cannon or magic this fri

[JimG.]

I'd say Magic to be safe if it is windy. At last check, the clipper is going to be kicking up some NW winds tomorrow.

Excellent point TB.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Excellent point TB.

Actually it's not.Cannon is not effected very much by N or NW winds.The nasty south wind is the one that gives it problems.It blows up the notch and gets funneled and pushed up,compressing and creating some incredible winds by the time it gets to the Peabody exit.I live right at the top of the notch and see this all the time.

 

[JimG.]

Actually it's not.Cannon is not effected very much by N or NW winds.The nasty south wind is the one that gives it problems.It blows up the notch and gets funneled and pushed up,compressing and creating some incredible winds by the time it gets to the Peabody exit.I live right at the top of the notch and see this all the time.

My comment was not meant to take anything away from Cannon...great ski area. I like it alot.

Magic is very sheltered from any winds and their old fixed grip lifts are so imbedded in trees that I doubt they ever have wind holds. TB's comment was "to play it safe" and that was really all I meant.

Since you live near Cannon and have a better handle on how the winds blow, I defer to your opinion on this one.

 

[thetrailboss]

Actually it's not.Cannon is not effected very much by N or NW winds.The nasty south wind is the one that gives it problems.It blows up the notch and gets funneled and pushed up,compressing and creating some incredible winds by the time it gets to the Peabody exit.I live right at the top of the notch and see this all the time.

:blink: How can Cannon, which has a N exposure, be impacted by southern winds? :blink: I guess for the tram and the triple, sure, but the winds are coming from the backside of the mountain.

 

[riverc0il]

it is pretty rare cannon has wind holds. cannon is my most skied mountain and i have never experienced a wind hold there. granted, it does happen, but it is so rare that one need not consider wind holds if planning a trip to cannon.

 

[Robbski]

Friday Cannon

Mostly Bluebird, cloudy in the late afternoon. Fairly windy but surpisingly comfortable until about 2:30 or so. All the lifts were turning and the snow was nice! Oh, did I mention there were no lines?

A great day!

(I hope Magic was as good for anyone who made that call.)

 

[SIKSKIER]

:blink: How can Cannon, which has a N exposure, be impacted by southern winds? :blink: I guess for the tram and the triple, sure, but the winds are coming from the backside of the mountain.

Well TB I tried to explain that in the post you were refering to.Because of the shape of the notch running in a north south direction,with high walls and an elevation gain of 1000 ft,when the south wind blows up the notch it is being restricted on both sides and pushed uphill at the same time.It has no where to go except to increase in speed because of that restriction.Think of a hose with water coming out of it.If you put a spray nozzle on it you increase the pressure and the velocity of the water right?Ok.Cannon's front trails are right in the highest point of the notch so the velocity will be the greatest there.Believe me,almost all the windholds that occur at Cannon are due to south winds.They are very destructive not just in wind but bringing very warm air and high melting with it.Whenever we have a big storm go west of us we know the that dreaded south wind is going to blow big.It can be very exciting and depressing at the same time.Conversly,like this past Friday,whenever I drive north on 93 and it's a very windy north wind,blowing my truck all over the road,as soon as I pull into the Peabody area it's almost deadcalm.Cannon has it's own little crazy weather for better and for worse.

 

[awf170]

Well TB I tried to explain that in the post you were refering to.Because of the shape of the notch running in a north south direction,with high walls and an elevation gain of 1000 ft,when the south wind blows up the notch it is being restricted on both sides and pushed uphill at the same time.It has no where to go except to increase in speed because of that restriction.Think of a hose with water coming out of it.If you put a spray nozzle on it you increase the pressure and the velocity of the water right?Ok.Cannon's front trails are right in the highest point of the notch so the velocity will be the greatest there.Believe me,almost all the windholds that occur at Cannon are due to south winds.They are very destructive not just in wind but bringing very warm air and high melting with it.Whenever we have a big storm go west of us we know the that dreaded south wind is going to blow big.It can be very exciting and depressing at the same time.Conversly,like this past Friday,whenever I drive north on 93 and it's a very windy north wind,blowing my truck all over the road,as soon as I pull into the Peabody area it's almost deadcalm.Cannon has it's own little crazy weather for better and for worse.

Yep, the south winds are nuts. Last December I was up at Cannon during a storm with southern winds. It was sleeting and raining at the mountain the whole day with an accumulation of about an inch. On the drive down the notch it changed to snow and by the time I got to Lincoln it was all snow with about 4-6 inches and it stayed all snow until about Tilton.

 

[thetrailboss]

Well TB I tried to explain that in the post you were refering to.Because of the shape of the notch running in a north south direction,with high walls and an elevation gain of 1000 ft,when the south wind blows up the notch it is being restricted on both sides and pushed uphill at the same time.It has no where to go except to increase in speed because of that restriction.Think of a hose with water coming out of it.If you put a spray nozzle on it you increase the pressure and the velocity of the water right?Ok.Cannon's front trails are right in the highest point of the notch so the velocity will be the greatest there.Believe me,almost all the windholds that occur at Cannon are due to south winds.They are very destructive not just in wind but bringing very warm air and high melting with it.Whenever we have a big storm go west of us we know the that dreaded south wind is going to blow big.It can be very exciting and depressing at the same time.Conversly,like this past Friday,whenever I drive north on 93 and it's a very windy north wind,blowing my truck all over the road,as soon as I pull into the Peabody area it's almost deadcalm.Cannon has it's own little crazy weather for better and for worse.

Right....but that only impacts the Triple and the Tram.

 

[MarkC]

On a Friday especially with snow and the forementiond wind in the forecast go to Magic. There wont be a wind hold and the snow will not get tracked out as fast.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Right....but that only impacts the Triple and the Tram.

Wrong again.4 years ago we had 82 mph SOUTH wind gusts.Those were recorded at the Peabody lodge.Nothing could run.We have very few wind holds but when we do it's when the south wind blows big from a large storm going west of Cannon.We've watched lots of damage occur over the years here and it is the SOUTH wind that does the damage.Believe me,I'VE LIVED HERE for 15 years.I'm right across the street from the main Mittersill building.I've watched and been fascinated with Cannon MT weather for the 35 years I've had a pass there and have become a weather nut because of it.You can believe what you want but I know what I talking about here.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Cannon closed on the Friday storm

OK,here it is.Took off Friday to ski Cannon in the "BIG" storm.I should known better than this.Watched the radar Thursday night and the precip was headed due north.That's real bad for Cannon.Got up Friday morning and the SOUTH winds were howling 40 -50 mph.Never opened.I stayed at my skihouse in Mittersill and watched some incredible sustained SOUTH winds blow for a solid 12 hours.Some trees down and my roof has a little shingle damage.Anytime winds come out of the SOUTH in a big storm,it's trouble for Cannon.They reported 8-10 inches on Friday.Really,I don't know where they got this number from.It looked like we might have actually lost some and come out negative.We had ice falling by noon and rain a mile down the road in Franconia.The snow was pretty good Saturday cuz Friday night the wind stopped and it snowed maybe 3 inches straight down.That's about all I could see that was measurable.Sunday did see more accum of about 6 inches during the day so overall the weekend ended good.But,it's the SOUTH wind that screws up Cannon as it did again Friday.

 

[MRGisevil]

I lost my "Magic virginity" on Sunday and I have to say, it's an awesome experience. Trails were amazing, people were great, no lines, was totally surreal. I've never been to Cannon so I can't say where I'd go between the two, but I can say that Magic is definately worth the trip.

 

[riverc0il]

OK,here it is.Took off Friday to ski Cannon in the "BIG" storm.I should known better than this.

lol! i should have known better as well. we were there friday morning. skied burke instead which was a fantastic decision. should have known... but when you see the big one coming and cannon really hasn't had the best snow fall despite a good base after the last storm... you get excited and forget how things work.

cannon normally seems to under report snow fall. but you are 100% right, i have no idea where that reported 8" was. i looked everywhere for it on saturday, but i did not find any thing close to 8".

good insight into the wind patterns and issues for cannon. this seems like a textbook case that you have previously described. after my 45 minute drive each way in crappy conditions, i have book marked a mental note for future reference.