Whaleback, NYE

[hammerwoman]

My Sunapee "Value Pass" is still blacked out (until Monday), gotta ride, and I can't make myself pay for a full-price ticket, so this will be my first foray into my little "community" hill, Whaleback in Enfield, NH, since moving to the Upper Valley. Modest terrain, damn little water, and virtually no capital, it's one of those hills that relies on community activism, volunteers, and luck to keep chugging along, year after mostly-year. My biggest worry is that the little place will steal my heart, and I wind up one of the volunteer corps, especially since I can't break my lifelong working-skier habits of picking up trash, tossing stones, checking every sheave train I ride under, chatting up people on the lift, very much etc. If you're at loose ends this New Year's Eve, come on out. Never having been there, not sure where to meet up with anyone, but it's not that big a place. Just yell, "Hey Hammer!" if you see a hardbooter in all black, riding an old UltraPrime in white boots. 

Edited December 31, 2016 by hammerwoman

[RobertAlexander]

Peter Thorndike used to work there, not that long ago. Top notch gate racer in hardboots.

[Eric Brammer aka PSR]

At Whaleback, just be darned careful exiting the old double chair! A steep exit ramp followed by U-turns to either side, it can be Ugly at times...But, my kids, when they were still living up this far North, learned a lot about riding there through the after-school program, and that was where they did their first Black Diamond runs and rail-boxes (at age 6). Gotta give the place props for that!  Btw, I was the 3rd Snowboarder to use the chair there in '85, and i took my Performer 150 Elite back there 30 yrs +- a few days, and rode my second run on that board with a Patroller (Gus?) who was part of the crew back then. Good to know that 3 decades later, we haven't worn out the Welcome Mat.