This Superbowl Sunday was a primo day at Cannon. Since the New England Patriots were in the Superbowl, crowds tended to be minimal compared to standard Superbowl Weekends. Typical conditions and enjoyable skiing for December. Too bad it is February. Sweet turns were still to be had amongst the natural snow trails at Cannon. However, conditions leave a lot to be desired considering the time of the season.
After catching the second chair to turn for the general public, the lift stalled for about five minutes. Patrol was visually inspecting the tower that crests the ridge near the Middle Cannon intersection with Bypass. The tower contains a weather vane which created suspicion of high winds effecting operations. No worries though as we were moving again in short order.
Middle Cannon was awesome on my first run of the day. Normally, Middle Cannon is a disaster due to high traffic funneling down one of only three options but the trail is a dream after it has been freshly groomed! The snow surface was fast and edgable. After warming up on Middle Cannon, I descended on the Zoomer Triple as per usual.
Zoomer was groomed and boring featuring thin cover bumps on skier’s that were not tempting. Zoomer Lift Line was thinly covered with acceptable hard packed bumps near the unload station and thin uneven bumps lower down the line. I skied each once and was unimpressed. Rocket is always a fast trail but today it was exceptionally so. Gary’s was fast as well and sported bumps on skier’s right that were rather firm. Avalanche was groomed out with some flat natural stuff on skier’s right. The Banshee Slopes were forgettable. I ducked into Banshee Glade and found an excessive amount of junk under the snow and bailed. All of this is nothing to write home about so I skied each trail just once.
Paulie’s Folly was without a doubt the Run of the Day! Listed as closed on the trail report, Patrol had hung a rope running across the rim leaving a small entrance on skier’s left near a thin cover sign. That is an invitation to this skier. The natural snow was soft and edgable all day. The base had solidified so there was not much worry of hitting bottom. Small amounts of vegetation were poking through along with occasional grass patches which added some character to the run. I powered over, through, and around the soft bumps and crud on all parts of the trail which skied equally well. Paulie’s was a dream considering I assumed groomed skiing was going to be the norm for today. I am fond of saying Paulie’s Folly can either be the best run or the worst run at Cannon on any given day. Today I opted to take seven runs down Paulie’s which indicates my opinion of today’s conditions on Paulie’s.
Else where on the mountain, Short Link held out well though it dumped out onto Middle Cannon which was a skating rink. Bypassing said skating rink, Middle Closed was decent and Lower Closed sported three inches of fresh snow remaining from the previous week. Vista Way was only skiable on skier’s left. Skylight was acceptable though nothing special. Taft Slalom was decent in the morning but excessively scraped down by the afternoon. The upper mountain trails were lack luster and the middle mountain trails were merely acceptable with occasional sections of excessively scraped snow.
Due to the recent lack of snowfall, I had not expected much good skiing today but was moderately surprised by a few trails that skied exceptionally well. For the most part; however, Cannon is suffering from hard bases that need a refresh of soft low water quantity snow. Adventurous turns are still to be had and the base is absolutely bomber due to the early season snow fall.
