Sunrise 2024 at Bretton Woods Credit: Ski NH

New Hampshire’s downhill and X-C areas have been busy all summer expanding snowmaking, widening and reconfiguring trails, renovating buildings, and adding new technolgogies to make it easier and faster to get to the lift.

Several of the improvements are one phase of a multi-year plan.

Here’s what’s new up north, in alphabetical order, since that’s the only fair way.

Attitash Mountain
In preparation for its 60th Anniversary this season, Attitash has been sprucing up its facilities, including a new haul rope on the Abenaki, and is bringing back the Hunky Dory trail for natural skiing and riding.

Cranmore Mountain Resort
The new Lookout building is being completed, adjacent to Cranmore’s new Fairbank Lodge at the base of the mountain, plus the resort has added 17 new residences with ski-in/ski-out access

In addition, Cranmore’s patrol team is getting its own state-of-the-art ski patrol facility. double the size of its predecessor, strategically located opposite the base of the Skimobile Express. It will feature a small urgent care room with two emergency treatment beds donated by Memorial Hospital, two oversized treatment recliners and an electric garage door with rollers for smooth trauma sled delivery.  Let’s hope you never need to use it.

Crotched Mountain
New fiber optic lines will enable large amounts of data to be transmitted reliably at higher speeds. This will result in improved communication for both guests and operations personnel across the mountain.

Great Glen Trails
This smaller resort also invested in energy-efficient snowmaking, adding power to the top of the tubing hill so that the snow guns will be electric-powered.

Gunstock Mountain Resort
This year’s phase of a $4.8 million capital expense plan included $1.6 million for snowmaking expansion on the mountain, widening one trail, and extending and reconfiguring another.

Additional plans include expanding a deck for outdoor dining at the Stockade Lodge, and a new Campground and Nordic Skiing Welcome Center. The new $1 million structure will provide visitors with modern facilities, a spacious check-in lobby and expanded retail space for equipment, clothing, provisions and sundries.

 Jackson XC
The popular Kellogg Trail has been rebuilt to make it more weather-resistant and easier to ski, by moving it away from an eroding river bank, and reconfigured to make it more skier-friendly. Adjustments on the Ellis River Trail reduce the amount of climbing and ease some previously challenging curves. Other trailwork was done to improve conditions for the Riverbank Trail, a beginner trail that includes the popular Storybook Path.

Improved pumping capacity will help extend snowmaking to include additional distance on the Wentworth Resort Loops.

King Pine
The resort in East Madison has refreshed the snack bar for easier access, and is revitalizing its Nordic program with a new grooming machine to get more trails open this season.

Good Deal – One of the most anticipated events on the King Pine Calendar is Founders Day, with $4 tickets. This season it takes place on Dec. 19th.  $4 lift tickets for anybody and everybody.  Tickets must be bought online in advance.

Loon Mountain Resort
Loon has added more than 100 new semi-automated snowmaking hydrants on Loon Peak and North Peak trails, including Haulback, Brookway, and Bear Claw Extension. Snowmaking upgrades have also been expanded to South Peak trails including Cruiser, Ripsaw, Escape Route, and Chipper.

Additionally, snowmaking has been installed on Upper and Lower Stinger. Together, nine trails will see improved snowmaking coverage.

A new snow-melt surface has been installed on The Octagon Lodge Patio, to keep it clear, and there’s a new walkway that improves flow to and from the Octagon Lodge.

Mount Sunapee
There are 20 new upgraded snowguns. Along with low-e snowguns, these will improve snow production, snow quality, and energy efficiency.

Pats Peak
The resort in Henniker is installing 12 new HKD Impulse snow guns on Downdraft trail. This equipment provides an efficiency boost of at least two degrees, which might not seem significant, but in the realm of snowmaking, the difference between 26 and 28 degrees is substantial.

There is also a new 19,000-square-foot Operations Building, which  will expand maintenance capabilities by over 400% and streamline operations.

Whaleback Mountain
The new Sunkid surface lift next to the Lower Spout racing trail will provide a more direct path to the racing trail, along with improved access to Canyon and Scrimshaw trails, home to Whaleback’s terrain park. This additional lift will help improve skier/rider flow during peak periods, and in providing access to the lower mountain, enable the ski area to open earlier.

Also, with a $100,000 grant awarded through the Northern Border Regional Commission and matching funds the Enfield is installing additional snowmaking guns, a water pump and an upgraded electrical supply, effectively doubling its snowmaking capacity.

New RFID Technology
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology that uses radio waves to passively identify a tagged object. It is integrated into season passes, day tickets, and other products at ski areas, including to automatically open lift gates.  It can be reloaded from the comfort of home or during the car ride up, allowing guests to go right to the lifts.

This year, Bretton Woods, Cranmore Mountain Resort, and Pats Peak are introducing RFID ticketing.

Ski New Hampshire
Thanks to the statewide association, which represents 30+ alpine and cross-country resorts in New Hampshire, for providing us this “what’s new” information.

For more information on ski areas, trail conditions, vacation planning, and events at Ski New Hampshire resorts, visit SkiNH.com.

 For statewide travel info, go to VisitNH.gov.

See you on the slopes!

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Evelyn Kanter

Evelyn Kanter is a NYC-based travel and environmental writer and a senior skier who would rather ride a chairlift, river raft or zipline than the subway, and has done so in the more than 100 countries she’s visited, skiing in many of them. In what she calls a “previous life”, she was a TV and radio news reporter for ABC News and CBS News, now a regular contributor to major publications, including airline inflights and AAA magazines, and has written or contributed to more than a dozen travel guidebooks.Her latest are “100 Things to Do in NYC Before You Die”, Fodor’s Essential Germany and Fodor’s New York City. Evelyn's website is www.ecoxplorer.com

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