Recapping the turmoil at Gunstock and the aftermath

GILFORD — This past Thursday, July 20, marked one year since Gunstock Mountain Resort’s senior management team abruptly resigned en masse. 

Their decision to do so brought a period of conflict that had been heating up for nearly a year to a raging boil.

The mountain’s turmoil involved an alphabet soup of county governmental bodies, a litany of accusations of legal or financial wrongdoing, clashes of forceful personalities and their visions of “the public interest,” and county constituents slowly, then surely, being forced to reexamine their responsibilities as voters. It formally ended when management returned to work on the evening of Aug. 1, but the political dimensions of the discord shook county politics for months following.

For many residents, the ordeal was an education: about how county government works, about the significance of local elections and about what it would mean for the mountain to fail.

Because it is owned by the county, the mountain’s management is overseen by a five-member board called the Gunstock Area Commission, similar to a board of directors. The county delegation, comprising 18 Belknap representatives to the Statehouse, appoints and dismisses commissioners. A slew of political and legal scraps among and between those two bodies during 2021 accelerated turnover on the commission, changing the balance of power in favor of recently-appointed commissioners, who had been, during their appointment processes, favored by representatives in leadership and more conservative members. 

Throughout winter and spring 2022, friction between the new commissioners and Gunstock’s management grew rougher and rougher. Two commissioners in particular flexed the commission’s oversight capabilities, claiming that management enjoyed too much freedom and even voicing suspicions of corruption, no evidence of which has been found.

Feeling they could no longer work under those commissioners, management walked out of their posts during a July commission meeting. In order to return, they later said, the two commissioners they had clashed with needed to be unseated.

For 11 days, the ski area and local government were in triage mode: forced to close summer operations, the mountain faced a cancellation of its insurance policy and a potential lawsuit by the upcoming music festival it was contracted to host. A series of meetings by the Gunstock Area Commission drew hundreds of attendees who demanded the commission take steps to bring management back, a call joined by community groups and local officials.

As both a county asset and the lone major ski area in the Lakes Region, Gunstock is the all-season backyard of local residents. It is "home field" of club and school sports teams across several school districts and keystone of the region’s tourism economy. With winter preparations beginning in late summer, the longer the mountain remained closed, the greater the threat to its upcoming snow season.

On Aug. 1, a quorum of county representatives met in defiance of its leadership and ousted the remaining member of the Gunstock Commission who had clashed with management, triggering the staff's immediate reinstatement.

While the mountain was able to reopen and eventually return to normal operations, the 11 days were a crucible that remade county politics. 

At the packed GAC meetings, many residents pointed blame at the state representatives who chose the new commissioners, calling on voters to “remember this in November.” Sides taken at the Aug. 1 meeting became the defining line of factions between representatives — at the time, all Republicans. In both the midterm primary and general elections, several of those who had not voted to bring management back were defeated.

At the turn of the new year, the Belknap representatives had filled all the vacancies on the Gunstock Commission, and operations at the mountain were back to normal.