After fierce deliberations during the evening prior, I decided to make a “driveway decision” in the morning. Seeing the winds on Mount Washington blowing only 40-50 MPH out of the northeast suggested that all lifts at Cannon would run and they did. Indeed, the Peabody Quad was as calm as I’ve ever seen it during a storm.

I would like to personally thank Deval Patrick for being a pussy. Otherwise, I would have feared the hoards of Massachusetts skiers heading north. Other options included four mid-sized ~1000′ areas that would have had snow and no crowds but not the same level of terrain. I’d say that I choose wisely.

Cannon reported a two day total of 16″ and that sounds about right. Six of those inches fell yesterday and the remainder fell last night. It snowed all day and they might have picked up another two inches this afternoon. Much deeper drifts could be found so while boot deep was the average, exploding knee deep was still plentiful.

After catching fourth chair, I blasted down Extension to Paulie’s proper where I found almost a foot of untracked over a groomed base. This is my absolute favorite snow condition to ski because it is such a rarity. So I took two down Paulie’s and then exited stage Banshee to the Tram.

Figuring out the plan of attack was challenging because there were no glade/tree options available. I needed to be creative and use my knowledge of the mountain to keep scoring untracked lines. The saddle presented the best option despite (or rather, because of) the almost certainty of base damage.

Conditions were variable but worth the effort and the core shot. From approximately the T-bar on down, there is absolutely no base under the new snow. But knowing the lay of the land, I could usually avoid the tastiest geological treats in favor of pillows of powder and deep drifts. Too deep at times as first tracks sometimes meant straight lining.

But my best turns were late in the afternoon at Cannon proper. I dropped into Middle Hard for kicks and enjoyment of aesthetics, definitely not for the conditions which were rocky and bumpy by that point. The final pitch normally has the worst coverage yet today it skied the best.

I decided to finish Middle Hard off “the hard way“. Because I’m old school like that. Sometimes it pays to be old school. I exited Middle Hard’s original exit and came upon a virtually untracked field of powder on the Red Ball pitch above the cut through.

After scoring my first face shot of the season, I did a replay for another face shot in the deep drifts of the Red Ball pitch, normally a throw away trail for those exiting Lower Hard. I couldn’t help but finish off my day with one more lap, hooting and hollering the whole way at the joy of finding the best snow on the mountain during my last runs of the day, unknown to almost everyone.

At some point during the day, I lined up a fantastic shot, took out my camera, and discovered I had forgotten to replace my battery which was still at home on the charger. In typical TSW fashion, I have no pictures on one of the best days of the season.