Cannon 12/16, Bretton Woods 12/16, Attitash 12/16

[NHpowderhound]

Road trip!
Holy crap,what a day!
Cannon:
The drive up through Franconia Notch was amazing! The wind actually blew the back of my truck loose from the road and almost spun me out! I made it to the Peabody lot and was a bit dissapointed that there wasn't a whole lot of fresh snow and it looked like it was winding down with actual breaks in the clouds. I booted up at the truck and headed for the Peabody Express which I couldnt belive was running.A VERY windy ride up. At one point I was actually nervous the wind would rip my Fats off my feet it was that windy! Extremely gusty! I was surprised how warm it was considering the wind. I reasoned that the Zoomer chair would offer a bit more protestion so I headed downhill. Conditions were mostly a mix of dense POW, PPWD & windscoured. Not bad but not great. Zoomer was pretty good. However the ride up the Zoomer chair was still . This time the wind hit you in the back and would push the chair up so it would feel like it may tip backwards and spill it's occupants. I know it wouldnt but that's the sensation I got. I took a couple more runs down Zoomer when it started to sleet and r@!n pretty hard. At that point I made the choice to make the drive to...
Bretton Woods:
The drive up Rt.3 was just as if not more of a whiteknuckle ride than Franc's Notch ! Trees and limbs were scattered all over the road and the r@!n had turned back into snow. Whiteout conditions were pretty common as the wind would create a ground blizzard.
I made it to Bretton Woods which boasts "Wind is not a factor at Bretton Woods! Wind has affected lift operation only 4 out of 3969 days." Well tomorow I better see that figure changed to "5 out of 3970 days". Was pretty dissapointed to see that Cannon would be spinning those two lifts and BW couldnt spin thiers. I couldnt really blame them as i stood in the baselodge with the 10 other patrons there that day and watched the wind dial on the wall gust from 40mph to 70mph ! So I asked myself,"NHPH, do you think it's a good idea to skin alone to the top of Bretton Woods in 70mph winds to ski untracked powder? Of course it is!"
I skinned up to the West Bowl area taking a very liesurely pace up some beginner trails and saw only one ski patroller putting up rope. He bareley gave me a look. Cool! That must mean he wont see me duck the rope into Glade West !
Cover was deep but the super dense quality of the almost knee deep powder I found made for VERY slow going. I pretty much had to straightline the whole damn run,polling downhill for much of it too. Oh well it was still a nice tour 8) .
By the time I got back to the base area the wind had dramattically died down yet the lifts werent spinning :blink: . I went inside and observed 10mph winds with gust to 25mph. I looked around and I was the only patron around. It was obvious they werent going to open the hill for just me so off I went to ...
Attitash
Free ski day at Attitash today ! How could I drive by a free day at Attitash with it snowing out! I pulled into the lot around 2:30 and got to the lift about 2:50. It looked like most people were packing it in for the day! Bye bye! I took three big GS runs and called it a day.
Sorry, no pics this trip.
I'll be sore tomorrow.
((*
*))NHPH

 

[thetrailboss]

Wow that is a road trip.

I'd almost be willing to bet that the BW figure doesn't change :-? If there was a wind problem today, then they've had them before probably.

 

[awf170]

Road trip!
Holy crap,what a day!
Cannon:
The drive up through Franconia Notch was amazing! The wind actually blew the back of my truck loose from the road and almost spun me out! I made it to the Peabody lot and was a bit dissapointed that there wasn't a whole lot of fresh snow and it looked like it was winding down with actual breaks in the clouds. I booted up at the truck and headed for the Peabody Express which I couldnt belive was running.A VERY windy ride up. At one point I was actually nervous the wind would rip my Fats off my feet it was that windy! Extremely gusty! I was surprised how warm it was considering the wind. I reasoned that the Zoomer chair would offer a bit more protestion so I headed downhill. Conditions were mostly a mix of dense POW, PPWD & windscoured. Not bad but not great. Zoomer was pretty good. However the ride up the Zoomer chair was still . This time the wind hit you in the back and would push the chair up so it would feel like it may tip backwards and spill it's occupants. I know it wouldnt but that's the sensation I got. I took a couple more runs down Zoomer when it started to sleet and r@!n pretty hard. At that point I made the choice to make the drive to...

I though my skis were going to get ripped of too. What time did you leave anyway, cause I would of that I would see you with limited terrian open. Zoomer was calm... until the middle of one ride a was sitting there with the bar up and a insane wind came right up the notch, I really thought I was going to fall of until the guy next to me threw the bar down, after that I was pretty horrified to hit a tower, they shut it down right after that ride from hell. I couldnt believe how painful it was riding up and getting the sleet in your face on the HSQ.

I could not believe the lifts were still running at cannon, I really dont think any other ski area would have ran there lifts today(not too sure if this is a complament of not :-? )

 

[NHpowderhound]

Austin, I got there about 9:15 & caught my first chair by 9:30ish. I left around10:45-11:00 and headed for BW. Just after it changed over to wind driven r@!n/sleet.
Did they shut down the whole mountain? The feeling I got riding the PBDY X when the wind got a hold of my fats and tried to rip them and or me off the chair was one I never want again . The chair seats started iceing up too making it even more scary.
Still fun in retrospect. Glad I went and satisfied with the choices I made.
((*
*))NHPH

 

[awf170]

Austin, I got there about 9:15 & caught my first chair by 9:30ish. I left around10:45-11:00 and headed for BW. Just after it changed over to wind driven r@!n/sleet.
Did they shut down the whole mountain? The feeling I got riding the PBDY X when the wind got a hold of my fats and tried to rip them and or me off the chair was one I never want again . The chair seats started iceing up too making it even more scary.
Still fun in retrospect. Glad I went and satisfied with the choices I made.
((*
*))NHPH

I started skiing at about 10 and skiied til 12. Yeah, PBDY HSQ was windy, but when the south wind came zoomer was even worse Those icy seats were so scary, every time the winds came head on I thought my skis would be ripped off or I would slide right off, still not as scary as almost falling off zoomer because of a crazy crosswind...
It still baffles me how cannon got rain, when the base of notch got all snow, driving down the notch was wild, leaving cannon at 12 it was pouring but once we got to boise(sp?) rock it was all sleet and snow with hurricane force winds, but once we got down to the lincoln area it was all snow and it was dumping, it was all snow until about 10 miles north of concord, insane

 

[riverc0il]

that is pretty weird regarding the rain/snow line. usually the phenomenon is reversed with lincoln not getting much then driving north into the notch which got slammed with snow. gotta love the weather!

 

[awf170]

that is pretty weird regarding the rain/snow line. usually the phenomenon is reversed with lincoln not getting much then driving north into the notch which got slammed with snow. gotta love the weather!

Yeah I know, it was the stangest thing I have ever seen, the further down the notch you went the more powdery the snow was too, around plymouth it was pretty much powder, totally bizarre. What did Burke get out this storm?

 

[riverc0il]

StJ got a lot of snow, so i assume burke did well -- they are reporting 12" which sounds about right. wow, this is an incredible december so far. early season forecasts have been very accurate.