Cannon Mountain, 11-29-14

[granite]

Patience in abundance was needed since my first day on skis two weeks ago. Thanksgiving, snow storm, power outage (still without it) huge work load, and severe lower back pain kept me off the slopes until Saturday at Cannon Mountain. Arriving at the mountain at 7:45am it was 8 degrees, clear blue skies and the snow guns were blasting the lower Peabody slopes and also the mid mountain. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a winter day calmer in the mountains before. The air was completely still, when there is no wind through the tree tops, nor even a gentle breeze, the snow guns were pointed high and the manmade marvel fell gently and evenly over the bottom of the mountain. The entire front five was open with 15 inches of natural snow for those with older skis as there were some bare spots and hazards that could cause damage. With my new skis, I stayed on the snow making trails, all were covered with a deep layer of snow from edge to edge. The principle route from the top of the Eagle Cliff triple was Lower Canon, on the right it was tracked up powder and a pure delight all day long. To the left a groomed track held up well all day long. Towards the bottom the snow guns left a silky layer of smooth consistent manmade powder that got better as the day progressed. Gremlin was totally covered and groomed and skied extremely well, next to it was Parkway buried in snow and ungroomed-tracked up and bumped up a little. Where the two come together towards the bottom was found perfect mid-winter snow all the way to the base. Rocket and Gary’s were both covered edge to edge, half was groomed-half was not. As usual, the edges of these two runs is where I could be found when skiing those trails.

Lift lines on Eagle Cliff and Zoomer were never very long at all. The sun was bright and the day got warmer and warmer. Everyone was happy even though Cannon failed to open the Peabody Express to mid mountain, there was enough terrain open to spread everyone out. Crowding on the slopes was a little more than usual for Cannon, but nothing too concerning.
Those that I spoke with that were skiing the natural snow trails were loving it. I kind of regretted that I didn't bring older skis as I would have enjoyed skiing the natural snow trails but I was anxious to try my new skis for a second time. I should have brought two pairs of skis with me, an older pair to click into to ski all over the front five.

For last run I carefully made my way over to Jasper’s Hideaway. I was there all alone and had a good look around the Notch and the Mountains, it was nice to see Echo Lake almost completely frozen over.

At the Cannonball Pub I had a Moat Mountain Czech Pilsner 16 oz. draft, it was so good I had another and headed home. Last weekend my wife and I watched a new 2014 Guns N Roses concert, the last song was Patience with a fantastic 3 minute acoustic guitar intro. On the drive to the mountain at 6 am I put in their Greatest Hits CD. Patience was the song of the day as that is what it took for me to make my second ski day of the year.

 

[Cannonball]

Fantastic report once again. Heading there right now, and even more excited thanks to this report.

 

[dlague]

Wish I would have know you were there. Great trip report. We got there around 10 and looking around from the lift and things looked really nice and it was! We skied Gary's and Rocket to start and it was beginning to get scraped off on the groomed section. However later runs on those trails I skied to skiers right and powder bumps we abundant and skied nice. My wife and son to some runs on there own so I could explore Zoomer Pauli's and Avalanche. What ever powder there was is now decent powder bumps with troughs of exposed dirt, leaves. twigs etc, it still skied well but the scraping sounds from rocks made me cringe. Zoomer was the most exposed with avalanche fairing the best. I opted limit my runs to one pass on each of them due to skiing new skis. Having older skis would have been even more fun. All the trails on the Peabody side skied nice and actually pretty fast. There were tons of jibbing spots from water runoff troughs to standalone bumps that were nice to catch air on. As granite mentioned, parkway was left natural and was very playful. Overall a great day.

I was disappointed that we could not go into the pub because after 2:30 because it was 21 and older only - that was f'd up. We had our 12 year old. We were going listen to the band have drinks and eat there - instead we headed home. On to of that outside of the pub you can have drinks from the bar but no coolers or bagged lunches another WTF. If you bring your own food you are relegated to the lower level which does not allow alcohol. How much money are they losing because of this.

On a sad note - a liftie was seriously hurt at the Eagle Cliff chair as a chunk of ice came crashing down and split her head open. I know more of the details and it is really bad.

 

[Puck it]

Wish I would have know you were there. Great trip report. We got there around 10 and looking around from the lift and things looked really nice and it was! We skied Gary's and Rocket to start and it was beginning to get scraped off on the groomed section. However later runs on those trails I skied to skiers right and powder bumps we abundant and skied nice. My wife and son to some runs on there own so I could explore Zoomer Pauli's and Avalanche. What ever powder there was is now decent powder bumps with troughs of exposed dirt, leaves. twigs etc, it still skied well but the scraping sounds from rocks made me cringe. Zoomer was the most exposed with avalanche fairing the best. I opted limit my runs to one pass on each of them due to skiing new skis. Having older skis would have been even more fun. All the trails on the Peabody side skied nice and actually pretty fast. There were tons of jibbing spots from water runoff troughs to standalone bumps that were nice to catch air on. As granite mentioned, parkway was left natural and was very playful. Overall a great day.

I was disappointed that we could not go into the pub because after 2:30 because it was 21 and older only - that was f'd up. We had our 12 year old. We were going listen to the band have drinks and eat there - instead we headed home. On to of that outside of the pub you can have drinks from the bar but no coolers or bagged lunches another WTF. If you bring your own food you are relegated to the lower level which does not allow alcohol. How much money are they losing because of this.

On a sad note - a liftie was seriously hurt at the Eagle Cliff chair as a chunk of ice came crashing down and split her head open. I know more of the details and it is really bad.

. The Peabody allows bagged lunches also. Not sure about booze. That is why we have the Zoomer bar!

 

[dlague]

. The Peabody allows bagged lunches also. Not sure about booze. That is why we have the Zoomer bar!

I will have to frequent that establishment!

 

[xwhaler]

Nice report...planning to be there Saturday. For the Cannon regulars, when does upper mtn start to see snowmaking that could have them open Cannonball chair?

 

[Puck it]

Nice report...planning to be there Saturday. For the Cannon regulars, when does upper mtn start to see snowmaking that could have them open Cannonball chair?

They will have Upper Cannon, Tramway, and Upper Ravine blown by Xmas. We should see them startt next week on those. They will get two ways down off the HSQ like Mid Cannon and the Links to Spookie then start the upper mtn. They will light up Zoomer also.

 

[xwhaler]

Any chance of the carpet being open this wknd? Will have my 2 yr old son w/ me and while wife skis (and vice-versa) I can maybe introduce him to the carpet.

 

[Puck it]

Any chance of the carpet being open this wknd? Will have my 2 yr old son w/ me and while wife skis (and vice-versa) I can maybe introduce him to the carpet.

It looked like they were blowing it on Friday. The Brookside is open though.

 

[deadheadskier]

man, that's scary. swift healing to your girlfriend.

 

[Puck it]

Wow. Hope she is doing well.

 

[dlague]

Thanks for the concern. That was my girlfriend. She's doing OK - recovering slowly. It's a scary time. I missed her by 5 minutes as I was trying to bring her a coffee at the lift. I saw the evac but had no idea it was her in the sled. Thinking she got bumped to another lift, I rode up and skied around looking for her. Only after getting to Zoomer and talking with another liftie did I discover what happened and rushed off to Littleton after her.

I was wish I was there 5 minutes early so the ice would have hit my helmeted head. At any rate I'm far more hard headed so it would have likely shattered the ice anyways :lol:

She's thankful it wasn't a kid at Eagle Cliff since that ice chunk likely would have killed a child, helmet or not. It nearly did her in.

I was talking to my brother-in-law who apparently knows you. We told him about it and had expressed concern and he was keeping us updated. I was not comfortable sharing details here so thanks for sharing. Best wishes to her healing!

 

[granite]

Thanks for the concern. That was my girlfriend. She's doing OK - recovering slowly. It's a scary time. I missed her by 5 minutes as I was trying to bring her a coffee at the lift. I saw the evac but had no idea it was her in the sled. Thinking she got bumped to another lift, I rode up and skied around looking for her. Only after getting to Zoomer and talking with another liftie did I discover what happened and rushed off to Littleton after her.

I was wish I was there 5 minutes early so the ice would have hit my helmeted head. At any rate I'm far more hard headed so it would have likely shattered the ice anyways :lol:

She's thankful it wasn't a kid at Eagle Cliff since that ice chunk likely would have killed a child, helmet or not. It nearly did her in.

Really sorry this happened and I'm glad she's on her way to recovery. I think I remember who she is, working the lift on Saturday, because she was very polite when she was loading the lift.

 

[Puck it]

Was the ice from snowmaikng? Just wondering.

 

[SLoMo]

Why would that even matter? If it was from snowmaking?

 

[Puck it]

Why would that even matter? If it was from snowmaking?

If the gun did it then someone should have seen it caking the lift.

 

[MadMadWorld]

Wish I would have know you were there. Great trip report. We got there around 10 and looking around from the lift and things looked really nice and it was! We skied Gary's and Rocket to start and it was beginning to get scraped off on the groomed section. However later runs on those trails I skied to skiers right and powder bumps we abundant and skied nice. My wife and son to some runs on there own so I could explore Zoomer Pauli's and Avalanche. What ever powder there was is now decent powder bumps with troughs of exposed dirt, leaves. twigs etc, it still skied well but the scraping sounds from rocks made me cringe. Zoomer was the most exposed with avalanche fairing the best. I opted limit my runs to one pass on each of them due to skiing new skis. Having older skis would have been even more fun. All the trails on the Peabody side skied nice and actually pretty fast. There were tons of jibbing spots from water runoff troughs to standalone bumps that were nice to catch air on. As granite mentioned, parkway was left natural and was very playful. Overall a great day.

I was disappointed that we could not go into the pub because after 2:30 because it was 21 and older only - that was f'd up. We had our 12 year old. We were going listen to the band have drinks and eat there - instead we headed home. On to of that outside of the pub you can have drinks from the bar but no coolers or bagged lunches another WTF. If you bring your own food you are relegated to the lower level which does not allow alcohol. How much money are they losing because of this.

On a sad note - a liftie was seriously hurt at the Eagle Cliff chair as a chunk of ice came crashing down and split her head open. I know more of the details and it is really bad.

I hate calling people out but what's with the smiley face at the end? Lol

 

[SLoMo]

On a sad note - a liftie was seriously hurt at the Eagle Cliff chair as a chunk of ice came crashing down and split her head open. I know more of the details and it is really bad.

And you can't say you know more and not enlighten us all!!!