Thursday saw more than two feet of fresh snow coat Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire within 24 hours time. Suffice it to say, there is no other place in the world I would rather be than Cannon Mountain on a powder day. The storm was originally suppose to strike eastern Massachusetts, but the storm track kept moving further north until the White Mountains became the clear jackpot recipient of the first major snow storm for ski country of the season. I cleared a vacation day with the boss and anxiously drove up to Cannon for the first of two days of snowy bliss.

Driving into the Tram Parking Lot, I noticed lots of cars turning around towards the Peabody Slopes and I quickly followed suite as the Tram was on a wind hold. At the Peabody Slopes, I was surprised to see a parking attendant directing traffic into the lower lot despite arriving well before the lifts began turning. Myself and every other car behind me pressed on up into the upper lot to confirm in disbelief that it was already full! Weekdays at Cannon are usually not very busy, but this Friday saw weekend sized crowds as most Cannon die hards were also taking the day off from work.

With the Tram and Cannonball Quad both on wind hold, the Front Face was the place to be. After a brief delay, the Peabody Quad uploaded people to mid-mountain for a race to Zoomer, Paulie’s, and Avalanche which got tracked out ridiculously quick. Within a half hour, no completely untracked line could be made top to bottom and by 11AM most of the Front Face was tracked out completely. Avalanche was a notable exception that lasted well into Saturday morning with awesome lightly picked over freshies.
Fresh Untracked But Too Heavy for Good Turns

Word spread that the Tram was to begin running as well as the Cannonball Quad, and as a result the Zoomer Triple completely emptied out. I caught the first Tram to the summit and wasted no time in tracking down Taft Slalom to join the Conga Line hiking up the saddle. Some brave soul broke through more than two feet of fresh snow with drifts up to three and a half feet deep, but was rewarded with fresh untracked from the top. A fair price to pay. I was way behind those hardy souls and the upper sections of the Taft Race Trail were semi-packed down the center with some fresh on the sides by the time I got down.

From here, the first of two adventures began as I quickly looked for untracked lines. I failed to properly gauge the exact heaviness of the snow as skiing down a slight incline was not possible. I poled my way down a few sections before finding trails steep enough to actually make some turns through. On more than one occasion, I found myself traversing through 2-3 feet of heavy snow which really wore me out. On one occasion, I simply released my Binding Heel and walked AT style through the copious amounts of turn stopping snow. A second run produced more of the same results and I found myself actually wishing for less snow than we had received! It simply made skiing difficult unless you had a steep line which often requires a traverse or two to obtain. After two trips, I returned to Cannon proper and nailed Upper to Middle Hard which were both fantastic! I called it a day after a few more laps on the Zoomer Chair.