Cannon Lover's Thread

[urungus]

Bittersweet day today. Working on trip report but here’s a couple photos for starters

 

[urungus]

My first time to the top of the observation tower, great view

 

[ceo]

Kind of wish I'd made it up there to take a final ride. Was planning to when I went up for a hike last month, but the hike took a lot longer than expected (pro tip: always carry a headlamp!). Been riding that thing regularly since it was built.
On a clear day the view from the observation tower is amazing.

 

[4aprice]

Going to be interesting to see how the closing of the tram will be felt. Understood that it has been only operating weekends but it seems like the loss of parking areas over there and T2B direct access will be somewhat of change in the way the mountain skis. Zoomer is kinda of a hike from that base. Plans for me are to get there one day this season and I got to admit I think I will miss the Tram.

 

[bigbob]

I can't see where closing the tram for this season makes sense, unless they think it is going to fall down if they run it for the winter season. The engineering can take place on a computor screen in an office. Unless they are going to start doing work on the foundations in the middle of winter, why close it down!

 

[snoseek]

If.theyre going with the weekend only schedule I would rather they address the other lifts first.

To me cannon without a tram skis fragmented and COLD. It's still a great mtn, with good vibes and a wonderful staff but what happens if Peabody, zoomer or the top quad go down this year?

 

[deadheadskier]

It's really unfortunate they aren't going the Gondola route.

If I have one major complaint about Cannon, it's that the lift layout absolutely sucks. Having a work horse , high capacity, TTB lift instead of the Tram would help with that problem quite a bit.

 

[snoseek]

It's really unfortunate they aren't going the Gondola route.

If I have one major complaint about Cannon, it's that the lift layout absolutely sucks. Having a work horse , high capacity, TTB lift instead of the Tram would help with that problem quite a bit.

From a skiers perspective your totally right.

 

[thebigo]

probably because i always start my day at mittersill, I do not see the loss of the tram as terribly impactful on the skiing experience. just hope they still run cannonball when peabody does inevitably break. a private upper mountain for those willing to hike will be awesome.

It's really unfortunate they aren't going the Gondola route.

If I have one major complaint about Cannon, it's that the lift layout absolutely sucks. Having a work horse , high capacity, TTB lift instead of the Tram would help with that problem quite a bit.

agree a top to bottom high speed would be a game changer but the current tram line is not the place. the cannoball line extended to the base would be awesome. mountain would ski top to bottom similar to wildcat, not the current clockwise pod tour i take. they would need to bury the four snowmaking routes through mid mountain but may actually help spread crowds off middle cannon. would also need an alta style flat lift from current tram base to zoomer.

 

[Newpylong]

Speaking of Mittersill we are supposed to be putting in some replacement HKDs there this weekend on the steeps. They either apparently broke a ton of Snow Logics that were there or removed them.

 

[thebigo]

Speaking of Mittersill we are supposed to be putting in some replacement HKDs there this weekend on the steeps. They either apparently broke a ton of Snow Logics that were there or removed them.

FSC raised over $100,000 this week for snowmaking upgrades, eversource is apparently offering a 50% rebate on the HKD equipment if installed before the end of the year, Holderness also kicked in a pile of money on top of the $100,000. We were told the shopping list includes 30 land guns, dozens of stick guns and hundreds of hoses.

Ultimate goal for the club is snowmaking completely independent from cannon using FSC staff and resources. It was stated taft open every year by dec 1 and barons by middle december is the objective. Club believes renting lane space and holding higher profile races will provide an ROI? U18 Nationals is at mittersill this year, first week of march, no idea how the club is going to staff it.

 

[4aprice]

From what I understand the summer season is the reason the state is so gung ho in keeping the Tram running. That said I think for skiing purposes it might be better if they replaced Zoomer, which is really kind of obsolete in terms of length and vertical, with something (gondola, bubble or detachable) from the Tram base area to somewhere (and I don't know mountain well enough to know if its even possible) that could connect with Profile chair and still serve Avalanche, Paulies, Zoomer and what ever the other trails are that the current Zoomer chair services.

 

[Newpylong]

FSC raised over $100,000 this week for snowmaking upgrades, eversource is apparently offering a 50% rebate on the HKD equipment if installed before the end of the year, Holderness also kicked in a pile of money on top of the $100,000. We were told the shopping list includes 30 land guns, dozens of stick guns and hundreds of hoses.

Ultimate goal for the club is snowmaking completely independent from cannon using FSC staff and resources. It was stated taft open every year by dec 1 and barons by middle december is the objective. Club believes renting lane space and holding higher profile races will provide an ROI? U18 Nationals is at mittersill this year, first week of march, no idea how the club is going to staff it.

Judging by what I have seen, getting away from Cannon would be a benefit lol.

 

[Smellytele]

To be honest I like skiing the pods. Well zoomer, upper mtn and mittersill. Rarely if ever used the tram. And the lower mtn quad I view as only a transport. It would suck having to ski down to Peabody every time from the top.

 

[ceo]

The Tram is, and has always been, a summer tourist attraction first and foremost; its role as part of Cannon's lift network is entirely secondary. When the state held a hearing on the tram replacement a few years ago, there was overwhelming support for a new tram; as someone said, "Nobody cares about a gondola".

 

[deadheadskier]

From what I understand the summer season is the reason the state is so gung ho in keeping the Tram running. That said I think for skiing purposes it might be better if they replaced Zoomer, which is really kind of obsolete in terms of length and vertical, with something (gondola, bubble or detachable) from the Tram base area to somewhere (and I don't know mountain well enough to know if its even possible) that could connect with Profile chair and still serve Avalanche, Paulies, Zoomer and what ever the other trails are that the current Zoomer chair services.

I would love it if the mountain figured out a way to lengthen Zoomer to the top of Peabody so you can access Cannonball and it doesn't take three lifts to get to the summit from the Tram side when it's not operational.

Unfortunately I just don't see it. Cannon's problem is the middle of the mountain lacks sufficient downhill capacity to handle the traffic it gets already from people skiing off Peabody or coming down from the summit. So, if they extend Zoomer and add even more people to the mix, it'll be that much worse.

I don't know what or even if there is a solution to the trail and lift layout design flaws that forces people to ski short vertical pods vs top to bottom runs. A lot of it simply has to do with the mountain topography. There's no real opportunity to expand downhill capacity in the middle. Skiers right of Extension is just too steep to put in a trail that wouldn't be an ice luge given the winds in the notch.

Only thing I could possibly think of is rerouting the eventual Peabody replacement to terminate somewhere above the Upper Ravine runout / traverse, which might make trails like Turnpike and Lower Hardscrabble suck up more traffic than everyone going down Rock Garden and Extension. Then maybe they could replace Zoomer with a lift that goes up to Peabody. It sure would be nice to have two options to get to Cannonball in the absence of the Tram.

 

[JDMRoma]

Its going to be interesting to see how much the line at the cannonball is going to be with it being the only lift with summit access !
tram was taking a good amount of skiers away from the Cannonball ......