Cannon, NH: 11.29.02

[riverc0il]

made the trip to the franconia notch for cannon's opening day of the 2002-2003 season. arriving at 8AM, i was shocked to see i was not the 4th car in the lot per usual. expecting crowds, i gathered up my gear and found my skiing companions in the lodge.

tickets were a reasonable $20. lift was Peabody Express Quad. trails were Big Link, Easy Link, Middle Ravine, and Lower Ravine. snow quality was excellent! a pleasant packed powder all over, with light pow goodies on the sides of all trails.

crowd was fairly sizeable for cannon, but tolerable. most people packed up early when the weather started to bite. the day gradually became more windy and snowy.

as time progressed, coverage down the centers of the trails became variable with scraped spots showing. occasion uneven and soft bumps on the sides of the trails. amazing how much variety you can get out of a trail when you ski it multiple ways! 15 runs for the day, and were tired for the effort!

snow making was in progress on middle cannon and gremlin. both were poachable top to bottom by mid-afternoon, but we didn't duck the roaps. snow makers were skiing as well as making snow on middle cannon and gremlin, but that's their reward for a hard day's work.

prediction for the weekend: trails open today were still getting fresh snow when we left. look for them to probably be groomed on excellent pack pow. trails that had snow blowing are probably a flip of the coin. definitly enough snow to open the trails, but will they? check the ski phone in the AM.

front face didn't have any bare spots from the highway, but who knows how deep the base is. no snowmaking on front face or upper mountain currently. i'll be back next friday hoping for the front face and lots of zoomer chair action!