riverc0il
New member
so much for taking it easy on my first day back!
:beer:
conditions were variable depending upon where you skied. the untracked powder was mostly eatten up saturday and not a heck of a lot fell over night. cannon was claiming around a foot and a half total from the 24 hours of snowfall between friday night and saturday night. most people skiing cannon on sunday probably were doubtful of those claims, but i can whole heatedly verfiy that boot to knee deep untracked was found this afternoon!!!
unfortunately for cannon, a foot and a half of extraordinarily light and fluffy powder was not what the mountain needed. the fluff fell on top of grass and/or a thin base for the most part, so the natural snow trails won't benefit in the long run and will likely be roped again by next weekend, especially if the weather goes south. as for the groomers, the natural snow may have helped perhaps, but i certainly couldn't notice it. groomed trails got skied off and scraped down to cat tracks on most groomed trails, especially the usual suspects such as middle cannon.
crowds were higher than average due to the fresh snow, but no waits on anything except two to three minutes max for the peabody express. a lot of folks left early once things started getting scraped down and everyone realized they were a day late for the true powder day.
for groomed runs, middle ravine was sensational. toss up was nice per usual. and short link (!) wasn't bad in the AM either.
for bumps, gary's skier's right took it, nice! soft powdery natural bumps with minimal thin cover, i lapped this one a few times. zoomer skier's right was sweet in the AM with occasional thin, but headed south quickly with lots of grass patches evident by noon time. avalanche was a tad better than zoomer. paulie's was great but also really thin. up top, vista way was scratched up but the final pitch had nice soft powdery bumps that almost made the whole run worth it over on taft slalom, things looked even worse with intermediates slip sliding down scraped off patches and lots of exposed rock. if you were nimble enough to dodge some rock, skier's right was actually really nice.
i never got to the hards unfortunately, but upper looked really tempting. had to pass on it though, if you know what i mean. race course was Phenomenal, with a capital P, soft packed powder bumps. down lower, i opted for CL, same route as my late november descent which had a better base then but less powder. the thin cover kicked my butt and my bases, but well worth it for boot deep pow, lots of untracked, occasional knee deep shots, and once i even went down to my waist into a drift! sensational! i would not have counted today as a true powder day if it were not for that run. but it really taxed my elbow, so i decided once was enough for the day. i brought the skis into the shop for lunch and the guy said my skis were "wrecked." :lol: funny, i only considered that type of damage minimal! quick heads up for those following traverses: go slow! couple of downed trees barely covered by the snow on the traverse make for not so humerous trip lines. i made a mental note on the location and will try to clean that crap up unless someone beats me to it.
it was a crappy day for pics until the sun broke through right when i was leaving!!! but here is what i took:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2006/cannon030506.htm
quick aside on the arm for those interested:
i managed really well today, much better than i had thought i might (that is understatement!). as expected, pole pushing on flat land was near impossible with my right arm, so i skated as often as possible and managed the best i could loading lifts (left side please!). pole planting was not an issue at cannon proper but mildly irritating in the OB with lots of thin cover. the lack of that balance tool had me skiing conservative on stuff i normally charge hard. throughout the day regardless of terrain, i noticed i was favoring my left turns, especially in a pinch or difficult turn situation. i instinctively knew it would be better to fall backwards on my left side rather than my right. i did take two tumbles without incident. the only time i tweaked the elbow was a rather humerous fall from a standing position. i was off balance and went to stabilize myself with my right pole. i quickly realized i was more off balance than i had thought and my right arm couldn't keep me up. i let go of the ski pole and fell on my back. i thought it was funny. i made the mistake of trying to use my right arm to get me back up though, ouch! my tricep wasn't having any part of that. the tricep muscle is still really weak, they nipped it quite a bit during the surgery it seems. the bone and elbow itself are fine, but weight lifting for recovery is soon going to switch to full on the tricep as my bicep and forearm muscles are nearly back to their original strength.
great day at cannon!
:beer:
conditions were variable depending upon where you skied. the untracked powder was mostly eatten up saturday and not a heck of a lot fell over night. cannon was claiming around a foot and a half total from the 24 hours of snowfall between friday night and saturday night. most people skiing cannon on sunday probably were doubtful of those claims, but i can whole heatedly verfiy that boot to knee deep untracked was found this afternoon!!!
unfortunately for cannon, a foot and a half of extraordinarily light and fluffy powder was not what the mountain needed. the fluff fell on top of grass and/or a thin base for the most part, so the natural snow trails won't benefit in the long run and will likely be roped again by next weekend, especially if the weather goes south. as for the groomers, the natural snow may have helped perhaps, but i certainly couldn't notice it. groomed trails got skied off and scraped down to cat tracks on most groomed trails, especially the usual suspects such as middle cannon.
crowds were higher than average due to the fresh snow, but no waits on anything except two to three minutes max for the peabody express. a lot of folks left early once things started getting scraped down and everyone realized they were a day late for the true powder day.
for groomed runs, middle ravine was sensational. toss up was nice per usual. and short link (!) wasn't bad in the AM either.
for bumps, gary's skier's right took it, nice! soft powdery natural bumps with minimal thin cover, i lapped this one a few times. zoomer skier's right was sweet in the AM with occasional thin, but headed south quickly with lots of grass patches evident by noon time. avalanche was a tad better than zoomer. paulie's was great but also really thin. up top, vista way was scratched up but the final pitch had nice soft powdery bumps that almost made the whole run worth it
over on taft slalom, things looked even worse with intermediates slip sliding down scraped off patches and lots of exposed rock. if you were nimble enough to dodge some rock, skier's right was actually really nice.i never got to the hards unfortunately, but upper looked really tempting. had to pass on it though, if you know what i mean. race course was Phenomenal, with a capital P, soft packed powder bumps. down lower, i opted for CL, same route as my late november descent which had a better base then but less powder. the thin cover kicked my butt and my bases, but well worth it for boot deep pow, lots of untracked, occasional knee deep shots, and once i even went down to my waist into a drift! sensational! i would not have counted today as a true powder day if it were not for that run. but it really taxed my elbow, so i decided once was enough for the day. i brought the skis into the shop for lunch and the guy said my skis were "wrecked." :lol: funny, i only considered that type of damage minimal!
quick heads up for those following traverses: go slow! couple of downed trees barely covered by the snow on the traverse make for not so humerous trip lines. i made a mental note on the location and will try to clean that crap up unless someone beats me to it.it was a crappy day for pics until the sun broke through right when i was leaving!!! but here is what i took:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2006/cannon030506.htm
quick aside on the arm for those interested:
i managed really well today, much better than i had thought i might (that is understatement!). as expected, pole pushing on flat land was near impossible with my right arm, so i skated as often as possible and managed the best i could loading lifts (left side please!). pole planting was not an issue at cannon proper but mildly irritating in the OB with lots of thin cover. the lack of that balance tool had me skiing conservative on stuff i normally charge hard. throughout the day regardless of terrain, i noticed i was favoring my left turns, especially in a pinch or difficult turn situation. i instinctively knew it would be better to fall backwards on my left side rather than my right. i did take two tumbles without incident. the only time i tweaked the elbow was a rather humerous fall from a standing position. i was off balance and went to stabilize myself with my right pole. i quickly realized i was more off balance than i had thought and my right arm couldn't keep me up. i let go of the ski pole and fell on my back. i thought it was funny. i made the mistake of trying to use my right arm to get me back up though, ouch! my tricep wasn't having any part of that. the tricep muscle is still really weak, they nipped it quite a bit during the surgery it seems. the bone and elbow itself are fine, but weight lifting for recovery is soon going to switch to full on the tricep as my bicep and forearm muscles are nearly back to their original strength.
great day at cannon!
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