Cannon NH 2/3

[NHpowderhound]

Date skied 2/3

Resort skied Cannon, NH

Conditions Awsome wetpacked

Trip report Got to Cannon thursday afternoon about 4:50 and promptly headed to the Lift pub to do some "research" for friday.
After "research" ended about 6'ish and I headed over to my friends place at the Mittersill Resort where he is an owner. Wow! Nice place! Huge rooms w/a hot tub and picture windows. There are still two weeks availible for a meere $1700.
After settling in I decided a pizza and some more "research" was in order at the Above the Notch Cafe' in Franconia.
During the overnight I was roused by the sound of increasing winds slamming into my bedroom window. When I got up about 7:45 it was starting to r@!n and blow pretty good.
I got to the Peabody Express about 9:05 and got pounded with the whole enchilada of weather. R@!n, sleet, snow and ice pellets battered my face as I rode the chair. It wasn't too bad except when the ice pellets got you of the tip of the nose, ouch!
The snow quality was really really good with super edgeable wetpack that never got sloppy. The only sticky parts were Jaspers Hideaway where the snow was real manky like paste. Other than that one trail it was super!
My first ride up the tram this season was today about 10 and I was the only person on it besides the operator! And what a ride! I've NEVER seen the tram twisting in the wind like toy as it was today. When the tram car would hit tower 1 the wind would become extremely gusty and unpredictable but it would calm down once you got past the last tower. The summit was actually quite pleasent. It was only when you got to mid-mountain that the wind driven r@!n became an issue. A couple of rides up I saw the look of alarm and concern in the tram operators eyes as we came within the thickness of a telephone book of striking the towers at speed. You know your having a white knuckle ride when the operator screams "Hold On!"
I rode the tram exclusively till about 12:30 when some heavy r@!n moved in and I called it a day as my gear was starting to get a bit wet.
My new Blizzard X-Cross 11's rocked! I love em and they made today more fun than it would have been without them! Next time out I'm going to drag my elbow in a turn .
Sorry no pics this time. Too wet to bring it.
((*
*))NHPH

 

[Vortex]

Great report. I felt like I was on the tram myself.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice report. Was that cute blonde driving the tram today :wink: ?

 

[riverc0il]

Nice report. Was that cute blonde driving the tram today :wink: ?

there has apparently been a change in the tram personel if a cute blonde was at the helm! :lol: some of those guys have been doing it for a while, great guys. thumbs up to any one operating a lift at cannon.
:beer:

 

[NHpowderhound]

No cute blondes that I saw. She may have been in Tram 2 as I caught Tram 1 every ride. During one trip up when a gust(the most violent one during my rides) broadsided the tram car, it pushed the car sideways and twised it all in one motion. After a couple seconds the cars phone rang and when the op picked it up I heard "Ok, yup, yup, ok, That one was 90mph guys, strongest one yet." As stated before, the wind was at mid-mountain because docking the tram at the summit was no problem whatsoever. Never even knocked my skis over during the "bump" which can happen pretty regularly.
Great day in the r@!n, I still have my afterglow :wink: !
((*
*))NHPH

 

[thetrailboss]

90 mph???? I doubt they'd be running the lift in those conditions.

 

[NHpowderhound]

trailboss skeptically wrote

90 mph???? I doubt they'd be running the lift in those conditions.

Trailboss, I too would no doubt say the same thing had I not heard it with my own ears while on the actual car. 90mph was not the sustained wind speed, just a gust which came from the south. And again, the wind was mid-mountain, not at the summit where they would have to dock. In fact, I went into the new summit cafe(the only patron at the time) to gt a coffee after that ride. I sat at a window which gave me a view of the tramhouse(summit) and they held it for 15 minutes. I am only guessing it was to wait for weather(wind). I drank my coffe and made it down to catch the same car again. When I got to the bottom and went inside to load, they let me on the tram, as again I was the only one in "line". But loading stopped as I could see they were not lettting the four other people on that showed up on with me. I could hear the ops telling them that the "powers that be" were deciding if they would continue tram operations. After ten or twelve minutes of being the only person actually on the tram they let the others load and we went back up. All morning the ops would say over thier loudspeaker which goes into the Tram Lodge, "Tram now loading. We'll see if we can make it to the top!" and other funny(but true) things. :lol:
Perhaps the op was blowing smoke out his a$$ but I know how that tramcar got stacked sideways and twisted at the same time .
Today was fun :beer:
((*
*))NHPH