A Day Of Spring Skiing At Loon Mountain

PHOTO: Bria makes first tracks on Loon Mountain’s South Peak Cruiser Trail. Cannon Cliff, Big Coolidge Mountain and the tip tops of the Franconia Range Mountains are nearly always in sight when skiing Loon’s South Peak. There are big views and plenty of snow left to enjoy this ski season. It’s time to get your 80’s Day tickets, March 30th, wear your bright pink and neon green wild one piece suits and big hair if you got it! Dance to Rubix Kube–an 80’s tribute band. Its totally rad. The annual Slush Pool Party is April 6th. Spring is Fun!

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

Spring skiing is good fun.
Bria and I arrived early at Loon’s South Peak to get one of the first rides up the Lincoln Express Quad. Since it was a weekday there was plenty of parking to be found. The sun was up and it was just barely above freezing so the snow was firm. They had groomed the night before and our skis barely made a mark on the smooth frozen corduroy on our first couple of runs.
Schussing down Cruiser we went. Our turns were loud and rattled our bones but we knew soon the snow would become soft as the temperature rapidly increased. We stopped at the upper terminus of the new Timbertown-quad. The snow looked wonderful on the new green and blue rated trails. The lift wasn’t running but would be open on the weekend. This new lift and trails makes the Escape Route Parking desirable. It won’t feel like overflow parking now that a bus ride to lifts has been eliminated.

After a thrilling run down a most difficult trail, that we should have waited to ski until the sunshine hit it, we decided to take the Tote Road quad-chair over to the Loon Peak. The morning sunshine on its northeast-facing terrain has a head start over South Peak.
By 10:30 the snow had warmed nicely and it was easy to make turns. Not Surprisingly, a lot more people had arrived to ski and snowboard.
On North Peak we skied the bumps on the ungroomed Upper Walking Boss. The sun was shining and we unzipped our jackets. The view north was nice but clouds hid Mount Washington but Franconia Ridge and the nearer peaks were right there in front of us. It had turned into a perfect Spring day.

We rode the Kanc-8, this chair is a thing of beauty and comfort. The lift seats 8 but today I don’t think we ever had more than 4 or 5 persons on each ride. It moves a lot of people. We skied favorites Blue Ox and Picked Rock – good snow and we enjoyed the fun natural rolling slopes. On Coolidge Street the race crew was out resetting the red netting on the edge of the trail. Right across the street is the trail’s namesake, Prominent Big Coolidge Mountain, summit elevation 3,294 feet.
On one run we did find ourselves at the top of the Loon Mountain Park. A group of three snowboarders went by and we watched them sail over monstrously large jumps. They made it look so fun and easy. Since it appeared no one else was in the park we decided to ski down and go around all the jumps. But we did play down the middle of the half-pipe. Only going up its walls as far as it made us happy and not scared.
We decided to skip the gondola since we decided it would be nice to ride the Seven Brothers lift a couple times. The lift is a high-speed quad, actually the repurposed Kanc4, and how nice it is to ride up twice as fast as the old lift. We took a trip down Springboard and we actually went over some of the smaller jumps.
Time flies while you’re having fun. Our plan was to leave by Noon but of course we did a couple” just one more run.” When we were in the lodge taking our boots off I turned off my watch tracker and saw we had skied 23 thousand vertical over 19 runs. Bria being the good sport that she is asked if I wanted to go back out and do one more. I reluctantly declined but said we will be back to ski Loon again soon.
I am not close to giving up winter yet. Maybe we will have one more big snowstorm.
Have Fun.