Category: Powder Day

2021-2022 Season, Cannon Mountain, Earned Turns, November, Powder Day

Cannon: It’s Still Home

Banshee Skinning

I briefly considered Jay. Two years ago, that would have been the play. Jay received a bit more accumulation and offered plenty of “reserved” untracked. But I wanted to hike and ski, not ride lifts and duck ropes. Over the years, Cannon’s Front Five has consistently provided some of the best early season powder skiing. Fall storms always seem to over deliver at Cannon. And, after all these years, it’s still home.

Paulie's

The lack of cars was surprising. I followed the usual skin track up Banshee to an almost untouched Avalanche. First turns of the season were sublime. It never gets old. Snow depth was just enough (8-10″), but I occasionally bottomed out onto slick fast grass. It is a shame Cannon blows snow on Avi, the natural skis so well. I went back up for first tracks down Paulie’s and Zoomer. Neither compared to turns down Avi, but both were enjoyable runs.

Paulie's

2020-2021 Season, Earned Turns, February, Powder Day, Tenney Mountain

Embracing the Mellow

Shooting Star

It has been seven years (almost to the day) since my last time skiing Tenney. Despite living less than twenty minutes from the semi-lost area, I have only earned turns at Tenney five times in fourteen seasons. One might think that Tenney would be an ideal mountain to harvest days old untracked powder. But anything more than a few inches of dense snow will stop you in your un-tracks.

Recent snowfall suggested that a few inches of dense was exactly what I could expect. And base depths in the region were finally sufficient. But much to my chagrin, the management had seen fit to groom most of the mountain despite not being open. I was puzzled by this at first. But later, I reasoned that the condo association might help pay for the grooming given the amount of turn earners and the active outdoor community in the village. Maybe?

Forget Me Not

I made quick work of the first ascent and opted for mellow meadow skipping down Shooting Star, which was ungroomed but tracked up. It wasn’t much to write home about; but it was powder skiing. Near the base area, I applied my skins and pointed my skis straight up Morning Glory, where I briefly used the stiletto position on my heel raisers. Shocking that such a pitch exists at Tenney.

After topping out again, I headed for Forget Me Not. The trail had been mercifully groomed since my last outing, which literally required swimming through ten foot tall saplings. The final pitch was nice but not yet completely filled in. That dumped me into Snap Dragon which was enjoyable, until I found the only part of the mountain not yet opened back up by the new management. It was adventurous skiing, I did not regret it.

2020-2021 Season, Cannon Mountain, December, Earned Turns, Powder Day

The Earned Turn Season Begins

I have struggled to identify the theme or story for this post. The much delayed start to my 2020-2021 season follows the premature ending of last season; the longest amount of time that I have been off skis in twenty years. Returning to skiing should feel special. But it is hard to feel triumphant given the state of things.

Cannon historically does very well with early season wallops. The green mountain spine has its upslope, Cannon has its Gulf of Maine bombers. If this storm parked in the Gulf rather than blowing through, Cannon would have received three feet instead of a foot and a half.

I know from past experience that summit efforts are a waste of time in these conditions. The Front Five are weather protected and steep whereas the higher terrain is windy, too shallow for dense snow turns, and exposed to snow making. The best option is to stay down low, lapping the best snow at the steepest angles.

I skied Avalanche, Paulie’s, Zoomer, Zoomer Lift, and Banshee Lift; only stopping because my skins were no longer sticky due to snow exposure. The struggle of trying to keep my skins clipped was frustrating and exhausting. I had more laps in the tank. It was the best early season form I’ve had in years.

I will need that form this season. My Jay pass is currently useless due to the travel restrictions. I will get a few days with the Indy pass. But a majority of my winter days this season will likely be earned. I’ve long wanted to commit a season to more turn earning than lift riding. This is going to be that season.

2019-2020 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Last Day of the Season

The Bonnie

Staircase

It is pretty rare that I can say that my last day of the season was my best day of the season. If I had to end my season early, at least I picked the right day for it.

I do not have a record of the last time my season ended this early. My online reports date back to 1998-1999. The prior two years I took off from skiing to pursue other activities in college. The last time that I did not ski in March or April, I was a teenager.

This was my 22nd day of the season, my highest number of ski days in six years despite missing the ending half of the season. Something profound changed in my life this season. I hope you enjoyed reading about that change. I hope it reflected in my writing. I hope you find the thing that you want to change in your life and begin the process. For me, the journey continues. But my head is so far out of the fog that I can’t even remember what the fog felt like. For which I am thankful.

I have a lot to say about how the season ended. And I don’t mean about how my season ended or this particularly day at Jay. I don’t even mean to specifically write about the end of the ski season. But rather to use the inevitable season ending as a lens to inspect heuristics and cognitive biases on a societal scale.

It is surely beyond me, but I am going to give it a try.

More later. Right now, there is so much to digest, process and synthesize.

2019-2020 Season, Cannon Mountain, February, Middle Hard the Hard Way, Powder Day

Yardsticks

Kinsman Glade

Measuring things can be tricky, especially given how we relate to the thing that is measured. One might think that more snow is obviously better. Fourteen inches must be better than seven inches, perhaps even twice as good. Or perhaps not. Other measurements are at play as well: temperatures, crowds, snow consistency, lift line waits, duration of untracked, crowd frenzy, etc.

But the biggest measurement is whether you have anyone to share your runs with. This is a binary measurement: solo or not. I’ll always take seven inches of uncrowded bliss with a ski partner over fourteen inches solo among the crowds.

Cannon Trees

Cannon Trees

Cannon Trees

Cannonballer called me out in the tram queue and it was on. We dropped into an untracked Vista Way and found amazing coverage on the often barren skier’s right. The snow was supportive, dense, and surfy. We returned for a second run of more untracked followed by Upper Cannon and then again back to Vista to clean up.

Where was everyone? The “crowds” would not hit until later. But even then, most lifts were ski on throughout the morning.

I couldn’t help but suggest Kinsman Glade. Kinsman is one of my least favorite glades at Cannon due to its lack of maintenance and often horrid conditions. But with so few people at the summit and the snow being so supportive, this was definitely a Kinsman Glade day. Cannonballer obliged and it was killer.

Cannon Trees

After that, despite the late morning hour, I found some astounding untracked trees at Mittersill. Around 11:00am, I dropped into a completely untracked Upper Birches. Off map run followed by off map run, I slowly made my way back to the Tram and wrapped things up so I could get back for my evening shift at work.

Cannon Trees