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, AlpineZone Meet Up, Burke, March

AlpineZone.com Meet Up at Burke, VT

Steve at Burke

I have been long overdue on hitting up Burke this year. A combination of being drawn to Cannon and noticing the Northeast Kingdom did not receive a lot of snow this year kept me away. Meeting up with fellow skiers for an AlpineZone.com Meet Up was the perfect excuse to sample the charm and character of Burke Mountain.

Burke was amazing today and with excellent views and superb conditions. Visibility was great with Sugarbush, Mansfield, and Jay Peak all visible. Weather started cold but warmed up good by noon time. We began the morning skiing impeccable groomers including top to bottom on the Dippers and Willoughby. Burke’s perfect groomed conditions would rival even Sunday River’s legendary grooming. Seriously folks, Burke is THE BEST ski area in New England if you like cruisers with character at any speed. I am one to normally head for the trees and the bumps. But even I was lapping up the perfect groomed laying down railroad tracks in the morning.

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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

Cannon Mountain, NH

Vista Way Bumps

Who knew all the vacationers would sack the goods?? The powder that had been reported on Thursday was no where to be found. I managed to score 300-400 linear feet of untracked all day. Things certainly could have been worse, if that is a complaint! Essentially, all the main routes were packed down and most of the non-main routes were too. I have become rather snobbish about my snow lately, powder to the people! But not much powder to be found today

Taft Slalom was groomed flat as a pancake. Upper/Middle Hard were both fantastic! Vista Way, generally the worst or the best on the mountain on any given day along with Paulie’s Folly, was the best today with awesome packed powder and occasional soft bumps with quality lines. Profile had good bumps in between the scraped off sections which made it not worth repeating. I was not feeling Zoomer. Paulie’s got the winch treatment last night and was flat as a pancake. Decent bumps was found on skier’s right of Paulie’s Extension down through Avalanche with exception of the section by the Banshee Cut Back (something needs to be done about that area, it is uglier than the Links).

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