Caution and Closed. Just signs of the times. One indicates what you can’t ski. And the other suggests what you can ski won’t be very good. But there is opportunity for some fun despite frozen groomer tracks being evident from the first chair.

Never before have I been so delighted to ski under the guns. Lower Cannon was lit up top to bottom yielding terrain features, somewhat powdery snow, and occasionally fun turns. I found ample opportunity to work on my pathetic early season form and I occasionally enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, getting to that occasional fun required significant misery. Despite almost doubling available terrain, Cannon could only keep me interested for two hours this weekend instead of last weekend’s four.

The packed parking lot suggested conditions and crowds would be worse than two weeks ago. I was apprehensive about conditions and wondered how many runs it would take to drive me off the mountain. Surprisingly, the crowd was somewhat manageable after the first tracks frenzy and I found some bumps to keep me entertained through noontime.

Cannon added the Links to Spookie as an option but the combined traffic still needed to run the gauntlet down Gremlin. I was delighted to find loose snow on an enjoyable Big Link, a surprisingly treat (for once). A bump line setup on skier’s left of Gremlin which kept me entertained far longer than I had expected.

The trails were crowded, the conditions were scraped, and the troughs were thinly covered. But dancing in between the bumps on Spookie, I skied a line true and had a huge smile as a result. Even on an early season death ribbon, there is still fun to be had and quality turns to be made.