Cannon: The Season Awakens
There has been an awakening…
…have you felt it?
The man made snow…
…and the powder.
Category: Cannon Mountain
Top to Bottom at Cannon
Cannon skied much better than expected today. The mountain was open top to bottom with occasional route options. Temperatures stayed cool up high and only warmed up later in the day down low. Conditions were extremely variable depending on elevation and angle of the sun. For an expert skier trying to get into shape during the early season, it was a delightful variety of conditions. But for intermediate skiers and below, it was Cannon at its most unforgiving.
Upper Cannon was open with man made ungroomed including minor whales and bumps. Upper Cannon is normally a travesty of brutal grooming. The trail gets scraped down because most people don’t know how to ski a winding trail (hint: you go against the curves, not with them — skiing the insides of the curves rather than the outsides). Skiing an ungroomed and bumped Upper Cannon was an absolute dream. So much so that I could not have cared less about the bumps being frozen and lacking rhythm.
The Links were a ridiculous thin coverage mess and best avoided excepting for Upper Cannon access. Middle Cannon had variable loose granular mounds and hard pack with varying degrees of softening (or not softening) depending on angle of the sun. Upper Gremlin was consistently fun despite its inconsistent conditions. I’d much rather the alternating and variable loose granular and hard pack of Upper Gremlin to Lower Gremlin’s piles of mush and mash.
Considering the warm temperatures and lack of natural snow, I was impressed with what Cannon had to offer. Conditions and coverage were both better than expected. I was thrilled that Cannon FINALLY has taken advantage of their upper mountain lift and blew open an upper mountain trail earlier than usual.
Cannon has failed to get the upper mountain open by Christmas some years. But they finally got their act together and went for top to bottom as soon as possible. And it is about damn time. There is no reason why Cannon shouldn’t go for broke on the upper mountain before Thanksgiving. But for now, I am definitely happy to see this first step in the right direction by having Upper Cannon open despite the difficult weather.
Cannon: Completing the Trifecta
Saturday was an amazing day in the Notch. The place gives you back what you put into it. I dug deep and put in more than I had originally intended, and I was rewarded for my efforts. These past three days included some of the best Thanksgiving skiing I’ve ever enjoyed. And I enjoyed all three of those days at Cannon.
After earning pre-Thanksgiving Dinner turns on Thursday, I returned on Friday for Cannon’s first day of lift service. I enjoyed fantastic skiing on the same trails that I had earned turns on the day prior. But despite three straight hours of mostly untracked powder skiing, I couldn’t help but think that something was missing.
The thrills came fast and furious. Run after run of untracked powder. My heart was pounding and my breath was short as I skied fast and hard, tracking up as much virgin snow as possible. There was no frenzy, there were no crowds. But it was still a rush. The lifts do that to you… they are like life: they instill a certain eager and unsatisfied mentality. As if just one more run of untracked will somehow refute our vapid existence.
Cannon: The First Rule of the Banshee Slopes is…
This trip report includes no pictures. Long time readers of TSW will realize what that means…
I assumed Cannon wouldn’t have the gumption to open the Front Five trails. There was no base under the foot of snow that fell on top of grass. With terrain undulations and water bars abound, the natural snow skiing at Cannon would be adventurous and not completely safe despite the element of self selection. But Cannon proved me wrong.
Cannon: And Sometimes Good Snow Makes for Good Adventure
We were having a small Thanksgiving at home and I was not the cook which meant I had a few hours to earn my first powder turns of the season. At least a foot of new snow fell at Cannon. I got a somewhat late start to ensure a skin track was already set when I arrived. Only about a dozen other skiers were on hand for Thanksgiving turns but many more would follow the next day.