Saturday promised clear skies and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Perfect Spring Skiing weather despite the fact that Spring Skiing should not begin for another month! Upon arriving at Cannon Mountain, I visited Guest Relations to claim a free ski ticket for maxing out my frequent skier card. The morning sunrise brought forth tremendous color leaving an electricity hanging in the air. Today was going to be a great day to be on skis regardless of how little snow fell during the month of February.

Feeling the need for speed and a proper warm up (for once!), I made my first runs on some groomers. Big fast GS turns were had down Middle Cannon to Paulie’s Extension followed by quick and nimble slalom turns down Avalanche. Groomer festivities were continued down the center of Zoomer which featured bumps on both sides of the groomed center.

After my legs were feeling up to task, I tracked down the bumps on Paulie’s Folly since bumps on Zoomer Lift Line and Avalanche looked sketchy, hard packed, uneven, and no fun. Paulie’s has in past years disappointed but this year I have enjoyed epic runs almost every day! This day was no different as I offered verbal praise and cries of joy to the natural snow gods. The snow was soft, pleasant, and edgable. The bumps offered supreme satisfaction. Sure there were some natural terrain features such as rock, dirt, and weeds. And my bases suffered when I let my guard down> But it was a great run that I repeated twice later in the day.

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A blustery start to the morning had Cannon Mountain on a wind hold. Chairs were being loaded onto the haul rope as I booted up and chairlift opened at 8:45 A.M. My sliding partner and I wasted no time in heading for the summit which was actually less breazy than the base!

Some minor powdah on skier’s left of Taft Slalom got the morning started proper. Natural snow adventure skiing was suspect and continuing to decrease in quality as the weeks tick by without additional snow. Rocks previously buried in snow were beginning to show and the snow conditions were generally just terrible. The new snow was blown off in most places leaving an old crusty hard pack. Baron’s featured some of the better natural snow on the mountain but still left much to be desired.

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A fresh coating of snow freshened things up significantly. Despite the increased coverage, the snow was an unusual high moisture content variety that was lower quality than the previous weekend. As per usual when New England receives some snow, the deep freeze descended over the region from Canada. It was a tram day for sure! Temperatures eventually warmed to ten degrees below zero before factoring in the wind chill. Later in the day, I would suffer through the coldest Cannonball Quad ride I can remember.

Per usual I began my morning on the Front Face. Bumps on right sides of Rocket and Zoomer Lift Line were hard packed and unforgiving but would get much better in the afternoon. Paulie’s was better skier’s right this week as skier’s left looked rather green by the evening. Avalanche had both skier’s right and left bumped with groomed snow down the middle similar to Zoomer. I enjoyed skier’s left better personally but neither was completely satisfying. Returning to these trails later in the day, I found some rocking bumps skier’s right on Zoomer and Zoomer Lift Line. These bumps had softened up and formed well with more skier traffic. Zoomer was great all over the place except where the side slippers were coming down center.

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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.

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