Gunstock Mountain Resort on Thursday, January 19, 2023

		Gunstock Mountain Resort Thursday, January 19, 2023
		Submitted on January 20, 2023 by brianna (721)
	Session	Full Day
	Ticket Type	Complimentary from Ski Area
	Lift Lines	0 minutes
	Trail Conditions	60% open; Loose Granular, Frozen Granular
	Glades
	Moguls
	Terrain Park(s)	Blundersmoke
	Run of the Day	Redhat
	Food and Beverage	Had a quick lunch at Powder Keg pub, $14 chicken bacon ranch flatbread was really good, and tucks pale ale on draft. Picked up flatbread, and four beers for $55.
	Comments	Started the day just before lunchtime. Lots of sugary snow on the sides of trails, and plenty of frozen granular underneath on some trails. The snow/rain cycles have been rough for the ski areas, but it was still plenty of fun today ahead of the incoming snow storm. Off the summit Upper Trigger and Recoil took the the cake - in that order. Unfortunately Upper Gunsmoke was ROUGH about a quarter of the way down. Boilerplate, death cookies, and frozen granular. Aiming for loose sugar snow was a challenge. I’m always a fan of the trails to the right of the Tiger chair (Cannonball, Redhat, Flintlock Ext, and Stonebar). All were phenomenal. Flintlock Ext had a little bit of frozen gran and mini golf balls on the steeps but well worth the run. We were bummed to find Upper Cannonball and Redhat ropes off by 4pm, but could see from the Penny Pitou chair later it was most likely due to poor lighting conditions and very dark spots. Upper Smith on the Ramrod complex was so fun. Sugary and easy to skip the patches of frozen granular during the day. Phelps was good too, had a few dark spots at night but otherwise manageable. Derringer was a bit piled up, but had good loose granular for texture. A memorial is already in place where the young girl lost her life Monday. Some of who we assumed were school mates were stopped there on one of our trips up the Tiger chair. Overheard one say there had been a lot of bumps on that trail earlier in the week. Still very sad for the community. Trails connecting to the Pistol complex off Smith were fun and in good shape. During the day the Pistol chair was serving freshly opened Out of Sight (which was awesome, fun more narrow trail), Pistol and Blundersmoke (terrain park). Blundersmoke left of the chair was almost bare, and had guns set up. There was a “pop-up” terrain park at the bottom, and we saw a group of kids walking up to use it. I grew up skiing here as a kid and well into my teen years - I forgot how stunning the views are from so many of the trails! It was a bit strange to see Winnipesaukee with completely open water in January. Bummer for the Ice Fishing Derby and Meredith’s Ice Hockey festival. With the latest County Commission kerfuffle, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the new board members. One of the few ski areas to still have trails named with reference to guns, it would be a shame to see that change in this woke day in age!
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	Report Rating	4