Ski season started a bit slow on the East Coast, with warm fall temperatures hampering snowmaking efforts. Thanks to a cold front last week, along with a moderate snowstorm for most of the East Coast(except Killington, which saw 21 inches of snow since Friday), many major New England mountains got their operations started late last week. Loon Mountain saw five inches of snow on Friday night. On Sunday afternoon, I took the trip up to Lincoln to check out how Loon was doing to start the season off. Loon is usually known for their long lines on the gondola, but it wasn’t too bad. My first run featured a 5-10 minute wait, but everywhere else was practically ski-thru for the rest of the day. My gondola ride at the end of the day was a walk-on as well. 
Conditions were firm, but thanks to the new snow, along with Loon’s snowmaking efforts, it was pretty carvable. The best run of the day was Sunset off the North Peak Express. Skiers right featured moguls, but I was able to crank out some quality turns with speed on skiers left. Another highlight was the terrain park setup Flying Fox, which currently has five features. The worst run was the lower portion of Seven Brothers. It’s the run right before you have to take your skis off for the gondola, so the aggressive hockey stops made for frozen granular conditions on the last thirty feet of the run. 
Before I dipped, I took some photos of the Kanc8 base station. The thing is stunning and looks ready to go when there’s sufficient snowfall. With there being abundant snowmaking temperatures in the forecast, that could be fairly soon. 
Image Credits: Loon Mountain Resort, Ian Wood
