Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend with friends and family, I know I did! This blog will be a bit longer than all the others, but I have a lot to say… What a surprise if you know me. I’ll be telling you about my New Years weekend spent in New Hampshire!

Where Were We?

I spent the weekend with friends in North Conway NH, and let me tell you it was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long, long, time. We booked our Airbnb all the way back in August, and the anticipation for this weekend had been building since our booking request was approved. North Conway is an awesome town. With four ski areas all within 30 minutes of town makes it a great winter destination. But for those who don't ski it's just as good! There amazing restaurants, shops, attractions, hiking, and sightseeing.

There were 13 of us over the weekend and we all did different things. Downhill skiing, cross country skiing, shopping, the aquarium, and a mountain adventure park. Myself along with 4 others were able to ski two days over the weekend.

Let's get into a day by day breakdown.

Friday Attitash Mountain Resort

Our trip began on Friday, when we drove the three and a half hours north to Attitash Mountain Resort. Attitash is a wonderful family oriented resort with trails and slopes for all abilities. Although the parking lot was full when we started our walk to the hill, the crowds were spread out very nicely. Our group wasn’t the most advanced group on the hill (which is totally okay), we spent most of the day on the brand new Progression Quad; working on our turns and avoiding being hit by all the racers who think they own the mountain. Far Out and Thad’s Choice are great trails to warm up on, or lap all day!

Once we felt warmed up, we made our way to Bear Peak at Attitash and although there was only one main run from the summit - it was some of the best snow we skied all weekend. The trail was Morning Star to Snowdancer to Bear Necessity to Bearback. It was sunny and warm so we decided to work on our tans and sit outside by the fire and enjoy our lunch break. Once we were full we made our way back to the Attitash side, this time using the resort's shuttle service.

We took a few runs on the Flying Yankee quad and wrapped our day with a slow ride up the aging Summit Triple. Thankfully they’ll be replacing the lift with a brand new high speed detachable quad. Which will make the resort that much better.

If you are a group of beginner to intermediate skiers, or a family looking for a great vacation destination… I would highly recommend choosing Attitash. My friends and I can’t wait to get back.

Saturday

Wildcat Mountain and New Years Eve!

On Saturday, we hit up Wildcat Mountain! Let me rephrase that, they LEGENDARY Wildcat Mountain. We were gifted with a warm, windless day… which is rare at the cat. We made our way up the Wildcat Express for our first run of the day, the long and windy classic New England ski run; Polecat. The trail was scraped off early, which made for a difficult and tiring first run down. Especially with wet heavy snow. With that said, we hung around the lower mountain for most of the day, riding the Snowcat Triple, enjoying the laid back green runs, having fun, and attempting to hit some side jumps... which didn't really end well for me but it did for my friend Ian. Plus, it's always fun when you ride the chairlift with your girlfriend all day, like I got to do.

We ate lunch in the lodge upstairs with live music, tasty chicken tenders and fries (a classic ski day lunch), and one of my favorite beers out there… Tuckerman's Pale Ale. Kind of fitting since Wildcat sits in the shadow of Mount Washington. Every trail has fantastic views of Mount Washington and the world famous Tuckerman's Ravine. After that, we took a one trip up the Tomcat Triple and skied the lower half of the Polecat trail, this time around the snow was a bit better and we all had smiles on our faces. My friend Ian and I decided to take the Wildcat Express up one last time and skied Upper Catapult to Middle Wildcat to Wild Kitten; and it was arguably the best run of the day.

With some beers on our mind we took a few final runs up the Bobcat Triple skiing Bobcat, Cheetah, and one final run down Wild Kitten. There was a tunnel that helped cut across runs, I didn't go through it... I kept telling Ian and our other friend Stud that it was a hole from ski patrol sleds. I was wrong, a tunnel it was. All in all it was a great time.

I’m just being picky but I wish there was more terrain from the summit open and the trails had been groomed a bit better. But we made the best out of what we were given… and the most important part WE ALL HAD FUN!

After skiing we headed back into North Conway and hit Sea Dog Brewing. I had a delicious cup of Clam Chowder and two glorious pints of beer. One India Pale Ale and a New England IPA. Then we made our way back to the Airbnb to ring in the new year with games, good food, and lots of beer… and it was a great time!

Sunday - Our last day:(

We spent Sunday morning walking around town, popping in and out of the shops. Which was really fun, walking around with great friends and a tasty coffee is hard to beat. After that, we went back to play more games, eat more food, and watch the Patriots game... I'm still surprised they won that game. We ended our trip with a night of snowtubing at close by Cranmore Mountain which was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, I would highly recommend we all had a blast. We ate at the iconic Horsefeathers pub and the staff was helpful and friendly, considering we had a party of seven walk in close to their closing time. A favorite meal of choice was the southwest burger, I don't do well with hot foods and boy was this one hot. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why I decided to get it, I was really hungry and it was the first thing that caught my eye. Another popular choice was Great North Aleworks India Pale Ale… and it was delicious. The vibes were hard to beat this weekend in every aspect, from watching a lot of football, shredding the gnar, hanging out with friends and sharing laughs... a truly fantastic weekend. Overall, this was a great trip and I can’t wait to do it again next year! I had a lot of laughs, made memories with my friends and girlfriend that I'll remember for a long time.

I'll be posting some photos from my trip, so make sure you follow @jackmcg_photos on Instagram to stay updated with my photography adventures, and my website jackmcguirk.com for weekly blog posts.