Mount Sunapee Opens for Winter; Officials Urge Safety Precautions

Mount Sunapee State Park and the adjacent Mount Sunapee Resort are operating winter services under a New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources special use permit that includes shuttle transport and road maintenance to support both resort visitors and public lake access. "Mount Sunapee provides employees and guests with shuttle bus service from the beach parking area to the main base area," and the permit specifies winter plowing responsibilities to DNCR.

Traffic and parking crunches are concentrated on a handful of predictable dates. The resort and state records show heavy volumes on roughly "approximately eight to ten days, typically the peak holiday periods described above, during the ski season experience very heavy traffic volumes." Those peak periods are the Christmas to New Year’s week, the Martin Luther King January weekend, and the President’s Day February weekend. The special use permit allows overflow parking at the Lake Sunapee State Beach parking area, and "this overflow lot has been used approximately five to six days per winter season" over the past five years.

Snow clearing and shuttle operations are tied to the permit conditions rather than to whether the overflow lot is actually filled. "As a condition of this permit, Mount Sunapee provides winter plowing of the beach access road and parking area for DNCR," and "Plowing happens regardless of whether the parking area is used for overflow during the winter season." That plowing, the permit text emphasizes, "allows public winter access to Lake Sunapee for ice fishing, snowmobiling, hard water sailing and other recreational activities."

Environmental stewardship and slope stabilization are built into Mount Sunapee’s management plans. The site cites an Environmental Management Plan (2020–2025) and specifies restoration seedings on disturbed slopes, including "slopes containing a mixture of fast germinating annual rye grasses and other perennial grasses for re-vegetation of the disturbed areas." The resort likewise uses a "Vermont Conservation Mix" and owns equipment needed for reseeding, noting that "Mount Sunapee owns an agricultural tractor and a power mulcher for effectively blowing hay over the Vermont Conservation Mix when re-seeding and stabilizing disturbed areas."

Groundwater protection and hazardous-material controls feature in the same plan. The materials state that "Mount Sunapee also protects groundwater resources from fuel and other hazardous materials. Employees are educated on the proper techniques for handling, storing and disposing of hazardous materials. Mount Sunapee has procedures and technologies in place for protecting and monitoring above and below ground tanks. Beyond regular safety meetings, Mount Sunapee personnel routinely inventory containment systems and materials."

Infrastructure questions remain on the planning horizon. The state excerpt notes a proposed parking lot #4 that would add 272 spaces has not been built and "would have to be re-permitted as the previous permits have lapsed," which could affect overflow use if and when the project proceeds. For now, the combination of DNCR permit conditions, shuttle service, winter plowing and the Environmental Management Plan (2020–2025) continues to shape how Mount Sunapee balances high-season traffic, year-round lake access and environmental protections.