Rippin’ Bumps in Southern NH?

Could it be that southern New Hampshire’s little Pats Peak, with just 710 feet of vertical, will have rippin’ bumps this season? Here's some text from a recent Pats Peak news release:

“This year Pats Peak is solidifying its grip on the best steep/bump skiing in Southern New Hampshire. The Hurricane trail will be home to the only fully automatic SMI fan guns in all of New England. Snowmaking pipelines will charge automatically and guns will turn on and off as temps permit. Blizzards will be produced almost every night to keep the best bump run in Southern New Hampshire in great shape all season long…. And to showcase Pats Peak’s obsession with snowmaking, they are also adding two high capacity water pumps to force the snow out even faster…. With the addition of night lighting on the Hurricane trail, it will be open day and night….”

So, why do I care about this tiny area that I've never skied? Two reasons. Firstly, this summer, my wife, my dog and I moved from the White Mountains of northern NH to the Concord area, and I’m now living just 13 miles from Pats Peak. For months, I‘ve been thinking that the nearest decent bump skiing would be 45 minutes or more away. After I read this press release this past weekend, Otto the rottweiler and I drove out to Henniker and hiked up Pats Peak to see this Hurricane trail for ourselves. It’s tough to judge steepness in the summer, isn’t it? But the trail did look relatively steep. I don’t know… maybe as steep as Cannon’s Rocket trail? Maybe as steep as Zoomer? Or Loon's Flume? Steeper than Waterville's Tyler, I think, but no True Grit. It's tough to say. Otto thought it looked like it could hold a good B-level course, anyway. I’ve never skied bumps at night, but a little nighttime mogul skiing could be just the mid-week stress reliever I need down here in the south. And this trail could be just what I need on those Saturday’s and Sunday’s when I don’t feel like making the long drive to the bigger mountains.

And the second reason I care? Because I love to hear (as I know so many of you do) about mountain managers who embrace mogul skiing and try to provide terrain for us bumpers.

Check the place out for yourself at www.patspeak.com.