot team are down there.

“Andrew Noy, our vice president of guest services down there, and we’re all looking at each other just like the biggest grins on our faces because we knew that we weren’t going to have this backlog of, like, 10 shuttle buses and 45-minute lines to get on a shuttle. It was, like, the happiest day in all of our lives that these people were able to just walk onto a lift, and it really changed the dynamic. As the ski resort develops over there, it’s only going to get better.”

What’s next

With three lift installations in the three years, it has been a busy stretch for the mountain as it heads into the second half of its master plan. The resort will be hosting a public forum in early March about what lies ahead.

A pulse gondola is planned to shuttle people from Riverwalk Resort to the base of Timbertown, and getting skier services there is part of the upcoming agenda, but it is a bit more complicated because Loon does not own the land where the Timbertown trails are located.

Norton said he hopes it can be completed in a few years, but not owning the land takes the decision when to start building out of the mountain’s control.

Loon is currently stockpiling snow at the bottom of the Escape Route trail, but it is not for its own use. The mountain is supplying the snow that will fill City Hall Plaza in Boston for Red Bull Heavy Metal, which is scheduled for Feb. 22.

It is not the first time Loon has partnered with Red Bull. It held a downhill ice cross qualifier in 2019 when Red Bull hosted Crashed Ice at Fenway Park.

Heavy Metal is a snowboard contest led by Zeb Powell and will have three competition zones, each highlighting different aspects of street snowboarding. Riders will tackle custom-designed rails, gaps and creative features that will challenge the best snowboarders.

“Our terrain parks team is taking part in that and helping facilitate that event,” Norton said. “If you were at the bottom of Escape Route recently, you would notice the gigantic piles of snow down there that seem unnecessarily big for that trail. That is snow that we produce to be hauled to Boston for this event that’s happening in February.

“It’s an out-of-the-box, cool experience. People will be snowboarding in downtown Boston with snow made here in New Hampshire.”

At the mountain, Norton is hoping for the continuation of the past few strong March snows to ensure a solid spring season and yet another big bash for ’80s Day on March 29.

It is a nearly year-round operation as Loon has the largest bike park in New Hampshire and uses the Kanc8. It offers a 750-foot zipline that goes across the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River, an outdoor ninja course and scenic skyrides between Memorial Day weekend and Columbus Day weekend.

The biggest thing Loon does without snow is serve as the site of the New Hampshire Highland Games & Festival. It is a celebration of Scotland for three days Sept. 19