Making snow while the sun doesn't shine: Gunstock prepares for Friday opening

GILFORD — After a lot of time, investment and hard work, Gunstock Mountain Resort is set to open up for the season on Friday, Dec. 6, and leadership is excited for what should be a great season in the snow. 

The slopes will officially open at 9 a.m. but, in keeping with tradition, up to a couple hundred people are expected to be eagerly waiting for their chance to become the first person up the chair lift and down a run. A large Thanksgiving snowstorm brought over 6 inches of natural snow to the mountain, just in time for opening day. In some areas near the top, there’s over a foot of snow.

“We reaped the rewards of that,” Director of Marketing Bonnie MacPherson said Monday.

“Last week's rain really helped, we’ve got the snow blowers going right now,” MacPherson said. Temperatures through the night have been low, and more snow is expected Thursday, so conditions should be excellent through the weekend. 

Staff at Gunstock are running snowmaking machines — they’ve got two different sorts — around the clock to ensure appropriate conditions on opening day. Traveling the mountain on a utility terrain vehicle on Tuesday morning, a visitor would find themselves deep in a snowy landscape, full of fresh powder. 

"We're jumping for joy that the weather shifted to our favor," General Manager Robert Drake said Tuesday afternoon. "We're now on track for our normal opening."

While other passes will continue to be available, sales of prime passes are only available through Thursday night. Those available to college students and the weekday pass will still be available at gunstock.com.

The New Hampshire College Pass may be particularly attractive to those eligible for them as they grant access to four mountains — Cannon, Cranmore, Waterville Valley and Gunstock, of course.

"Our all-access prime passes are the ones that we limit," Drake said. Midweek passes and other products will remain available. 

Winter Prime passes grant access every day, with no blackouts. It grants access to all mountain lifts all day, night session access, discounts of rental equipment and retail items and more. 

“We preserve the mountain experience by limiting the number of season passes and also the day passes that we sell,” MacPherson said.

Earlier this year, a project to install a culvert forced management staff to lower the water level of a retention pond near the lodge, the pond where numerous organizations hold fishing derbies throughout the year. That pond is also used for winter snowmaking, so staff were nervous when the project ended and the Lakes Region entered a drought. Weather remained temperate through the fall.

But the last few weeks brought a tidal wave of change, and the pond is good to go. They’ve been lucky to never run out of water for snowmaking before.

“We got lots of rain and the ponds are all full,” MacPherson said. “We’ve never run out of water in the past.” 

But Gunstock leaders made significant investments in snowmaking infrastructure in preparation for the winter season, spending $2 million on upgrading existing snowmaking machines and installing additional tower guns. Temperatures also dipped significantly just in time — snowmaking machines work ideally at about 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Electric fan guns blow snow around the base area of the mountain.

“We count our blessings,” MacPherson said. “It was a warm fall.”

Ramrod, a fan-favorite run, was redirected in its upper portion this year, and Hotshot, another fan-favorite, is expected to be skiable this year, which isn’t always the case. About 98% of the trails on Gunstock are now benefiting from snowmaking. Ramrod is expected to be open by the end of the weekend or early next week, and it's too early to say for Hotshot. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 trails are expected to be open on the first day.

"We'll make some pretty good headway next week with these temperatures dropping down," Drake said. "It's really nice seeing all of the runs covered."

Gunstock isn’t only for experienced snow sports enthusiasts — MacPherson said they’re looking forward to welcoming children to their learning hill. They’re able to keep their skis on while riding to the top of the hill on a sort of conveyor belt, easing new skiers into the sport.

“We want to get kids out here on our little ‘magic carpets,'” she said.

Those responsible for making Gunstock into a great experience each year are looking forward to what should be another successful season. They know through customer engagement efforts that most skiers travel for an average of 1 to 2 hours to enjoy the mountain, and Gunstock is attractive to many because it's close to home. Some particularly appreciate its history — the mountain was borne of a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s — and enjoy keeping up its tradition.

“It’s mostly a day trip for people, they like the value, being close to home and the experience,” MacPherson said. “It’s a classic New England mountain, there’s a lot of history here.”