Many know Gunstock Mountain Resort for its classic New England ski trails and iconic views of Lake Winnipesaukee and beyond. But as you travel down Panorama Drive headed for the lifts, you pass a smaller building on the right called the Nordic Center. This is the starting point for all kinds of adventures.

The Gunstock Nordic Center boasts a 26-kilometer network of trails groomed for skating and classic skiing for all abilities. With trails along lazy winter streams and between lush pines, it’s a great way to reconnect with nature in a way that one can’t with alpine activities. For the uninitiated, there are plenty of ways to try the sport of Nordic skiing. Beginner lesson packages with expert instructors include rentals and a day pass.

Gunstock offers a unique experience for you and your dog with a skijoring lesson! Scandinavian in origin, this sport is a hands-free skiing experience in which you and your dog work in tandem to glide along the trails. Any dog who loves to run, be in the snow and can learn, can become a skijoring companion.

For those who are looking for a more relaxing activity, snowshoeing is a great way to appreciate the outdoors in the winter. Bring your own or snowshoes or grab a pair of rentals, and you can walk the entire groomed trail complex or off the beaten path on snowshoe exclusive trails. The Nordic Center also offers guided snowshoe tours with varying difficulty. The more leisurely of the two, called the Snowshoe Nature Walk, explores the woods and picturesque wetlands around Gunstock. While the other, more demanding, Scenic Ridge Tour, brings snowshoers up Tiger Lift and traverses the ridge of Mt. Rowe to catch the sunset over Gunstock Mountain.

Even with this season’s challenging weather, the conditions at the Gunstock Nordic Center have been well groomed and consistent despite Mother Nature’s best attempts to bog us down. I got together with Peter Deely, Gunstock’s Nordic Center Manager, to chat about what has contributed to a great season.

“We’ve done significant terrain work over the summer”, he says. “Not only did we improve and rebuild the bridge on Oak, which granted us access to additional terrain, but we’ve widened and changed our existing trails, added another new snow gun, and we have new grooming equipment.”

In the fall, Gunstock added more equipment to its winter arsenal. Including a new snow gun, a Pistenbully 400 snowcat with a dump body which allows snow to be hauled where it’s needed on the trails, and new smaller grooming apparatus for the Nordic Center’s side-by-side. Peter explains, “The work we’ve done has made the skiing wildly better and it’s nice to see that take shape.”

And wildly better it has been! Many share their positive experiences on the popular Facebook group, Gunstock XC. One person writes, “Conditions exceed my expectations, and the trails were so peaceful. Grab your skis and get out there!” Another saying, “I came with my daughter for her annual birthday ski, and we were so grateful for these well-groomed trails. Thank you for making our trip such an amazing one”.