billski
Active member
Cannon was firing from all barrels today. It is an absolute pleasure to ski Cannon when there is fresh powder, which seems so rare. It was also a rare December day when things are so good. It was so beautiful to skim along without a sound to be hear, no familiar "scrape-skid-scrape" sound. Alas, my first mistake. Not only did I only have my good cruisers, but I was longing for my mid-fats all day.
I went there based on yesterday's report and the fact that they were not brutally grooming all the goods. Smart Mgt. move - they did about 50% groomed at left the rest the Mad River Way.... Compromise for a day trip: would rather have been in the Green mountains, but I got to cannon in 2 hours, which was about it for solo driving today, not much sleep. Great conditions for day-after-powder-day.
Everyone has an agenda. Mine is powder. I spent the day looking for it; I was solo and stayed out of the woods, although I did manage several forays into powdery deep, sinful territory, which, if I was still a practicing Catholic, I would need to confess my sins to the priest. Alas, I don't have to, though I do believe I have suffered some rope burns
I would be remiss if I did not confess that my bases suffered some "interesting" damage due to loose rocks, perhaps of the one-foot or there about variety.
Trails of the day, had to be Zoomer (black) and, believe it or not, Turnpike(green/blue) and Ravine(blue). Turnpike and Ravine seemed largely undiscovered. I was making fresh tracks at 4pm in boot to knee deep, dry, light pow which just blew all around. And I'm not talking about skiing on the trail edges! No wind, which made the day even more enjoyable. While the pitch on these trails is nothing big, the fact that you could cruise swiftly though powder untracked made it simply addictive.
Zoomer was delightful and in very good shape (Intermediates, you shouldn't be intimidated, you should try it. It had "moguls" if you will, that were 2-3 feet in height, but they were pure fluff. You simply could just blow right through them. Upper Zoomer was best. Someone must have picked every rock off that trail. I did encounter a lot of grass towards days end, but nary a rock.
Paulie's Folly(black) was fun, but a lot of dirt and rock was scraped up, especially towards the bottom.
Rocket(Blue), I thought was in pretty bad shape - lots of dirt, snow skidded away - I guess that's because it was blue and more people went that way. I skipped Avalanche largely because I was lazy and didn't want to hoof back to the lift.
The herds stuck largely to a trail named Cannon(Blue), which unfortunately was scraped off pretty quickly. While fresh pow was still to be found on this run, you often had to look for it. Lots of scraping sounds to be heard. It was pretty much the only place you could just bomb down the hill. Once was enough for me.
I took a few pics with my camera phone, had a color balance issue, but here they are.
I don't know how to embed the images, so here is the link:
http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=800
It's been a few years since I've been there, I noticed some small, thoughtful improvements in lodge, rearrange the gift shop, etc. Tickets were $39 for out of staters, 25 for NHites on Wednesday. No Tram or service to the top. Lots of talk about getting more open this weekend. Only snowmaking I saw was over in the learning area/Brookside.
I went there based on yesterday's report and the fact that they were not brutally grooming all the goods. Smart Mgt. move - they did about 50% groomed at left the rest the Mad River Way.... Compromise for a day trip: would rather have been in the Green mountains, but I got to cannon in 2 hours, which was about it for solo driving today, not much sleep. Great conditions for day-after-powder-day.
Everyone has an agenda. Mine is powder. I spent the day looking for it; I was solo and stayed out of the woods, although I did manage several forays into powdery deep, sinful territory, which, if I was still a practicing Catholic, I would need to confess my sins to the priest. Alas, I don't have to, though I do believe I have suffered some rope burns
I would be remiss if I did not confess that my bases suffered some "interesting" damage due to loose rocks, perhaps of the one-foot or there about variety.Trails of the day, had to be Zoomer (black) and, believe it or not, Turnpike(green/blue) and Ravine(blue). Turnpike and Ravine seemed largely undiscovered. I was making fresh tracks at 4pm in boot to knee deep, dry, light pow which just blew all around. And I'm not talking about skiing on the trail edges! No wind, which made the day even more enjoyable. While the pitch on these trails is nothing big, the fact that you could cruise swiftly though powder untracked made it simply addictive.
Zoomer was delightful and in very good shape (Intermediates, you shouldn't be intimidated, you should try it. It had "moguls" if you will, that were 2-3 feet in height, but they were pure fluff. You simply could just blow right through them. Upper Zoomer was best. Someone must have picked every rock off that trail. I did encounter a lot of grass towards days end, but nary a rock.
Paulie's Folly(black) was fun, but a lot of dirt and rock was scraped up, especially towards the bottom.
Rocket(Blue), I thought was in pretty bad shape - lots of dirt, snow skidded away - I guess that's because it was blue and more people went that way. I skipped Avalanche largely because I was lazy and didn't want to hoof back to the lift.
The herds stuck largely to a trail named Cannon(Blue), which unfortunately was scraped off pretty quickly. While fresh pow was still to be found on this run, you often had to look for it. Lots of scraping sounds to be heard. It was pretty much the only place you could just bomb down the hill. Once was enough for me.
I took a few pics with my camera phone, had a color balance issue, but here they are.
I don't know how to embed the images, so here is the link:
http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=800
It's been a few years since I've been there, I noticed some small, thoughtful improvements in lodge, rearrange the gift shop, etc. Tickets were $39 for out of staters, 25 for NHites on Wednesday. No Tram or service to the top. Lots of talk about getting more open this weekend. Only snowmaking I saw was over in the learning area/Brookside.
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