By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
LINCOLN – Loon Mountain has announced plans to develop 272 acres of expert glade ski terrain adjacent to its Northern slopes for the 2027-2028 season which could make it by far the largest resort in the state.
The area will be called Black Ridge and it will offer natural snow for skiers and snowboarders on the White Mountain National Forest land.
The new area will have a 1,350 foot vertical drop, eight more new glades, and provide a 2,850 foot elevation experience from the summit. No new lifts are planned nor added snowmaking.
“Unfolding across 272 acres within the White Mountain National Forest, this addition will establish Loon as the largest ski area in New Hampshire,” its website states.
“From dense softwood forests, steep gullies to open hardwood glades, Black Ridge offers an untouched terrain profile for expert skiers and snowboarders looking to push their boundaries. Unspoiled and unmatched, Black Ridge is raw, natural, and untamed,” it concludes.
Trimming and glade clearing are intentionally kept to a minimum to maintain a natural forest character. The zone features a few loosely defined routes alongside glade areas.
This will not be for novices or intermediate skiers and riders. “Natural hazards like tight lines, variable snow depths, and hidden obstacles,” will be out there with no grooming expected.
Black Ridge will bring Loon to 675 total skiable acres — making it New Hampshire’s largest ski resort, surpassing Bretton Woods at about 468 acres of skiable terrain.
The expansion will increase the resort’s total skiable terrain by 67 percent and complement the existing network of winding groomers, steep alpine pitches, and award-winning terrain parks, according to its website.
An access route to the terrain at Black Ridge will be established prior to the 2027/28 winter season. A controlled entry gate atop North Peak will lead to a traverse winding up to 1.25 miles. Hiking and/or pushing may be required.
The ski area, located at 60 Loon Mountain Road in Lincoln is owned by Michigan-based Boyne Resorts https://www.boyneresorts.com/destinations and is part of a collective of about 30 ski areas across the country.
Officials for Loon were not immediately available for comment.
The Storm Skiing Journal, an online news service covering ski areas, said the expansion is similar to its sister ski area at Sugarloaf in Maine. It also owns Sunday River in Maine.
“The reason there aren’t more glades in New England is that, outside of that glorious Green Mountain snow pocket from Killington north to Jay Peak – where annual snowfall consistently stacks between 200 and 400 inches – the region’s snowfall is spotty. Even when deep storms sweep through, the low elevations (Loon’s base sits at just 860 feet), beg for freeze-thaw cycles to fossilize the snowpack. Loon claims a respectable 160 inches per winter, but how much that matters from year-to-year depends heavily upon how many of those snowstorms are directly chased by Noah’s Ark-grade rainstorms,” The Storm Skiing wrote Wednesday.
“Credit to Boyne, though, for taking a let’s-hope-it-snows gamble on this one. Smaller New England ski areas – Berkshire East, Ragged, Black Mountain of Maine – have considerably boosted their stature as complete skiers mountains by maintaining large glade networks that are accessible for just a portion of a typical winter,” it read.
“Up until now, glades have been one of Loon’s greatest weak points,” the Journal said. “The mountain has a few treed zones, totaling 35 acres. It’s not enough. In so many ways, Loon is spectacular. The ski area soars with one of the East’s greatest contiguous vertical drops, one of America’s best terrain parks, one of the world’s greatest snowmaking systems, and a chutes-and-ladders fleet of 14 lifts sprawling over three peaks and three base areas.
“The place is gorgeous from end to end, and North Peak summit views, in particular, dazzle. Boyne has already plugged the spectacular Kancamagus eight-pack into the heart of the resort (2021) and opened the 30-acre Timbertown expansion on South Peak (2023) that will one day connect to town via a planned pulse gondola across the river. Recent filings with the U.S. Forest Service – which owns much of the land that Loon operates on – suggests that Boyne is ready to replace the cramped, 2,000-vertical-foot, four-passenger White Mountain Gondola with a beefier eight-passenger model.”