Cannon 2/13/05

[Zand]

Date(s) Skied: 2/13/05

Resort or Ski Area: Cannon Mountain, NH

Conditions: Powder/Packed Powder/Windblown

Trip Report:

First off, what a nice mountain. Little crowds, big mountain, nice trails, and 3" of fresh powder after the 3' of Thursday. What a day.

We got a table right away at the Peadody Lodge, a step up from Loon. It was still pretty early at 9:00 and the summit was covered in clouds. The sun was shining at the base.

We started by taking Peabody Quad up to Big Link. A quick shot down to the Cannonball "Express" Quad on that one. Where do they get Express Quad for this? It's a normal fixed-frip quad. At the top, we hung a left and took Upper Cannon. A great trail, similar to Jester at Sugarbush. No view yet except for lots of white, whether it was the ground, trees, or sky. We continued down Cannon until we got to Rocket. We took a right down Rocket which was nice with soft bumps. This is pretty steep and bumpy for a blue, but it was very fun.

After taking the quick ride on the triple chair, we went down Rocket again, this time, turning down Tram Cutback to hit the tram. Boy do they pack people onto thisn thing. I was smooshed into the wall the whole way up.

At the top, I noticed my goggles fogged up and froze, so I had to take a run down Tramway to the Cannons to the base lodge to grab my spare pair. It was a fun run, but the fact that I had my eyes tearing up didn't help well.

After grabbing my spare goggles, we went back to the summit via the two quads ans took Taft Slalom to Hardscrabble. Those were a couple of toughies. They had thin cover, rocks, grass, bumps, ice, and steeps. That run may have been the toughest of the day.

To get a change of pace, we took Peabody up and took the cruiser under the lift. It was fun and fast and the good change of pace we were looking for.

We went to the base to get food and found the lodge overcrowded, so we ate on the deck. As we were eating, the fog at the summit finally lifted and the visibility started greatly improving. It was the beginning to a good second half.

We took both quads back to the summit and took a run down Upper Ravine to Lower Hardscrabble. It was a lot like Upper Hardscrabble, but not as steep and therefore easier on the legs. At the end of Hardscrabble, we cut over to the Turnpike Glades which were thin on cover, but good otherwise.

Next up was another ride to the summit, this time down Vista Way. It was bumpy, but the snow was nice and soft and there were great views of the Notch. From there, we took By-Pass which was a pain in the butt black diamond. It was sheet ice with bumps were and there. The bumps were a miracle as they were the only chance to slow down and turn. Otherwise, you were sliding the whole trail. At the bottom of that we took a right down Avalanche. It was bumpy and a bit icy, but not nearly was bad as By-Pass. About half way down, we took a right down Banshee Cut-Thru. Banshee was closed for racing, so we took Jasper's Hideaway. Again, bumpy, but fun.

A ride back up Zoomer led us to Lower Cannon and back up Peabody. We went up Cannonball and skiied Profile. It was much like By-Pass: Icy and Bumpy.

Next was the Ravine/Hardscrabble/Turnpike run of before, which was skiing about the same as before. By now, many people were hiking Mittersill, but I wanted to stay on the beaten path as I was starting to get a bit tired and wasn't really ready for the steeps and trees of Mittersill.

A few more runs included Cannon, Vista Way, Rocket, and Gremlin. All of them were fun and how they were for most of the day. I also took a run over in Tuckerbrook on Bear Paw which was a nice beginner trail.

Well, that was the end to a great weekend in NH with Cannon stealing my third favorite ski area behind Okemo and Sugarbush. As I conclude this post, it's snowing heavily outside, but it'll be changing to r!1n soon, unfortunately. I'll be at Wachusett for a little while tomorrow night in the probably slushy conditions and I'll try and head up to Sunapee next week.

[skican]

Awww shucks, you made me homesick. I do love Cannon sooo much!