Category: New Hampshire

2024-2025 Season, Cannon Mountain, December, Earned Turns, Powder Day

Discretion

Coverage was excellent for early December (better than last year around the same time). Skinning and skiing the 13-turns was probably ill-advised, given the lack of base consolidation. But I knew what I was in for by continuing up the troll bridge.

I almost made it to the Taft Trail. But I decided to turn around near the top of the 13-turns when spruce trap risk became apparent. Risk of a catastrophic trap was low. But when skiing solo, discretion is often the better part of adventure.

2024-2025 Season, Cannon Mountain, Earned Turns, November, Powder Day

Iterate

With each successive iteration, the process becomes easier while maintaining resilience becomes less so. Excitement and novelty no longer generate inspiration. Routine and process provide the fuel; diesel instead of dynamite.

Each successive run improved upon the last. Avalanche, Paulie’s, Zoomer. A half-foot of supportive fluff was layered upon a half-foot of condensed base. Totally rippable, if not for the waterbars.

The turns were like the perfectly filled pillow, soft and supportive, holding you up when needed, but still letting you sink in when drifting into dreamland.

2023-2024 Season, Earned Turns, March, Tenney Mountain

Tenney: New Boot Shakedown

Tenney Summit

After over a dozen years of suffering from sixth toe pain in my Garmont Radiums, I decided it was time to pull the trigger on a new pair of touring boots. At 60% off list price, the previous season closeout was too good of a deal to pass up. No amount of adjustments could relieve my fit issues in the Garmonts.

I bought the Radiums when there were only two “tech-touring-beef-boot” manufacturers. My feet did not fit either Scarpa or Garmont, but the Garmont was less painful. Such was life before tech touring boots took over the industry in recent years.

I took my new K2 Dispatch Pro boots to the local bump for a shakedown. Uphill and downhill comfort was much improved, ski control was significantly better, and I was not crying in pain after a single run.

I skinned up for a second run as the sun was starting to set, which given the unseasonably warm temperatures, meant that the snow was about to become lunar. In some places, it already was.

The boots still need some fine-tuning but I am satisfied with the upgrade at a value price. Tenney was a snozefest like always.

2023-2024 Season, Cannon Mountain, Earned Turns, February, White Mountain BC

Tuckerbrook: Blue Bird

Lincoln & Lafayette

The forecast promised an amazing blue bird day in the mountains. With new snow sticking to the trees, it was guaranteed to be a brilliant day in the outdoors. The air was cold and crisp, and the views of views of the Franconia Ridge and Kinsmans were fabulous.

Kinsmans

The morning temperature was extremely cold. Skinning is always a great choice for these days as it is easy to stay warm. The lower mountain snow pack was much improved since my last skin earlier this year. But access to the ski trail was still quite thin and would require careful skiing during the exit.

Cannon

The skin was uneventful, the views amazing, and the skiing acceptable. The snow pack is still quite thin for the first week of February. However, at least the trail is now well covered (at least, above the nordic trail junction).

Tuckerbrook

2023-2024 Season, January, Ragged Mountain

Ragged: Not A Powder Day

Today was my first time skiing Ragged since my first visit over twenty years ago. Back then, Ragged had just installed the first Six Pack in New Hampshire. Since then, they have added another high speed lift up Speare Mountain, and a few more glades.

However, I would not be skiing those glades today. The new snow would normally constitute a “power day” tag. However, most of the new snow was groomed, or fell on bare ground. No “reservations” today, the new snow was not enough to entice even me.

Four generally unique routes were available from the summit, with a bit of natural (thanks to an earlier groom) on some of the trails. Unfortunately, all of the open trails got a groom at some point during the evening. So, no trails offered more than a few token inches. Still, it was nice to feel natural snow again, even if only a few inches of a chop.