Cannon, NH: 04/22/08 (or Work Sucks and I am Leaving Early and Going Skiing)

[riverc0il]

What a productive day I was having at work! Really busy week and I finally felt like I was making some head way and clearing off my to do list. Although the original plan was to leave around three o'clock to head up to Cannon for some turns, I was honestly thinking about working right through my normal departure time. And then I stepped outside for a moment and knew my day behind the desk was officially over.

Due to dilly dallying at work, I got a later start than expected. I also neglected to pack up the car in the morning so needed to do my seven minute door to door commute home to pick up the gear and grab a snack. Within a few moments, I was back on the road heading up to Cannon forty minutes door to outdoor. Life doesn't suck.

Due to the late start, I hesitated as I pulled into the Peabody lot. Five o'clock and I said I would be home by seven. Unsure if I could pull off two thousand verts of skinning in about an hour, I decided to head Tramside and lap Avalanche a few times. I booted up Avalanche which was covered wall to wall and stumbled upon more wall to wall coverage on Extension. Well, sure glad I brought my skins just in case! In short time, I was at the top of Extension and "oh yell, why not" I was skinning up Middle Cannon to the unload station of the Peabody Quad. And then "jeez, the summit is right there.... oh hell, why not!"

I made good time but was definitely going to be running a little late. Oops. The air was electrifyingly perfect with a very slight breeze near the summit blowing cool over the snow. I was heating up like something fierce and the temperature and wind were perfect despite my short sleeve. I soon had the summit all to myself and had I stuck around would have witnessed a stunningly sensational sunset. But alas, a lot of snow was already in the shade and I was already delayed by fifteen minutes thanks to making good time on the skin up.

Skiing off the summit were four to five feet of snow still covered the ground in places, I took Tramway down which featured absolutely stunningly perfect spring corn snow. This was a white carpet ride of pure bliss. While I do love spring bumps, very rarely do I get to carve up perfect spring corn and this was it. Best ski down Tramway I have ever had and that includes two foot deep powder days (also earned). I was hooting and hollaring like nobody's business, all alone, four thousand feet up, with the sun at my back and perfect white before my feet and Lafayette keeping watch over my descent. It was all going so well until I got lazy and didn't notice an ice patch which sent me for an amusing slide.

Recollecting myself, I continued down into Middle Cannon which had firmed up substantially and had occasional teeth rattling sections. The legs were starting to burn around this point but Extension faired better as I picked my way down the softer spots. Dropped into Avalanche skiers' right to the tune of some remaining soft small bumps before opening up things a bit until reaching the cut off where I paused and took it all in before dropping into the final pitch and practically skiing right back to my car.

Suffice to say, the coverage left at Cannon is simply sensational and impressive. It shows that Cannon's second best snowfall was no joke and Cannon really blew the hell out of the mountain this year. Most trails were still wall to wall with exception of natural snow trails snowing some bare spots and flatter green circle trails having a lot of breaks. Banshee was completely gone, Paulie's is half bare, and the Toss Up area was really broken up but other wise it was mostly wall to wall with only a few minor pinches. Even Tramline had a skiable sliver of snow descending skiers' right.

Life doesn't suck, that is for sure.



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[awf170]

Sweet... that is a lot of snow! Looks a heck of lot better than Cannon on April 1st plenty of years. I think I may try for Kinsman and Tramline tomorrow if I head up that way. Maybe even Gunsite?

[Greg]

Nice report!

[Skier75]

Very impressive!

[roark]

Nicely done.