riverc0il
New member
what a perfect day to take advantage of a free ticket to loon! my dad and i arrived at 8:30am to a nearly empty parking next to the mountainside rentals building. gove adams base lodge was similiarly vacant. my expectations of a light weekend crowd due to the holiday proved correct with ski on lift lines all day on the kanc quad with only the ticket scanners holding up the line :roll: ski on all day on the double, and ski on past noontime on the northpeak quad with very short waits (~3-4 minutes) before noon. wow. gondi was walk on until 9 and a 4 minute wait at 9:30, rest of the day was unknown. given the short lift lines, there still was quite a bit of traffic... i can't imagine this place on a full on weekend :shock:
lets waste no time in getting to the bumps since we know from joegm that loon is all about the bumps! the verified no bull is... loon is amazingly dedicated to the bumps and puts a lot of mountains to shame with the amount of bump coverage, especially considering their resorty image. props to joegm for fighting the good fight and for the management for spotting bump skiers some solid terrain. that said, most of the bumps sucked (IMHO) this afternoon. bumps skiers left on lower flume were firm and scrapped, same for bumps over on lower rumrunner where at least lines were better but less scraped. the short bump pitch under the gondi on picaroon was a cool idea for introducing bumps to the intermediate skier, but again, scraped and firm. bumps under the double lacked good lines and were spread out (i.e. slip slidder formed bumps) so i stayed skiers right under the lift where the snow was softer. triple trouble was a treat with good lines, bumps were on the larger size but still kinda firm but not too bad. definitely the best bumps of the day. TT reminds me a little of mid-hard at cannon with it's twists and unrelenting bumps.
the groomers started of a VERY firm frozen granular that seemed almost scrapped from the get go. perhaps recent NCP at loon? skier traffic took it's toll accross the mountain, but thankfully the sun was out in full force with blue cloudless skys to warm things up gradually. things started getting mashed potato mixed with scraped down low (very odd combo) and staying generally firm and scrapped up top. my overall impression is if people think cannon is an icey expert mountain and they ski loon on the weekend a lot, they outta give cannon a shot! it's definitely no worse than loon for scraping that's for sure. people were saying "best conditions of the season!" they were outta their minds!!!! best weather maybe..... but nay, i've had better weather days too. any ways...
surprise best run of the day was.... mike's way!!! what a tree trail! this is arguably one of the better in bounds tree runs in the white mountains. i'd put it in my top five overall. you drop in, and the sucker just opens up from fox to the gondola... there's great lines any where to the point that not only no run would be the same, but no turn from run to run would be the same. conditions were defintiely thin with stump and rock showing through, but the snow was edgable PP with green coloring from the trees. it was a great run, wish i had time for two. of all places, loon was the last area i expected to find a quality tree run such as this. skidder of angel street was also a pleasant surprise but not in the same league quality wise.
overall.... what a day! incredible views of the presis, bonds, franconias, cannon, etc. blue skies no clouds all day. first day without the ear flaps on the helmet this season. and to top it off, ski on lift lines at loon on a weekend with the entire mountain open. seriously. if loon wasn't so *!$@ing expensive and crowded, i'd likely be there more often, it has a lot to offer.
p.s. the crowd at loon was a freaking fashion show. seriously. the pretty people were out in full force with all the ladies getting decked out in full make up... to go skiing! hello! less is more, btw.....
lets waste no time in getting to the bumps since we know from joegm that loon is all about the bumps! the verified no bull is... loon is amazingly dedicated to the bumps and puts a lot of mountains to shame with the amount of bump coverage, especially considering their resorty image. props to joegm for fighting the good fight and for the management for spotting bump skiers some solid terrain. that said, most of the bumps sucked (IMHO) this afternoon. bumps skiers left on lower flume were firm and scrapped, same for bumps over on lower rumrunner where at least lines were better but less scraped. the short bump pitch under the gondi on picaroon was a cool idea for introducing bumps to the intermediate skier, but again, scraped and firm. bumps under the double lacked good lines and were spread out (i.e. slip slidder formed bumps) so i stayed skiers right under the lift where the snow was softer. triple trouble was a treat with good lines, bumps were on the larger size but still kinda firm but not too bad. definitely the best bumps of the day. TT reminds me a little of mid-hard at cannon with it's twists and unrelenting bumps.
the groomers started of a VERY firm frozen granular that seemed almost scrapped from the get go. perhaps recent NCP at loon? skier traffic took it's toll accross the mountain, but thankfully the sun was out in full force with blue cloudless skys to warm things up gradually. things started getting mashed potato mixed with scraped down low (very odd combo) and staying generally firm and scrapped up top. my overall impression is if people think cannon is an icey expert mountain and they ski loon on the weekend a lot, they outta give cannon a shot! it's definitely no worse than loon for scraping that's for sure. people were saying "best conditions of the season!" they were outta their minds!!!! best weather maybe..... but nay, i've had better weather days too. any ways...
surprise best run of the day was.... mike's way!!! what a tree trail! this is arguably one of the better in bounds tree runs in the white mountains. i'd put it in my top five overall. you drop in, and the sucker just opens up from fox to the gondola... there's great lines any where to the point that not only no run would be the same, but no turn from run to run would be the same. conditions were defintiely thin with stump and rock showing through, but the snow was edgable PP with green coloring from the trees. it was a great run, wish i had time for two. of all places, loon was the last area i expected to find a quality tree run such as this. skidder of angel street was also a pleasant surprise but not in the same league quality wise.
overall.... what a day! incredible views of the presis, bonds, franconias, cannon, etc. blue skies no clouds all day. first day without the ear flaps on the helmet this season. and to top it off, ski on lift lines at loon on a weekend with the entire mountain open. seriously. if loon wasn't so *!$@ing expensive and crowded, i'd likely be there more often, it has a lot to offer.
p.s. the crowd at loon was a freaking fashion show. seriously. the pretty people were out in full force with all the ladies getting decked out in full make up... to go skiing! hello! less is more, btw.....
