Cannon, NH: 02/26/05

[riverc0il]

who knew all those vacationers could sack the goods?? the powdah that NHPH reported on thursday was no where in sight (there was some outta sight though :wink: but not much. i probably scored 300-400 linear feet of untracked all day. i guess things could be worse if that's a complaint!). essentially, all the main routes were packed down and most of the non-main routes were too. i've become very snobish about my snow lately, powder to the people! here are some quick trail notations:

taft slalom is groomed flat as a pancake (boo). upper/middle hard were fantastic! vista way, generally the worst or the best on the mountain on any given day, was the best today with awesome PP and sometimes soft bumps with quality lines. profile had good bumps... in between the scraped off sections which made it not worth repeating. really wasn't feeling zoomer at all, paulie's got the winch treatment last night and was flat as a pancake. decent bumps skier's right on extension down through avanalche with exception of the section by the banshee cut back (somethings gotta be done about that area, it's uglier than the links dare i say).

now to the fun stuff: like getting bowled over by a snowboarder in kinsman glade. first decent down this gem, too bad it was far far far from sparkling like one today. 2k continuous vertical feet of glade skiing is about as long of a glade trail as can be found in NH. this trail would be awesome on a powder day i think, but the cover was so rediculously thin down lower, there was at one point no safe turn to make without hitting rock/stump/etc. honestly, i am REALLY surprised that trail is still open, it is completely beat to you know what. the fun part? right when the trail got particularly steep and nasty, a boarder came crashing down behind me, lost control, and plowed into me. i had just enough time to brace for impact but couldn't get outta the way. he got tangled up in me and we both started sliding downhill, me first with my head leading the way. talk about a panic situation huh? i swear this kid was holding onto either me or my ski, because i couldn't 180 to dig in edge to save my life (literally!!!). finally after sliding what felt like 50 feet but was probably only 20 and yelling "let go of my ski!" and putting all i was worth into it, i flipped it over and stopped both of us. nice, huh? he was apologetic and asking me if i was okay but damn, that's as close as i like to cut it. sliding backwards head first in a steep glade is freaking scary!

also sampled echo glades for the first time. looked really nice from the traverse up top :lol: but half way down it was hard making a turn without nailing some rock and stump. i hadn't switched over to my beaters yet as i had for kinsman glade (i was overly optimistic on the powder), so i was being extra careful and not having much luck of it. even on my beaters, it still needs another foot to be much fun.

since the powder has dried up from the lift serviced, i'll be earning turns tomorrow!

 

[riverc0il]

let me follow this post up with one more oberservation from today that particularly had me particularly concerned. look, terrain is an open play ground and i am not elitist and don't think that certain areas should only be skied by certain people. but if you can't parallel turn at all and have a constant wedge turn only, you really shouldn't be doing the saddle. nor should your dad be dragging you up there. i can't possibly imagine how some people trying to get down taft/barrons were enjoying it.

/rant

 

[frenchbasher]

By the way the State Park at Cannon has a pretty good ungroomed x-c trail system which isn't far from the Alpine lodges. It's SW of Bald Knob which can be seen in one of the photos in the previous thread. It can be accessed from below at a parking lot on Rt. 18. Franconia has a ski touring center at the Inn, but I have never skied it.

 

[riverc0il]

in my on going pursuit of taking picture angles of cannon i haven't previously captured, here is the visual presentation:

 

[Lftgly]

Nice pictures, as always, thanks!

Comment overheard on the Tram Saturday morning from someone who skied Friday: "I hope nobody going to Mittersill expects to find fresh tracks, cause there aren't any left...".

Yes, Steve, we had to go pretty far off the beaten track to make fresh tracks, but it was there!

Apparently Kinsman Glade was a zoo; heard ski patrol was helping a couple clueless young kids down after noon, one of whom had lost a ski and a helmet (?!?).

Did we pass you on our way up the saddle? After we reached the top, someone behind us posted a sign on a ski; we asked the next guy up what the sign said, and he said something about photos on a website?

There was still enough snow on the edges Saturday for us to get a decent run down one of the old Mitterill trails. After that, we went for the untracked goods that require local knowledge. Sorry we missed you!

I do agree that the snowplowers and sideslippers should be banned from the ungroomed natural snow terrain. Once the Mittersill trails have been scraped off by one or two knuckledraggers and pizzawedgers who can't turn, it's ruined until the next good snowfall. But there's no practical way to do that, just as there's no way to keep clueless kids and the incompetent rider who hit you from accessing the Kinsman glades.

Can someone think of a polite reply that would convincingly dissuade the clueless from follow-the-leader up the saddle to Mittersill? Every time I'm asked "where does this go?", I struggle with being polite, versus telling them that if they don't know where it goes, they are idiots to ask. Replying "outside the ski area boundary" only seems to encourage some.

 

[ATP]

Nice report. I can empathize with your upside down ride through the glade. I took one of those a few years back beyond Paradise at MRG, when my slough went down to glare ice and dropped me on my butt. I slid right into my friend and we rode 40 (him) to 60 (me) vertical feet through steep out-of-bounds wooded terrain. Thank god the volunteer foresters had cut a fall line run there, or it could have been ugly. As it was, we only lost one old ski between us and picked up a few choice bruises each.

Your comments about unpreprared sliders sure makes me appreciate MRG's scare-the-masses-away reputation and no snowboarder policy. Snowboarders skillfully ripping tight lines is a beautiful, but rare, sight. It's just too easy for intermediate boarders to work in a quick slideslip through a crux and spatula away all the good snow for those that follow. (A skier over his head will do the same, but it's not as easy for him.) The contours left by even a heavily skid-reliant skier are easier to work with than what's left by a side-slipper, regardless of tool.

Having said that, I know there's a narrow gully at Mad River that got a little less friendly last tuesday after I side-slipped two spots (following a too late turn that induced a shoulder-icicle encounter). I was probably in a bit over my head in that steep narrow gully, but that has to happen once in a while to improve. I'll certainly work on my technique on some more open bump/tree runs before I return to that particular spot or others like it, more because I don't like the aesthetics of gomering up somebody else's beautiful line than b/c of post-traumatic reticence. Sure, I'd like it if there were fewer people who don't concern themselves with the snow quality they left behind, but you can't expect even slightly well known off-piste shots to survive a school vacation week nicely.

More snow is on the way. Cannon should be in good shape again soon, since the base looks pretty bomber in those shots. I might have to make this week my week to hit Cannon.

 

[riverc0il]

glad you nailed some fresh tracks, Lftgly! i got a few here and there, but sounds like you know some fairly well hidden shots! wasn't me on the saddle that you passed. or maybe you did, but i wasn't the guy in the incident you mention.

regarding the scraping of snow in trails, while i was coming down kinsman glade, i purposefully took my time trying to make quality turns. i had my beaters on, so i could have bombed down skidding where needed... but i always hold two things high in mind when skiing: aesthetic/quality of a turn and not ruining snow. other guys were side slipping nasty parts because they were either in over their heads or two lazy to make a quality turn. you can't really stop it. just gotta hope they had their one run to say "i've skied such and such a trail" and will know not to try it again till they've progressed to the next level.

regarding what to mention to people about the boundary, it varies for me. i try to get a feel for the people asking then respond. often times i simply mention they have to hike back if they don't know where they are going over there. that usually makes people reconsider and is completely honest. if someone seems capable and has some knowledge and is going to do it no matter what, i just direct them to BR.