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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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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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Thursday saw more than two feet of fresh snow coat Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire within 24 hours time. Suffice it to say, there is no other place in the world I would rather be than Cannon Mountain on a powder day. The storm was originally suppose to strike eastern Massachusetts, but the storm track kept moving further north until the White Mountains became the clear jackpot recipient of the first major snow storm for ski country of the season. I cleared a vacation day with the boss and anxiously drove up to Cannon for the first of two days of snowy bliss.

Driving into the Tram Parking Lot, I noticed lots of cars turning around towards the Peabody Slopes and I quickly followed suite as the Tram was on a wind hold. At the Peabody Slopes, I was surprised to see a parking attendant directing traffic into the lower lot despite arriving well before the lifts began turning. Myself and every other car behind me pressed on up into the upper lot to confirm in disbelief that it was already full! Weekdays at Cannon are usually not very busy, but this Friday saw weekend sized crowds as most Cannon die hards were also taking the day off from work.

With the Tram and Cannonball Quad both on wind hold, the Front Face was the place to be. After a brief delay, the Peabody Quad uploaded people to mid-mountain for a race to Zoomer, Paulie’s, and Avalanche which got tracked out ridiculously quick. Within a half hour, no completely untracked line could be made top to bottom and by 11AM most of the Front Face was tracked out completely. Avalanche was a notable exception that lasted well into Saturday morning with awesome lightly picked over freshies.
Fresh Untracked But Too Heavy for Good Turns

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