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Cannon - 3/8/18 powdery day

speden

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Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Messages
913
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I've been wanting to try Cannon for a while, but always thought it would be icy and too technical for me. With the storm it seemed like a good chance to try it with some forgiving soft snow. Now I'm sorry I waited so long to try it, since the terrain is very nice.

The drive up was slow, with lots of slow pokes and snow plows, but we got up there from Boston by a little after 9am. Looks like mostly a local crowd was there today, and they had already grabbed the best parking spots by the time we got there, so we parked in a lower lot. Still it wasn't a big crowd and there were no waits for lifts.

Cannon wasn't in the bulls-eye of the storm, but got a solid 5" overnight, and it snowed all day so they picked up about 4" more. The snow was light and fluffy, so conditions were very good. We also lucked out and had no wind and comfortable temps in the upper 20's.

The snow wasn't quite enough to open up the glades since they'd been down to bare grass before the storm on the lower mountain, and the glades on the upper mountain were mostly ice. I'd say if they get one more storm the glades should open up.

We tried out all the lift pods except for the beginner's area. The trails off the Zoomer lift were probably our favorite. They are short, but lively. Second favorite was the Mittersill side. We did the hike over and it was practically deserted, so tons of lightly tracked powder was available. The only downside was the slow lift over there is sort of a buzz kill.

Overall a fun day, but I did manage to sprain my wrist on a run down Upper Hardscrabble. It was ungroomed icy moguls covered by the fresh snow. I was enjoying that, but then got going a little too hot in the steep part, and hit a solid ice bump and got off balance, then ate snow about three bumps later. Hopefully I didn't sprain it too bad because I want to get back out somewhere on Sunday.

Seems like a more serious type of skier there than at other nearby hills, although I did overhear a teenager exclaim at one point, "Where do all these bumps come from??!!" :) The fresh snow was bumping up nicely all over the mountain, so my legs were completely shot by the end of the day.
 

colinuberalles

New member
Joined
Jan 30, 2016
Messages
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Jealous. Cannon is hands one of the best mountains (and closest for me) in the east on a powder day. I haven't been there in two years because when the season's aren't great, Cannon isn't too kind to us boarders.
 

speden

Active member
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Messages
913
Points
28
The Cannonball and Zoomer didn't bother me much since they don't cover as much distance as the Mittersill lift. I didn't time it, but the ride felt twice as long over there.
 
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