Cannon 2/13/11

[Zand]

Date(s) Skied: Sunday 2/13/11

Resort or Ski Area: Cannon, NH

Conditions: PP, Light Snow and WINDY, low 10s at the top, 20 bottom

Trip Report:

Literally hit the snooze button over and over for 2 hours this morning, so I didn't actually get on the hill till around 11. Silly me. Headed right for the top and already a brutal headwind on the summit quad. Hit the Go-Green glade which was in nice shape. I love those 3 glades off the summit (even if their names are stupid and Vermontish)... skiing through the snowcovered pines on a light-to-moderate pitch is very nice. Of course, when you hit a low-lying pine branch and create a blizzard down your neck, different story.

Headed over to Mitt for a couple runs which were very boney. Pretty rough bumps and unforgiving snow. Lots of people I talked to said I wasn't alone with that opinion. Headed back to the main mountain and hit Echo glade. Lots of bumps in between the trees because of the traffic, but snow was good.

Kinsman was next up... my first run down it ever. IMO, while it is a great glade, I don't understand the hype on it being so hard. I've heard all these stories about cliffs and mandatory air and it being among the top 3 toughest glades in New England, but I thought it was actually rather easy. Definitely easier skiing than Bypass was today lol. Anyway, snow was pretty good with the occasional rock and stump.

After some Chop Suey at the summit, braved the summit quad for a couple runs on the upper mountain glades. They were so fun to ski, but still not worth the quad ride. Might've been easier if I had a mask, but man was it brutal up there this afternoon. I feel bad for the folks heading south through the Notch... must've been 50 MPH gusts in there.

Hit up the Zoomer area for a couple runs in the glades and a run on Rocket which was pretty windblown by then. Took Peabody up intending for maybe another summit run or two, but even Peabody was brutal by then and I decided to make that the last run. Just took lower Ravine down to Turnpike Glade. Ravine was a mess... icy windblown (and the loose snow was blowing by me faster than I was skiing), but the glade was alright being sheltered from the wind.

Awesome snow up there on most of the natural stuff right now, but damn was that wind brutal. I'll be at Burke on Tuesday (forecast: high 12) and Thursday (forecast: high 47... hello there). Speaking of which... did a couple hours up there Friday... woods were so SOFT. Will try to hit Cannon Friday on the way home from school... I'll probably have an hour or so, which should get me about 10 runs on what should be great spring bumps in the Zoomer area.

 

[Cannonball]

Nice report. Today was a tale of two days and I'm sorry to say that you missed the better of the two. 9-11:00 was amazingly bluebird, endless views, no wind, and warm. The whole mountain skied amazingly in the am. We managed to hit everything off Zoomer, 2 T2B on the tram, everything off Cannonball, and 2 Mitt laps in that time. But I agree the weather got pretty nasty by day's end (although good turns were still to be found).

BTW: grooming on Baron's was absurd.

 

[Puck it]

Elaborate about the grooming at Mitt? Did they take the groomed over the whole saddle? Why was it absurd?

 

[Cannonball]

Elaborate about the grooming at Mitt? Did they take the groomed over the whole saddle?

Yes

Why was it absurd?

See above

 

[Puck it]

Yes



See above

How did they groom around the tree islands?

 

[Cannonball]

They groomed it all. Down Taft, through and up the saddle, down Baron's. It was a superhighway.

 

[Cannonball]

How did they groom around the tree islands?

They didn't go that far down. It was mostly down to the top of the Mitt lift. Then down Skyline (I think)

 

[riverc0il]

It was a superhighway.

It's the new backcountry. All the kids are raving about it!

:dunce:

 

[Cannonball]

It's the new backcountry. All the kids are raving about it!

:dunce:

Ha!

I've kind of just decided to come to terms with the whole thing, stop complaining, and embrace it. But I will say that there were many people there today way out of their element. They weren't enjoying themselves and they weren't helping the enjoyment of others. It's in a very odd limbo right now where the old regulars are generally unhappy and a newer crowd is excited to try it...but ends up unhappy. I think it will settle out soon.

The snow is so damn good everywhere right now that it really doesn't matter.

 

[riverc0il]

I've kind of just decided to come to terms with the whole thing, stop complaining, and embrace it. But I will say that there were many people there today way out of their element. They weren't enjoying themselves and they weren't helping the enjoyment of others. It's in a very odd limbo right now where the old regulars are generally unhappy and a newer crowd is excited to try it...but ends up unhappy. I think it will settle out soon.

Well said. The irony of the situation is truly interesting. I have pretty much come to terms with it to the point that I am in favor of snow making expansion on the major Mitt runs ASAP. My major point of contention is this whole "backcountry" thing. They were able to get away with it until the lift went in. Until they do away with that non-sense, I will continue to ridicule to the greatest extent possible my favorite mountain without shame.

Another interesting issue.... they put on their web site that they were going to groom Baron's. Right? Well... the interesting thing about that is that Cannon doesn't officially have a trail called Baron's. Only skiers that know the mountain know that trail by that name. Since they are not using a naming system on Mittersill, it is odd that they are calling it out in the trip report, no? It certainly does skiers new to Mittersill no good.

:dunce:

Unrelated, Cannon has passed their seasonal average already and seems destined for a 200"+ season. Sweet!

 

[Cannonball]

Well said. The irony of the situation is truly interesting. I have pretty much come to terms with it to the point that I am in favor of snow making expansion on the major Mitt runs ASAP. My major point of contention is this whole "backcountry" thing. They were able to get away with it until the lift went in. Until they do away with that non-sense, I will continue to ridicule to the greatest extent possible my favorite mountain without shame.

Another interesting issue.... they put on their web site that they were going to groom Baron's. Right? Well... the interesting thing about that is that Cannon doesn't officially have a trail called Baron's. Only skiers that know the mountain know that trail by that name. Since they are not using a naming system on Mittersill, it is odd that they are calling it out in the trip report, no? It certainly does skiers new to Mittersill no good.

:dunce:

Unrelated, Cannon has passed their seasonal average already and seems destined for a 200"+ season. Sweet!

Too funny....my friends and I love to ridicule the absurd decisions at Cannon...all while skiing it day after day and loving it.

I thought the same thing about the naming. Their report also called out Skyline. Who knows. They are trying to be everything to everyone.

But again, like you say, they are having a record year. The goods are there for those who know where to look. I've hit things this year I've never hit in 25 years there. And even the groomers were phenomenal today. So whose complaining.....

 

[Puck it]

I agreecwith the naming and the amount of names. They need snowmaking over there to make that lift viable. They just need to be cautious with the grooming.

 

[Johnskiismore]

Grooming over at Mittersill, that didn't take long did it!

I will check it out on Wednesday

 

[ceo]

I was up there on Sunday too, and hit Go Green Glade for a first run, not much earlier than you. Need to do that again; was real pretty in there. Didn't do Mittersill because I wanted to maximize my grownup ski time while the kid was in his lesson. For the first time we did all our skiing on the main mountain (as opposed to Tuckerbrook); he did top of Peabody to Tramway base without falling once.

We had a late lunch and then Benjamin conked out for the day; he was fighting something off the previous day, so it's not surprising. Looking up at the winds howling over the upper mountain, I wasn't particularly disappointed.