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Cannon 1/16-1/18/16

dlague

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Cannon

Trip report:

What a difference three days make! We ended up skiing Cannon Saturday, Sunday and Monday and each day was totally different. Overall things have improved tremendously.

On Saturday, it was snowing a sticky heavy snow which slowed things down a bit but it turned out to be one of our best days at Cannon this season. We parked over by Tuckerbrook and booted up at the truck and made our way to Mittersill. We skied Barons to start the day and it skied fast. They definitely layed down wet manmade which set up really hard but perfect for racing. After a couple runs (Mittersill lift is slow) we headed for Peabody for a few runs. By Pass was roped off from that lift so it was Spookie or Middle Cannon to Upper Gremlin or Rock Garden and then Lower Cannon or Gremlin. We then lapped the Zoomer Chair and go to poach the run under the Zoomer Chair and subsequently Zoomer all because my wife dropped her pole. The good wife! It was a poach allowed by ski patrol to get her pole. However, the snow there was heavy and tricky. Rocket and Pauli’s were the only two open trails since Gary’s was roped off for Racing. We later skied runs from the Summit via Tramline and Upper Cannon – visibility was tough. On out last run from the Summit it was snowing up top and raining at the base from about Rock Garden down. In fact it was raining while we were on the Peabody Chair going back up. We had a blast on everything we skied.

Sunday was a boy’s day out where I skied with my son. Our approach, pick a meeting spot and go for it! They opened up new terrain Sugarbush style (grassy spots, thin cover) on Avalanche, Zoomer and Vista Way. It was sunny so it felt warm. Snowmaking was full steam ahead. All the surfaces hardened up from the day before and skiing was really fast. Baron’s was very scraped off but skied well enough. We skied laps off the tram which was ski on ski off while typically skiing Tramline or Vista Way to By Pass (which was very bumped up where the pitch changes up to Rock Garden) and then eventually Avalanche or Pauli’s. Lots of people were stopping at the bumps on By Pass so it got a little congested at times. We also skied all front 5 and while Pauli’s and Rocket were getting skied off, Avalanche and Zoomer, well, let’s say the skiers and riders where mowing down the grass in spots. Everything skied well enough though. Definitely was a hard charging day. The parking lots were filled everywhere except at Mittersill where we parked right next to the lift. What was odd, there were never any lift lines to speak of and we got ski on ski off on every lift except at Tuckerbrooke when we were going back to Mittersill later in the day.

Monday was a ghost town. This time around it was my wife and I and did a noon to 4 session. Parked next to Tuckerbrook and booted up there once again. It snowed the entire time we were there. The trails were in really good shape – even Middle Cannon had good snow. Snow was blowing around and drifting creating powder pockets. Due to the winds/cold we opted not to ski from the summit. The winds were strong and blowing up the trails. We did lap sessions and stopped in the pub in between for a beer after each session. It seemed like there were more people in the Pub than out on the trails. In any case, our first session was lapping the Peabody lift with runs down Middle Cannon through Rock Garden or Upper Gremlin and then Lower Cannon or Gremlin. Beer break! Next we lapped Zoomer which was the place to be – felt warmer and there was less wind. Rocket had lots of fresh snow and skied the best out of all the front 5. Pauli’s had a huge scraped off spot in the middle which was deceiving due to the light snow covering it that freaked my wife out when she hit it but stuck to skiers right after that which skied pretty good. Gary’s had nice powder bumps that were all over the place not rhythmic but was fun to ski, as well. Wanted to ski Zoomer but with snowmaking visibility was tough and opted for another run down Rocket. Time for another beer break. For out last series we skied runs off Eagle Cliff Chair. We skied Lower Cannon a few times and hitting Time Zone which had lots of fresh on it and was super fun to ski on. Did a run down Gremlin which skied well too. For our last run we had been looking at Parkway every time we went up on the Eagle Cliff chair and decided to poach it. It had about 6 inches of fresh and it skied so smoothly and quiet it seemed fitting to end the day! Even though it was cold with wind chill around -5, we had a great time. Cannonball Pub had a musician all afternoon which was fun too! So the entire afternoon was like a perfect date!

Pictures from 1/16

Gary's Closed for Racing
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Rocket
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Poaching under Zoomer Chair and over to Zoomer
IMG_0752.jpg

Our tracks under Zoomer Chair (Snow was thick)
IMG_0755.jpg

Summit
IMG_0768.JPG
 
Last edited:

dlague

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Pictures 1/17

Heading toward Vista Way
IMG_0804.JPG

Avalanche
IMG_0809.JPG

Avalanche condition
IMG_0811.JPG

Vista Way Condition
IMG_0812.JPG

Son going off lip on Rocket
IMG_0826.JPG
 

dlague

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From 1/17 Snow making on Rock Garden
IMG_0795.JPG

Pictures from 1/18

Trails were packed
FullSizeRender.jpg

Gary's powder bumps
FullSizeRender1.jpg

Zoomer visibility
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Lower Cannon tracked powder
FullSizeRender3.jpg
 

JDMRoma

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Didn't know you were there yesterday. We were lapping Barons all afternoon and it was balmy over there compared to the main mountain.

Barons was awesome !! We owned it all afternoon. It was our private lift !!

We need the Zoomer / Mitty Bar now !
Sounds like a strip club 😎


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Tin

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Zoomer Liftline was the trail of the day today. BIG difference in the upper half versus lower. Grabbed first tracks all over the Front 5 in the several new inches of man made.
12625778_10208886576345927_679500715_n.jpg




Woods were ok. Heard a couple noises underfoot.
12557883_10208886574505881_705280433_o.jpg



Mittersill is close. Most of the Liftline looks ready if they would take a weed wacker to it. A couple tracks on the lower half. :spin:
 

JDMRoma

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Zoomer Liftline was the trail of the day today. BIG difference in the upper half versus lower. Grabbed first tracks all over the Front 5 in the several new inches of man made.
12625778_10208886576345927_679500715_n.jpg




Woods were ok. Heard a couple noises underfoot.
12557883_10208886574505881_705280433_o.jpg



Mittersill is close. Most of the Liftline looks ready if they would take a weed wacker to it. A couple tracks on the lower half. :spin:

Ski patrol from Monday on a lost pole recovery mission !
FckSummer poached a little Under the upper part. Think it can still use a little more.
Barons was fun though.... Believe it or not


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dlague

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Funny thing - when my son and I poached Zoomer is has maybe two sets of tracks down it and the snow was wet and heavy. The very next morning while driving up we see people on Zoomer. So we headed there from the Mittersill side but by 930ish it was pretty tracked out. I thought the snow in that trail was going to be rock hard and instead it dried out and seemed fluffy. Moral of the story get after the good early.


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Tin

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Ski patrol from Monday on a lost pole recovery mission !
FckSummer poached a little Under the upper part.

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Did they do any trail maintenance this summer? Looks a lot more grown in this year. Another 6" it would be perfect but lots of grundle-floss, some of which could be painful.
 

JDMRoma

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We were talkin about that on Monday. Typically we don't get over there until there's way more snow. So it's hard to say but yes it was a little bushy !

Also the old lift line is gone !!
They really blew open that other side.
Right side going up the lift.


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Tin

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We were talkin about that on Monday. Typically we don't get over there until there's way more snow. So it's hard to say but yes it was a little bushy !

It's part of the racers' master plan to destroy Mittersill. Let it all grow back in except on Baron's and Taft. :stirpot:
 

Tin

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Funny thing - when my son and I poached Zoomer is has maybe two sets of tracks down it and the snow was wet and heavy. The very next morning while driving up we see people on Zoomer. So we headed there from the Mittersill side but by 930ish it was pretty tracked out. I thought the snow in that trail was going to be rock hard and instead it dried out and seemed fluffy. Moral of the story get after the good early.


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We learned that yesterday. Big difference between 9:30 and 11:30. I know there is blow over and such, but could the difference between the greatness of the first 200' or so and the icy remainder be natural vs. manmade? It was soft, thin, pillows the first part then icy and loose stuff.
 

dlague

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We learned that yesterday. Big difference between 9:30 and 11:30. I know there is blow over and such, but could the difference between the greatness of the first 200' or so and the icy remainder be natural vs. manmade? It was soft, thin, pillows the first part then icy and loose stuff.

I think it has to do a lot with the change of pitch on that trail about mid way down. Everyone puts the brakes on and pushes the good snow off. However, on Pauli's it was the same nice turns to start then wide open ice right in the middle.
 

SkiRay

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What an awesome report. Father son day too!

Alicia and I have Canon on our hit list this year and we hope to make it. It would be awesome to ski with you @Dlague! And maybe get yo u on an edit of ours.

On Monday -Pico too was quiet and like 2 different days - starting out snowy, with powder stashes, cloudy then sun and brute force winds and cold. Son and I had the last run of the day - the mountain all to ourselves.
 

dlague

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What an awesome report. Father son day too!

Alicia and I have Canon on our hit list this year and we hope to make it. It would be awesome to ski with you @Dlague! And maybe get yo u on an edit of ours.

Absolutely!
 
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