I met two coworkers at Cannon for a premeditated sick day. A third guy, who organized the whole thing, skipped out on our skip day claiming he was actually sick. Whatever... his loss.
I showed up at 8am for 9am first chair. I was the second car in the lot. There was fog around Plymouth on the way up, but the mountain was clear when I arrived. I got out my bluebird day goggles, but around 8:45am the clouds moved in so I had to make a quick gear change out. I was surprised how many people showed up for first chair, and I was on the second one. I took a few runs before my coworkers eventually showed up.
Cannon advertised two inches overnight so I was hoping for fresh first tracks. Instead the snow was blown into patches and to one side of the trail. There was creamy soft snow intermixed with crisp cords which made for some interesting dynamic balancing. I was convinced I had brought the wrong skis (Nordica NRGY 100) and thought about heading back to my truck to swap out for something narrower. Around 10am it started to snow steadily. Powder day!
I spent the second half of the morning with my coworkers in Tuckerbrook. One of them was an intermediate intimidated by the now pervasive ungroomed snow, and the other was only on his second day out on skis. I gave the beginner lesson for a few runs before lunch. Around 11:30am water started to pond at the bottom of the Tuckerbrook lift. The water level kept rising to the point when your skis skimmed across the ponding water when boarding the lift. The result was a solid glaze on the bottom of the skis that prompted a lunch break. Around noon they shut down the Tuckerbrook quad due to the rising flood and ran the Brookside chair instead.
After lunch we sent the beginner off to the Brookside chair. After a few runs with my coworker, it became clear that there were no friends on a powder day. By this point every surface on the mountain was buttery soft. I blew him off and went to ski up the mountain. Everything skied fantastic. By the end of the day it got a little scratchy on the main groomer choke points, but it wasn't bad at all. The vast majority of the mountain remained soft.
Upper Hardscrabble was great. Middle Hardscrabble was a bit thin but skiable. Red Ball had one required water crossing. Gary's, Rocket, and Zoomer were beautiful powder runs. Avalanche, Paulie's, and Extension were powder over whales which was a blast.
The new snowmaking system at Cannon is really impressive. I was blown away by the amount of terrain they already have buried with manmade. Today I cheated on Wildcat a bit, and I have to admit that I'm in love. They are presenting a compelling option for next year.
I showed up at 8am for 9am first chair. I was the second car in the lot. There was fog around Plymouth on the way up, but the mountain was clear when I arrived. I got out my bluebird day goggles, but around 8:45am the clouds moved in so I had to make a quick gear change out. I was surprised how many people showed up for first chair, and I was on the second one. I took a few runs before my coworkers eventually showed up.
Cannon advertised two inches overnight so I was hoping for fresh first tracks. Instead the snow was blown into patches and to one side of the trail. There was creamy soft snow intermixed with crisp cords which made for some interesting dynamic balancing. I was convinced I had brought the wrong skis (Nordica NRGY 100) and thought about heading back to my truck to swap out for something narrower. Around 10am it started to snow steadily. Powder day!
I spent the second half of the morning with my coworkers in Tuckerbrook. One of them was an intermediate intimidated by the now pervasive ungroomed snow, and the other was only on his second day out on skis. I gave the beginner lesson for a few runs before lunch. Around 11:30am water started to pond at the bottom of the Tuckerbrook lift. The water level kept rising to the point when your skis skimmed across the ponding water when boarding the lift. The result was a solid glaze on the bottom of the skis that prompted a lunch break. Around noon they shut down the Tuckerbrook quad due to the rising flood and ran the Brookside chair instead.
After lunch we sent the beginner off to the Brookside chair. After a few runs with my coworker, it became clear that there were no friends on a powder day. By this point every surface on the mountain was buttery soft. I blew him off and went to ski up the mountain. Everything skied fantastic. By the end of the day it got a little scratchy on the main groomer choke points, but it wasn't bad at all. The vast majority of the mountain remained soft.
Upper Hardscrabble was great. Middle Hardscrabble was a bit thin but skiable. Red Ball had one required water crossing. Gary's, Rocket, and Zoomer were beautiful powder runs. Avalanche, Paulie's, and Extension were powder over whales which was a blast.
The new snowmaking system at Cannon is really impressive. I was blown away by the amount of terrain they already have buried with manmade. Today I cheated on Wildcat a bit, and I have to admit that I'm in love. They are presenting a compelling option for next year.
