2007-2008 Season, Cannon Mountain, February

Quality Over Quantity: Tight Tree Skiing at Cannon

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While the main mission of this morning’s outing at Cannon was a never-ever learn to ski package for my significant other, I had other objectives in mind during my free skiing time. Despite the cold and windy weather on this second day of the busy February holiday week, my significant other was jonesing to give skiing a second chance after being a ski widow these past four years. Her excitement was admirable but her timing for picking up the skiing bug was less than perfect.

We arrived around 9:30 A.M. along with the hordes of other skiers setting their sights on Cannon. Having last taken a lesson over a dozen years ago and having last rented equipment when I was too young to understand the process, I was feeling somewhat silly walking my significant other through the lesson and rental package. Lines in the Cannon rental shop were out the door and it took almost forty-five minutes to purchase the package, get the equipment, and miss our preferred lesson time. After waiting another half hour, I walked her over to the lesson meeting location and headed up the Peabody Express Quad for mission number one. After checking in post lesson and taking a few bunny slope turns, I ran off to the summit for mission number two.

Both top to bottom runs were stunning in their challenge, pitch, and degree of difficulty. The first run left me breathless and sweating heavily. The second run had me reconsidering what I considered steep and tight tree skiing. After two years of being a season pass holder at Jay, I have gone somewhat soft after cutting my teeth at Cannon for several seasons. The mellow and open powder full glades at Jay are incredible but can make a skier’s ability soften considerably. These two runs humbled me as only a top to bottom tree exodus off Mad River Glen’s Single Chair can. Cannon remains a spiritual home even if the powder falls less copiously than my beloved Northern Greens.

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2007-2008 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Some Cold Holiday Powder at Jay

Jay Peak Trees

Bitter cold and uncomfortable winds had many vacationers holed up inside their condos, townhouses, and rental units for the first day of the holiday week. The slopes were empty well into late morning when some brave vacationers finally decided to leave the comfort and warmth of their condos and townhouses and do what they supposedly drove up to Jay to do. Less crowded than your average Jay weekend with a ski on Flyer and never more than one or two deep in the singles line at the Jet and Bonnie. The tram had what looked to be about a three car wait as many folks opted to wait for the tram rather than brave the chairlifts. I debated doing the wait on my last run to get a run in off the ridge but didn’t have the stomach for the line.

The wind really loaded the powder up creating a tricky wind slab layer on the surface. Boot deep untracked powder was the norm for the morning and I hammered it without much care for competition. Aside from the lack of vacationer traffic, even the regular Jay powder hounds seemed to be AWOL. Pretty laid back morning and I left lots of typical early hits for later. Lots of options.

I made a rare visit to Tramside and poked around over there for three runs before the Freezer sent me shivering back to Stateside. While exploring, I found some new shots (to me) where I suspected there might be some and wished the wind hadn’t been as bad because I was really enjoying the turns on Tramside.

Today was my first full day on a new (used) pair of Fischer Atua skis. They surfed the powder well but were not as agile as my regular Dynastar Legend 8000 skis in tight trees featuring packed powder conditions. Certainly an exceptional ski on powder snow and will be an especially powerful tool on untracked knee to boot deep snow.

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2007-2008 Season, February, Pats Peak, Racing

Pats Peak: Race Six

Tonight’s course was held on the F.I.S. race trail. The course had larger and more challenging turns than usual, much to my delight, that favored aggressive and clean turns. Showing up late, I snagged the 23 slot but due to half of the racers not making the race start time, my first run was completed in the middle of running order. The course had a good rhythm and the conditions were perfect on my first run which was my better time. Run two was completed in standard running order. Due to being at the end of the pack, conditions were rough on the more aggressive turns. Results turned in a fourth place finish for the team and a personal 22nd out of 53 racers. I opened a gap between my closest competition on the team and closed the gap between the next best skier on the team indicating improvement and a return to better form with a few races down.

2007-2008 Season, February, Jay Peak

Sunday Bust at Jay Peak

Sunday was the bust of this season. With the forecast calling for six to ten inches up and down the Green Mountains, Jay was slotted to receive a major snow storm Saturday night into Sunday morning. Rarely does Jay Peak miss on the big storm predictions. Quite the opposite, Jay almost always receives more snow than expected. But Sunday was a complete and total bust at Jay Peak.

Arriving at a packed Stateside lot shortly before the lifts began loading, I found one to two inches of fluff covering hard pack and scraped surfaces. That is what I get for notching a “powder day” onto my season cost and stat spreadsheet the night before heading up to the mountain. That is just bad Karma. Still hurting from Friday’s romp at Mad River, I set the early alarm and made the line up for opening at the Bonnie chair.

I checked all my favorite spots in short order and there was not much to be found except hard pack and scraped surfaces. There was the occasional nice shot of snow for two or three turns but conditions left something to be desired for the most part. I was tired, sore, and disappointed and decided to pack it up early despite new snow coming down during the late morning.

Jay posted five inches within twenty-four hours as of 4pm. I will chalk up two of those prior to opening and the remaining three falling throughout the day accompanied by increasingly harsh winds. I had hyped this weekend and it did not deliver. Will remember to keep the expectations down next time even when the snow forecasts start hitting double digits. Cannon would have skied better today, truth be told.

2007-2008 Season, February, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Mad River Glen, VT

It has been just over a month since my last visit to Mad River and that was just over a month too long. Friday skiing rules. Except for having to deal with commuter traffic, school buses, snow plows, and getting up a half hour earlier in order to arrive at the mountain a half hour later. East/West ski commutes in Northern New England are a bitch.

Upon driving into the parking lot and getting a visual on the slopes, I was immediately disappointed. Thursday was the best day for post storm mid-week skiing despite the storm generally flying under the radar due to forecasts calling for mixed precipitation earlier this week. Queuing up for the first lift ride confirmed my suspicions of tracked out conditions. So much for warming up on some of the trails I don’t normally ski. I went straight into the woods on the first run.

A dense powder was found on short but memorable untracked lines. Adjusting to the less than desirable dense snow took a few runs. Not quite the sublime dense powder we saw during much of December. Instead of skiing through the snow, I was tending to land on top of it and let it slide and glide me into the next turn.

Boot to knee deep untracked was found in some of the usual places but I also found lots of tracks in many others. Still managed to find some untracked towards the end of the day around 3pm or so but generally short slots and lines. The cut up and tracked up loose powder snow skied rather well. Bumps were rather forgiving since they were still soft and not frozen. With only one or two inches falling last night and nothing today or tonight, there will be little to no powder at the starting gate tomorrow morning.