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This small mountain will never get taller, but its family appeal includes modern amenities, friendly staff, imaginative cuisine, and off-slope activities.

It's no wonder that the February President's Day holiday is called "Mass Week" in New Hampshire, if you consider that almost a dozen mountain resorts are between a two- and three-hour drive from Boston, Massachusetts. To accommodate the overflow crowds at these ski hills, the state recently modified its own school calendar to give local children the following week off and spread the vacation wealth at local resorts.

Unaware of its popularity, we New Yorkers shopped around for a full service mountain resort so that each family member could choose his own proportion of recreation to relaxation. New Hampshire beckoned with value prices and variety: the celebrated Bretton Woods, the larger Waterville Valley, the less developed Black or Cannon Mountains, and the compact, well-run Loon, winner of Transworld Snowboarding's "Best Terrain Park in the East" award. The terrain parks made Loon our teen's choice, and the abundance of intermediate trails was right for us.

We found Loon to be chock full of the amenities we weekend skiers like. It boasts fantastic views of the White Mountains National Forest and the Presidential Range, including Mt. Washington on a good day.

There's ample grooming, Kleenex available by many chairlifts, well contoured intermediate cruisers and a variety of tasty food outlets. Skiers can sample Jamaican jerk chicken and reggae music at the Summit Cafe then climb a classic firetower for evergreen forest views. Or, warm up in an Adirondack chair by the fire pit while dining on a freshly grilled bison burger and fries.

While most visitors waited for the speedy four-person gondola, we liked the Seven Brothers triple that went mid-mountain and deposited us in a good spot from which to choose a variety of intermediate trails.  We also found the North Peak and the brand new South Peak, whose two big runs, Boomer and Cruiser opened for the winter 2008 season, are less crowded than the center of the resort.

The Loon resort itself has several small base areas which serve to dissipate the crowds. However, families with younger kids will want to head for the central Governor Adams base, named for Loon's founder (New Hampshire's governor in the mid-60s), which hosts the children's program and learning facilities. In addition to skiing on any of their three mountains or snowboarding in the three terrain parks, Loon has an adventure center for off-slope fun and the traditional New England towns of Lincoln and Woodstock, in which to shop for chocolates, maple products and cheese, nearby.