2004-2005 Season, Cannon Mountain, December, Earned Turns, Powder Day

Possessed by Powder at Cannon Mountain!

Lafayette from Tramway

Opening day at Cannon Mountain. Regardless of trail count or conditions, there is no place I would rather be. While en route to Cannon, I noticed a familiar pattern: the further north I drove, the more snow I saw. Coming around a corner on I-93 just past the Lakes Region, I spied the four major peaks of the Franconia Ridge caked in white, sparkling in a near cloudless blue sky. A rare perfect day at Cannon: blue bird skies following a major storm.

After breaking the pre-season legs in at Killington twice during November, I thought Cannon might be a disappointment. Despite operating one lift with only one route, Cannon did not disappoint due to mother nature’s bounty and a whole lot of thigh burn. Big Link, Middle Ravine, and Lower Ravine were open, the rest would have to be earned. I eagerly bought my $25 reduced price lift ticket and ascended Cannon’s Peabody slopes.

Guns were blazing everywhere with special attention being paid to a small stretch of Lower Ravine that was closed and Upper Cannon. Guns would be turned off on Lower Ravine and Upper Cannon later in the day as snow making moved down towards Middle Cannon. With a decent base already provided by mother nature, it is not going to take much snow making to get more slopes online.

(more…)

2004-2005 Season, Killington, November

Killington, VT

Great NorthernThanksgiving Holiday Weekend in New England, a time of blackout dates on Special Offers and crowded slopes at the larger ski resorts. With a marginal early season snow wise in which many ski areas were pushing opening days back and Non-Crystalline Precipitation had fallen fallen twice, not many solid options were available. I decided to do the previously unthinkable and make the trek up to Killington Vermont which was the only New England ski area that could offer up decent pitched trails and bumps. While the parking lot was quickly filling up, I paid the man a ridiculous $49 for a little over 20 trails and boarded the K1 Gondola.

From the Summit of Killington, I quickly tracked down Great Northern which is one of Killington’s many throw away connector trails. Today, Great Northern was more than just a connecting trail, it was a novice skiers’ only option from the summit which made it a trail to be avoided at all costs throughout the day. Bailing to the right onto an already scraped down Lower Reason was probably not the best option. I took the Northern Ridge Triple back up and tried Upper Rime where snow blowers were going top to bottom, a definite turn off. I quickly abandoned all the upper mountain trails on Killington Peak and held on for dear life skiing the middle portion of Great Northern where I managed to find some rocks which I threw back into the woods going down skiers left.

(more…)

2004-2005 Season, Killington, November

Killington, VT: Opening Week

Steve Under the Glades TripleKillington was the first ski area to open for the 2004-2005 skiing season on Tuesday November 9, 2004. I claimed my first tracks of the season two days later on a Veterans Day Holiday. Being freed of work obligations for the day had me setting my alarm one hour early and having the wheels spinning by 5:30AM. Along the way, I discovered that New Order is great pre-skiing music and that Vermont schools do not have Veterans Day off which was an early sign that crowds would not be as bad as I had anticipated.Arriving at KBL (now renamed K1BL for what it’s worth) at exactly 8:15AM, I hit the lodge and picked up a free ticket courtesy of Killington for attending the latest Warren Miller film in Boston called Impact. After some minor confusion about which window to obtain my free lift ticket from, I booted and suited up and ascended via the K1 Gondi with my P40 Platinums. Unfortunately, my preferred and 10cm shorter P50 Motions were still in the shop. I made due with my longer backup boards which had my quads burning early!

The best thing about the first run is that for the rest of the season, your skiing can never get any worse. It sets the standard for the absolutely worst you could possibly ski which is a comforting thought given my rather forced and unnatural turns. I am trying not to blame it on the skis, but after a year of skiing on 183cm skis it was really tough going back and adjusting to something that is 193cm long. I pretty much had the longest skis on the mountain that I noticed.

(more…)

2003-2004 Season, March, Wildcat

Wildcat Mountain, NH

Wildcat Trees

Reported in for turns at Wildcat promptly at 9:00 A.M. With an evening rain storm the night before after several warm days in a row, I wondered just how much snow would actually remain. Approaching Wildcat on Route 16 in Pinkham Notch, things looked rather grim. I hesitantly bought my $52.00 lift ticket believing that I would be lucky to get my monies worth. Fifty-two dollars worth of turns later, I departed Wildcat with a smile on my face.

Every time I ski Wildcat, without fail, the first time up the Wildcat Express is always an amazing trip. “Wow!” that thing flies. Hands down the fastest High Speed Quad in New England and after more than a dozen ski days riding it I can still be surprised by that initial rush of speed.

The weather was consistent throughout the day with a cloud ceiling around 3500 vertical feet. Above that elevation, visibility was limited to about fifty feet (about the length of one chair in front of you on the Quad) or less in thick foggy conditions. I got one good look into Tuckerman Ravine and saw a huge cravass from a recent wet slide. Clouds also parted for a head shot of the summit of Big George, spectacular.

(more…)

2003-2004 Season, Cannon Mountain, March

Cannon Mountain, NH

What a difference two days makes. Having experienced an epic powder day just two days prior, I had expected Cannon to ski very good this weekend. However, the wind took a severe toll on Cannon today, blowing clear off the mountain most of the snow that fell earlier this week and almost all of what cannon claimed to have received in the past 24 hours.

The groomers did a fine job packing down as much of the snow as possible before the winds swept it all away. But despite the groomers efforts, trails such as Big Link and Profile sported huge scraped (dare I even use the overused and often inaccurate term icy!) sections by noon time that were particularly ugly. Upper Ravine was scratchy by noon. Even some beginner terrain was sporting scraped up sections by noon time! The wind was howling and it was damn cold up there today. Trace amounts of powder were still around but rather hard to find.

Visited the saddle three times and I found untracked lines in two locations where I had hoped they might be. But by noon time, it was slim pickings and things were getting pretty thin almost everywhere. A lot of people were hiking for turns but the snow could not stand up to the traffic for long. Without more snow, I do not know if I will be back to this year. Today was my shortest day out of 2004. I packed it in around 1:30 due to my tired legs, the brutal wind, and conditions rapidly deteriorating. The 2003-2004 ski season is winding down and we could use just one more storm!