Whereas normally the day immediately following a huge dump is the best day for turns, in this case two days after the dump turned out to be the better of the pair. Saturday was an epic day at Cannon and saw record numbers of people to the mountain. I picked up skiing buddy Porter at Bentley and made a B line for the Tram base at Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Prospects from the base area were excellent with some sun shining through despite the ugly cloud aloft on Grumpy Old Man Cannon’s Shoulder.
From the summit, we headed straight for the best snow on the hill descending Upper and Middle Hard by way of Taft Slalom. All trails had phenomenal snow that was occasionally packed with mounds of softer snow. Taft was best on skier’s right which would deteriorate into unsafe thin cover later in the day due to beginner and intermediate skiers snowplowing and side slipping near the rock ledges. We then boarded the Peabody Quad and took Bypass to find scraped conditions and rather firm bumps. Paulie’s Extension had decent snow dumping into skier’s right on Avalanche which still contained occasional untracked patches and amazingly fun snow to plow through.
Back to the summit, it was time to join the huge conga line at the Saddle. I had never seen even half as many people at the Saddle and was blown away by the horde’s descending upon Cannon’s worst kept secret. Chatting with Porter, I wondered have I posted or talked too much about hiking? Was word getting out to the great masses of people that really have no business being over their due to lack of ability or desire for such conditions? We concluded that the mass of people simply appeared as it was the first day of the year (and later than usual by over a month!) for the area to be skiable. Given the horrendous natural snow fall of the season, it should not have been surprising to witness that amount of people. The crowds kept coming even on our fourth trip up which ties my single day record.
It didn’t take long for all the main routes to get well tracked up and packed down, but occasional patches of untracked powder could still be found. A mass of people swarmed down Tuckerbrook for the first time of the season and from the trail opening, the 13 turns were well bumped up already by noon time! Impressive! Despite slim pickings on the main routes, those of us that hike and explore during the off season know where to go when fresh untracked seems no where to be found. Epic turns were made on several descents and coverage was phenomenal! The dump provided an excellent base in one powerful shot but won’t last long without reinforcements. Another dump is needed ASAP and preferably light powder this time! In the meantime, Saturday goes down as one of the best ski days of the season.
