joegm
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/15/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>like i said before i apologize for these late reports but i have no internet access up north...i guess a little info is better than none... <BR>Loon: skied it on monday and friday of this past week... <BR>monday: they got the upper flume open so the only things still not open were double dip, triple trouble and upper angel st...snow a mix of fake powder and frozen granular... not a bump on the mountain... all areas were groomed... base temp about 35 summit about 28... no east basin double lift on weekdays i guess <BR>friday: the coldest day i have ever skied in my brief 5 year career... base temp a legit minus 6 and a summit temp of minus 14... the wind chills were substantial enough to close the gondy 9 (or so they say) and close it they did!!! i figure the wind chill temp was at least minus 35 based on winds about 20 mph out of the west... they would not let kids under 8 ski ( a first that i have ever heard of )... surface was incredibly dried out fake powder over frzen gran...again not a bump in site... they were blowin hard on flume ( lower ) and boss ( upper )...only 2 lifts ran quad and the east basin double ( see below ). a borderline absurdly cold day...managed to bang out only 12 runs and had to bail <BR>loon comments; this place drives me nuts... it's my local ( when i'm up there ) hill and i'm skiing for the $199 for the season so until things really get kicking at wildcat and northern vermont, it's hard for me to justify traveling 2 hours to ski at another hill w/ only marginally better conditions... they seem to have a good commitment to snow making this year and overall the conditions have seemingly been relatively comparable to most places most of the time, not all , but a majority i would say...a couple of things are gettin up the dander though... they refuse to run the east basin double which is 5 minutes shorter than the north peak unless they can't run the peak chair due to wind, which leads to b.s policy #2... they could have run the gondy on friday but they didn't under the guise of high wind... i'm no expert and i could be wrong and if so i apologize... but from what i say at wildcat on wednesday, loon made a purely financial decision on friday that was totally unfair to it's paying customers... it's that loon arrogance again showin up that kills me...beef # three... their most wind protected, lift accessed, steep, trail seems to be double dipper which appears to have snowmaking capability, yet they will not blow on it to open it up... they would rather focus on that boulevard lower walking boss...triplr trouble and double dip are their best trails from a skiers perspective and seemingly from thiers for the wind protected tree cuts...i just don't get it!!! <BR>wildcat; tusday was a legit ( as far as we in the east 0 pow day... alley cat and wildcat were left untouched and bumped up beautifully by 10:30... as close to an epic day as can be had skiing two trails all day... all else groomed with packed pow.. 2 lifts, the quad and 1 triple on the right side looking up the hill <BR>wed: a major league disappointment... all groomed out and windpack in...trying to keep openmindedness in moind, the legit 6 that they got on tuesday was very high in the water content so they probably had to pack it in for that reason along w/ the fact that they still have no base... no quad line or any of the lines under the lifts or the old gondy open... ski patrol estimated another 15" needed to open the natural trails... just g.s'd all day...looking to hit shawnee peak in maine on tuesday and probably jay on wed coming up... if anyone has any info on this place shawnee could you e-mail me at joegm@gis.net or post a response here... i got a friend from work who is begging me to come to his home hill but i don't know if i want to give up jay or stowe and some real bumps for a gunstock II type mountain... any info on if they have a bumpline open or any guesses , and lift info would be appreciated before 3:00 pm on sunday... thanks in advance..p.s their website bites, they give up nothing... so that scares me a little!!!