LOON MT.: Local Knowledge

Resort Name: Loon Mountain
Web address: www.loonmtn.com
Distance from nearest major airport in miles: 90 miles from Manchester or 146 minutes from Logan (the airport in bean town, MA)
Rideable Acres: I don’t know, ask the horses. Never mind; I did, and they say 275 acres or 19.4 miles of trails for those of you who don’t know the Chinese metric system
Lifts: 10
Parks: 5
Pipes: 1 and 1 minipipe

Best Après Hangout: The Common Man, Gordy’s
Cheapest Lodging: Woodward Resort
Cheapest Food: Bob Dog Pizza
Cheapest Drink: Bunyan Room (PBR draft special)
Best Meat Market: I-93
Locals’ Bar: Woodstock Station

Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire (located just a short jaunt off I-93 exit 32), is quite possibly the Vikings’ best discovery since horned helmets. It is nestled snuggly in the visually captivating White Mountains and is home to some of the sweetest times one could have on the snowboard or inner tube. They have the 2.5-mile-long Bear Claw run that contains fun jibs littered all over the place, with a trailside hot tub toward the bottom that is usually filled with swollen, stock-trading snowball targets who hoot and holler at any sign of movement.

If it’s knee-jacking mogul ecstasy you’re after, you can hit up either Walking Boss or Flume. And for those of you born after 1993, there is a snowboard park at Loon that has been there since before your conception. That’s right—Loon Mountain crapped out an ass-slaughtering board park back in the golden years of shredding, way before it was a necessary form of segregation or Manifest Destiny. They have been honing their park-crafting skills for over a decade, and it grows more evident each season.

Loon Mountain shares with Waterville Valley such killer shred-spawn as Scotty Arnold, Shane Flood, Pat Moore, Greg Maxwell, Jacques Beriau, Preston Strout, Luke Mathison and Matty Ryan—all of whom are products of their environment.