Cannonball
New member
Date(s) Skied: Sunday, March 13, 2011
Resort or Ski Area: Cannon
Conditions: ~3" new, wet snow over boiler plate
Trip Report:
When I woke up Sunday morning I had zero thoughts about skiing or riding. I woke up late and the daylight savings change meant it was even an hour later. Nursing a decent hangover didn't help. I looked out the window and it was raining. Not really inspiring me to pull myself together. Potential ski partners either had other plans, were nursing the same hangover, or weren't thrilled with the weather. I sat around and drank coffee with no intentions of going anywhere.
At 11:00 Cannon updated their report to say that it was snowing and they had picked up 3". Bullshit! I can almost see Cannon from here and it was raining pretty steadily out the window. A season's worth of BS reporting got me fired up enough to pull things together and go see for myself. I threw the dog in the truck and headed to Cannon to call them on their BS before taking her for a walk. As we gained elevation in the notch...sure enough it switched over and was dumping wet flakes. Sorry Cannon, I shouldn't have doubted you! And sorry puppy but you're going to have to sit in the truck for a bit.
It was a long wet ride up the Peabody then up the Cannonball. Heavy wet snow at the base, lighter snow mid-mtn, pelting snow/ice with wind at the summit (thank you Gore-tex). The upper mtn was completely socked in. I was laughing as I rode over to the Cannonball chair strictly by memory. Anyone not familiar with the mtn wouldn't have even been able to find the lift. The snow up top was surprisingly good 3-4" of very soft, wet, slow mostly untracked snow on Ravine. Unfortunately the viz was so bad that it was disorienting and I decided to try out the lower Mtn.
Paulie's was fun but strange. The lower mtn snow was so wet that every turn sent the snow rolling into snowballs. So I was riding over all the snowballs from previous skiers while being chased by my own snowballs. The rest of the Zoomer trails were basically the same.
Overall a surprisingly good day. But the situation is tenuous there. With the rain, freeze, thaw that we've had over the past two weeks the base is bullet proof blue ice. If it weren't for the 3-4" new stuff on top it would have been rough. The coverage is very good though. Some new snow or warm temps will make it fine. A hard freeze would be scary.
Resort or Ski Area: Cannon
Conditions: ~3" new, wet snow over boiler plate
Trip Report:
When I woke up Sunday morning I had zero thoughts about skiing or riding. I woke up late and the daylight savings change meant it was even an hour later. Nursing a decent hangover didn't help. I looked out the window and it was raining. Not really inspiring me to pull myself together. Potential ski partners either had other plans, were nursing the same hangover, or weren't thrilled with the weather. I sat around and drank coffee with no intentions of going anywhere.
At 11:00 Cannon updated their report to say that it was snowing and they had picked up 3". Bullshit! I can almost see Cannon from here and it was raining pretty steadily out the window. A season's worth of BS reporting got me fired up enough to pull things together and go see for myself. I threw the dog in the truck and headed to Cannon to call them on their BS before taking her for a walk. As we gained elevation in the notch...sure enough it switched over and was dumping wet flakes. Sorry Cannon, I shouldn't have doubted you! And sorry puppy but you're going to have to sit in the truck for a bit.
It was a long wet ride up the Peabody then up the Cannonball. Heavy wet snow at the base, lighter snow mid-mtn, pelting snow/ice with wind at the summit (thank you Gore-tex). The upper mtn was completely socked in. I was laughing as I rode over to the Cannonball chair strictly by memory. Anyone not familiar with the mtn wouldn't have even been able to find the lift. The snow up top was surprisingly good 3-4" of very soft, wet, slow mostly untracked snow on Ravine. Unfortunately the viz was so bad that it was disorienting and I decided to try out the lower Mtn.
Paulie's was fun but strange. The lower mtn snow was so wet that every turn sent the snow rolling into snowballs. So I was riding over all the snowballs from previous skiers while being chased by my own snowballs. The rest of the Zoomer trails were basically the same.
Overall a surprisingly good day. But the situation is tenuous there. With the rain, freeze, thaw that we've had over the past two weeks the base is bullet proof blue ice. If it weren't for the 3-4" new stuff on top it would have been rough. The coverage is very good though. Some new snow or warm temps will make it fine. A hard freeze would be scary.
