Category: February

2004-2005 Season, Cannon Mountain, February

Superbowl Sunday at Cannon Mountain, NH

Paulie's Extension

We pulled into the Peabody Slopes upper parking lot at 8:18AM to see it was almost full! I thought the Super Bowl Sunday Two-fer crowds were gonna be ugly, but it turned out that everyone showed up early so they could leave early. Crowds were definitely not a problem and had this been a normal snow year with better than 90% of terrain open, what little crowds there were, would have been slightly better distributed.

Sunday was a Blue Bird day with no clouds in the sky and awesome views of the Franconia Ridge with a little haze on the horizon preventing far views towards VT. The temperature at the summit at 9AM was 40F! The afternoon only got warmer, what a beautiful day.

Sunday was the best groomer action I have experienced at Cannon this season in the AM. We took laps on Middle Cannon, Gary’s, and Rocket and they all had really great snow. Bumps on skier’s right of Gary’s and Rocket are still kinda blah but much better than my last report. Over on Avalanche, there had been a water leak near the Banshee Cut Off that left much of skier’s far right on avalanche frozen ice. Bumps skier’s right were more like random mounds that were best skied by turning on the backside, which was kinda fun. Nice line on Zoomer right under the chair with delightful soft snow.

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2003-2004 Season, Cannon Mountain, February

Cannon Mountain, NH

Mount Lafayette from Paulie's

Saturday promised clear skies and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Perfect Spring Skiing weather despite the fact that Spring Skiing should not begin for another month! Upon arriving at Cannon Mountain, I visited Guest Relations to claim a free ski ticket for maxing out my frequent skier card. The morning sunrise brought forth tremendous color leaving an electricity hanging in the air. Today was going to be a great day to be on skis regardless of how little snow fell during the month of February.

Feeling the need for speed and a proper warm up (for once!), I made my first runs on some groomers. Big fast GS turns were had down Middle Cannon to Paulie’s Extension followed by quick and nimble slalom turns down Avalanche. Groomer festivities were continued down the center of Zoomer which featured bumps on both sides of the groomed center.

After my legs were feeling up to task, I tracked down the bumps on Paulie’s Folly since bumps on Zoomer Lift Line and Avalanche looked sketchy, hard packed, uneven, and no fun. Paulie’s has in past years disappointed but this year I have enjoyed epic runs almost every day! This day was no different as I offered verbal praise and cries of joy to the natural snow gods. The snow was soft, pleasant, and edgable. The bumps offered supreme satisfaction. Sure there were some natural terrain features such as rock, dirt, and weeds. And my bases suffered when I let my guard down> But it was a great run that I repeated twice later in the day.

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2003-2004 Season, Cannon Mountain, February

Cannon Mountain, NH

A blustery start to the morning had Cannon Mountain on a wind hold. Chairs were being loaded onto the haul rope as I booted up and chairlift opened at 8:45 A.M. My sliding partner and I wasted no time in heading for the summit which was actually less breazy than the base!

Some minor powdah on skier’s left of Taft Slalom got the morning started proper. Natural snow adventure skiing was suspect and continuing to decrease in quality as the weeks tick by without additional snow. Rocks previously buried in snow were beginning to show and the snow conditions were generally just terrible. The new snow was blown off in most places leaving an old crusty hard pack. Baron’s featured some of the better natural snow on the mountain but still left much to be desired.

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2003-2004 Season, February, Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain, VT

A late start this morning resulted in first turns being delayed until 10:30 A.M. One of my ski buddies volunteers on the Magic Mountain Ski Patrol. The Patrol needed an assist with camera operations during their rescue clinic, so my buddy arranged for me to receive a comp in exchange for camera duties. Most folks are unaware that these volunteers put in many hours of training every year for what they hope will never happen. Be sure to thank your patrolers for their hard work and dedication.

The morning was cold and the snow fairly unforgiving. Warm up runs were taken on Talisman and Trick. Both were groomed and getting skied off quick down the center. Next run I took Twilight Zone which had sensational snow and bumps except at the end of the trail which was thin and rocky. While Magic’s base is respectable, the mountain needs more snow.

Sorcerer was the Run of the Day, but I only had time to ski it once, unfortunately. Soft and edgable packed powder bumps exposed to the sun. Very nice! I later assisted in sweep by taking Broomstick which was a little thin and not much fun to Lucifer. The latter featured scraped bumps in the center and occasional untouched crunchy powder on skier’s far right. Red Line and Master Magician were both open but very thinly covered and looking rather firm and unpleasant.

Only took seven runs today due to assisting with patrol but they were quality runs all things considered.

2003-2004 Season, Cannon Mountain, February

Cannon Mountain, NH

Mount Lafayette from Upper Hard

A fresh coating of snow freshened things up significantly. Despite the increased coverage, the snow was an unusual high moisture content variety that was lower quality than the previous weekend. As per usual when New England receives some snow, the deep freeze descended over the region from Canada. It was a tram day for sure! Temperatures eventually warmed to ten degrees below zero before factoring in the wind chill. Later in the day, I would suffer through the coldest Cannonball Quad ride I can remember.

Per usual I began my morning on the Front Face. Bumps on right sides of Rocket and Zoomer Lift Line were hard packed and unforgiving but would get much better in the afternoon. Paulie’s was better skier’s right this week as skier’s left looked rather green by the evening. Avalanche had both skier’s right and left bumped with groomed snow down the middle similar to Zoomer. I enjoyed skier’s left better personally but neither was completely satisfying. Returning to these trails later in the day, I found some rocking bumps skier’s right on Zoomer and Zoomer Lift Line. These bumps had softened up and formed well with more skier traffic. Zoomer was great all over the place except where the side slippers were coming down center.

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