Category: Powder Day

2004-2005 Season, Cannon Mountain, March, Powder Day

Epic Powder Day at Cannon

TramlineEpic! Powder! Best day of the year!

Cannon got rammed by the recent storm. Yesterday had limited operations at Cannon due to the storm. With the upper mountain lifts not operating yesterday, today was just as good. Cannon is now fully open except for Profile and Bypass which took a huge hit from the wind and look about as ugly as I have seen them. Vista Way was rather ugly too except skier’s left which was nice featuring some wind slab jumps with extra soft landings.

Opened the morning with some hot groomer action via Middle Cannon to Extension to Rocket. The groomers in great shape! I am not one to rave about groomers but the snow was excellent under foot. Front face trails were quite variable with diced up choppy wind slabbed powder. Slabbish at times, bumpy at others, and occasional powder to keep it interesting. Essentially, I could ski any of the three conditions but the variability was not choice within the same run. Untracked powder on banshee was followed by a tram to the summit.

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2004-2005 Season, Cannon Mountain, March, Powder Day

Tramline Opened & Powder in the Trees

Tramline

March roared in like a lion on the first of the month dumping over a foot of fresh in ski country. By Wednesday morning, 20 inches of light fluffy powder had fallen on Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch. When I arrived at Cannon on Thursday morning, I was greeted with reports of epic powder over the previous two days. Many folks claimed it was one of their best days of skiing ever. One even quipped it was “better than skiing out west.”

Unfortunately, my long weekend through vacation time did not perfectly coincide with the epic powder dump. As a result, I arrived to a mountain that already was pillaged of much untracked powder…. but not completely. Knowing some select and secret lines in combination with the Tramline opening for the first time this year combined for one of the more satisfying ski days I have had this year despite the conditions being somewhat less than epic.

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2004-2005 Season, Earned Turns, February, Lost Ski Area, Powder Day, Snow Valley

NELSAP Day at Snow Valley, VT

Steve

A NELSAP Special Event sponsored by the new Snow Valley owner allowed NELSAP’ers a rare chance to earn turns at the Private lost ski area Snow Valley. The owners plan to develop a Private Ski Club with Private Real Estate and lodging for club members. Snow Valley is private property and earning turns at the Ski Area is not normally allowed making this powder day an extra special treat. Six inches of blower powder, sweet!

2004-2005 Season, Cannon Mountain, February, Powder Day

Yet Another Powder Day at Cannon

Cannon Tram

Saturday dawned with amazing blue skies after 4-6″ of fresh light powder fell in the Franconia Notch region. Originally, the plan was to tackle Burke and enjoy some refreshments in the Lyndonville area before and after. However, a report of fresh light powder at Cannon Mountain had me thinking otherwise and I was unable to by pass Cannon while heading North on Interstate 93. Parking at the Tram Building, I opted for the powder boards and anxiously headed inside to boot up in time for the first tracks Tram at 8:15AM. While boarding the Tram, I was surprised by the number of folks on AT gear as I was, mostly sporting the Freeride.

Upon reaching the Summit, decisions had to be made. I could either nail a top to bottom hard scrabble run while the getting was good or make a B-line for the Saddle. I opted for the Saddle with the deciding factor being the delayed opening of the Cannonball Quad which would further delay a return to the summit. Whereas a Saddle run would take plenty of time allowing for the delay to catch up to my tracks.

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2004-2005 Season, Cannon Mountain, February, Powder Day

Another Powder Day at Cannon

Steve

Whereas normally the day immediately following a huge dump is the best day for turns, in this case two days after the dump turned out to be the better of the pair. Saturday was an epic day at Cannon and saw record numbers of people to the mountain. I picked up skiing buddy Porter at Bentley and made a B line for the Tram base at Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Prospects from the base area were excellent with some sun shining through despite the ugly cloud aloft on Grumpy Old Man Cannon’s Shoulder.

From the summit, we headed straight for the best snow on the hill descending Upper and Middle Hard by way of Taft Slalom. All trails had phenomenal snow that was occasionally packed with mounds of softer snow. Taft was best on skier’s right which would deteriorate into unsafe thin cover later in the day due to beginner and intermediate skiers snowplowing and side slipping near the rock ledges. We then boarded the Peabody Quad and took Bypass to find scraped conditions and rather firm bumps. Paulie’s Extension had decent snow dumping into skier’s right on Avalanche which still contained occasional untracked patches and amazingly fun snow to plow through.

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