Gunstock Mountain Resort is putting $4.5 million into the mountain for the 2026-27 season. That money is the second half of a $9 million, two-year capital plan introduced in 2025, and none of it buys a new chairlift. Most of it goes after the places where one part of the mountain had to stop so another could run. A wedding closed the summit, snowmaking could only work one end of the hill at a time, and a crowded loading gate slowed the Panorama line. Each project this year lets two of those things happen together.
That matters to anyone in Gilford who skis here on a Tuesday, takes guests up the Panorama chair in October, or plans to show up for the 90th-anniversary kickoff on Nov. 1.
A wedding used to shut down the summit
Until this year, Gunstock weddings were held between the Panorama chairlift and the Panorama Pub. According to the Laconia Daily Sun's reporting, republished by Business NH Magazine, a ceremony there closed both the lift and the pub for the day, which cost business on those weekends.
Gunstock moved the ceremony site to the summit. Robert Drake, Gunstock's president and general manager, told the Daily Sun that staff were already walking wedding parties over to Flintlock Trail for photos with Mount Washington behind them. The new summit venue sits there now, so the chairlift keeps running and the pub keeps serving while a wedding goes on.
The venue was also designed to clear out before the snow guns start:
"We built that venue to convert to the summer wedding season, and then also for winter. So, the platform and deck that we built where the wedding party stands is a convertible deck, so it comes apart and we will move it each fall."
Drake said the custom benches come out too and go into storage before snowmaking begins. Four weddings were held there this summer, and more were booked into peak foliage.
Freeing the summit had a knock-on effect. For the first time, Gunstock is running the Panorama chairlift every day through foliage season, ending Sunday, Nov. 1, and the Panorama Pub is open for lunch over the same stretch.
Snow at both ends of the mountain at once
The same thinking shows up in the winter work. Here is each upgrade alongside the limit it removes, as Drake described them to the Daily Sun.
Where | What changed for 2026-27 | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
Snowmaking system | 5,000 feet of new pipe | Crews can make snow at the top and bottom of the mountain at the same time |
Lower Trigger | Expanded snowmaking | More man-made cover on an intermediate run |
Panorama chair | New lift shacks at base and summit, two access gates, more distance between gate and loading chair | A smoother load onto the main lift |
Tiger chair | New haul rope | Ongoing upkeep on an existing lift |
Pistol chair | New gearbox and engineering work | Faster rides on the terrain-park side |
Two of these matter most. The new snowmaking pipe changes the order in which the mountain gets covered: snowmaking at the summit no longer has to wait its turn behind the base. At the Panorama gate, the two entry points and the extra room before the chair go straight at the line where skiers bunch up. "The Pistol chair will run a little faster this year, which will be a nice upgrade for the folks skiing that side of the mountain," Drake told the paper.
New terrain that needs no snow guns or groomers
The new terrain follows the same idea. Gunstock is adding three glades and two natural areas. Drake defined a natural area as "a run that just doesn't have snowmaking, and we don't have the ability to groom it."
These runs don't draw on snowmaking or grooming at all, so they add skiing without competing for the system the new pipe was built to stretch. The largest is Lift Line, directly under the Tiger chair. In September, Daily Sun photos showed crews thinning low branches and tight clusters of trees to open the new glades. Since natural areas depend on natural snow, expect them to open with the weather rather than on a set date.
The season starts in a building from 1937
For passholders, the 90th season starts a month before the lifts turn for skiing. Gunstock's first-annual Season Passholder Appreciation Party runs Sunday, Nov. 1, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Historic Main Lodge, with food, live music, games, a cash bar and the return of the Gunstock Mug Club. Your 2026-27 season pass is your ticket. Mug Club memberships are sold in person only, first come, first served, and the listing says arriving early gives you the best chance at a limited-edition 90th-anniversary mug handmade in New Hampshire. Drake told the Daily Sun the mugs are being made by a local artist for the Powder Keg Pub, which is also getting a revamp.
The party's location fits the occasion. Gunstock's own history says Works Progress Administration funds paid for the Recreation Building, now the Main Lodge, along with the Comfort Station. The buildings went up using local timber and granite from Cobble Mountain.
The party also lands one day after a price deadline. Through Oct. 31, Gunstock's season pass page lists these rates:
- Winter Prime, adult: $879 through Oct. 31, then $1,079 starting Nov. 1
- Winter Midweek, adult: $529, then $629
- Nordic, adult: $199, then $229
- NH College Pass: $419, then $475
On the adult Prime pass, waiting until the party costs $200. The event listing also suggests using the trip to update pass photos and sign waivers early, and says passholders who RSVP get 50% off scenic lift rides for the rest of the fall.
Ninety years, nearly to the month
Drake points to two dates. In December 1936, the first trails on Gunstock Mountain opened. In February 1937, the big ski jump in the campground reopened. Gunstock's event calendar lists Friday, Dec. 4, 2026, as the target opening day for this season, so if the snow cooperates, the 90th winter opens in the same month as the first one.
The original project was a Depression-era relief effort called the Belknap Mountain Recreation Area. Gunstock's history says the county delegation sought federal support for a complex planned with a chairlift, four rope tows, trails, camping, hiking and a main lodge. Some accounts, including New England Ski History, spell it "Belknap Mountains." New England Ski History gives the area's official opening as a ski-jumping event on Feb. 28, 1937. The resort's own history is careful on one point that often gets blurred: the Civilian Conservation Corps cut trails elsewhere in New Hampshire but had no presence at Gunstock, where the WPA supplied the major funding.
The jump is where the crowds came. Gunstock says the 60-meter jump's 1937 inauguration hosted a U.S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association tryout, drew an estimated 10,000 spectators, and held the association's jumping championships for the next five winters. The county still owns the mountain. The Laconia Daily Sun reports that the Belknap County Delegation created the five-member Gunstock Area Commission in 1959 to run it.
Drake has also said a 90th-anniversary mural will be painted at the base area, with more anniversary events planned over the winter.
Between now and opening day
- Saturday, Oct. 31: Last day for the lower season-pass prices. The Adventure Park is open weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Nov. 1. The Aerial Treetop Adventure closed for the season on Oct. 13.
- Sunday, Nov. 1: Passholder party at the Historic Main Lodge from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's also the last day of daily scenic chairlift rides and Panorama Pub service, weather permitting.
- Friday, Dec. 4: Target opening day for the 2026-27 season.
If you live in the county and don't plan to buy a pass, the useful number is $49. Gunstock offers Belknap County residents full-day lift tickets at that price for all ages, Sunday through Friday, even on days the resort is otherwise sold out. You buy them at the Ticket Office on the day you ski, and you need a New Hampshire driver's license or non-driver ID showing a Belknap County address each time. Tax bills and utility bills don't count as proof, and the offer isn't valid on Saturdays or certain holiday periods. Holiday blackout dates for 2026-27 should appear on the Belknap County residents page. For scale, the $529 early adult Midweek pass costs about as much as eleven of those county day tickets.
If you're weighing a lake home within easy reach of Gunstock's lifts, or you're curious how a property's spot between the mountain and Winnipesaukee shapes its winter, Lake Mountain Property Group knows this side of the lake in every season. Start your lake property search with us.
