Earned my chit with my wife by taking our 3 yr old and my niece and nephew skiing on Sat at Cannon. Although I never left the free lift, the lift lines never looked too bad.
Anyway, the next morning I met up with some friends and skied some glades and slides. The west-norhtwest facing (elev. 3,000'- 2,300')glades were in prime shape with only a bit of wind slab up on the ridge. this is a little unusaul and I should have taken it as an omen as to what we would encounter on our second half of the tour.
Made quick time up to top of the second northeast facing line (chute) but on the summit ridge that the wrap-around NW winds never really took hold (in this area) to reload the chute that typically gets scoured to granite during a Nor'easter. Again, should have turned back, but had just climbed almost 2K vertical. After negotiating the bushwack across the snow supported on the branches of the shubbery we all had OK run to the entrance of the slide. Got to the top of the slide and skied/sketched down a combination of boilerplate, 6" of fluff (wind depoisited that same morning) and blue waterfall ice. for once it took us longer to "ski" down the line than to get up.
Take home message for the Whites: Until we get more snow watch out for the northeast aspects (or stay in the trees....duh)
Anyway, the next morning I met up with some friends and skied some glades and slides. The west-norhtwest facing (elev. 3,000'- 2,300')glades were in prime shape with only a bit of wind slab up on the ridge. this is a little unusaul and I should have taken it as an omen as to what we would encounter on our second half of the tour.
Made quick time up to top of the second northeast facing line (chute) but on the summit ridge that the wrap-around NW winds never really took hold (in this area) to reload the chute that typically gets scoured to granite during a Nor'easter. Again, should have turned back, but had just climbed almost 2K vertical. After negotiating the bushwack across the snow supported on the branches of the shubbery we all had OK run to the entrance of the slide. Got to the top of the slide and skied/sketched down a combination of boilerplate, 6" of fluff (wind depoisited that same morning) and blue waterfall ice. for once it took us longer to "ski" down the line than to get up.
Take home message for the Whites: Until we get more snow watch out for the northeast aspects (or stay in the trees....duh)