Cannon, NH: 04/02/06

[riverc0il]

:shock:

anyone that firmly believes a bad day of skiing is better than a good day at the office doesn't get out on days like this :lol: there definitely are days on which i would rather be working than skiing, this was one of them. the only day of the season i can recall thinking "man, should have stayed home."

the original plan for the weekend was MRG on saturday followed by either tucks or GoS on sunday. after the down pour at MRG yesterday, i was still optimistic until last night when i checked the summit temp of washington and noticed it was reading 17 F!!! and that wasn't even the coldest part of the night. with the winds howling, temp falling, and potential new snow overnight, it just wasn't going to happen. if the sherbie had still been open top to bottom and in good condition, i might have considered it as the sherbie is always worth a day trip by itself, but not when you can't skin and ski top to bottom.

so i checked cannon's web site this morning and noticed they were offering free tickets. i already had a voucher to use, so it certainly was more a warning than an incentive! arriving at the notch, skies were partly sunny with good weather in general. inside the notch and at cannon, things were dark, cloudly, very windy, and fairly cold for april. yuck, it didn't look like the sun was going to make much of a difference warming up the snow.

lift finally started loading at 9:15am, yet another warning of what to expect. trail count from the morning dropped completely out with the summit closed due to everything being a sheet of ice, no exageration. i could see profile from the peabody quad and the previous day's rain had frozen solid :shock: trails not groomed were clearly unskiable and natural snow trails were all essentially grass with a dusting of recent snow/frost on top.

middle cannon, lower cannon, gary's, and rocket were open and generally only half groomed as the rest of the trail didn't have enough snow. best to stay on the groomer tracks! i found a few patches of soft snow, but frozen gran hard pack for the most part. rocket SUCKED. gary's was okay. lower cannon was primo corn, but it wasn't worth dealing with middle. i took three runs and decided i had more interesting and fun things i could be doing at home... like cleaning the house and doing the dishes. for real.

on the bright side, i certainly got my monies worth! :lol:

closed out two areas in one weekend, very very sad to see the end coming soon for the lifts.

 

[NHpowderhound]

Are you sure your report isnt a late April fools joke? :lol:
How was the base on the trails that were open? Worth a skin if we get a warm day in the next couple weeks? My pass is still good for Bretton Woods which is saying they will be open till May but I think i'd rather skin Cannon if it's worth it, hint hint.
((*
*))NHPH

 

[riverc0il]

base depth was low. very low. that is part of what made rocket such crap, the groomer was digging up dirt. no more than 2-3" in most places at best. if wednesday delivers some snow it may be worth a skin up next weekend, especially if the snow softens up a bit. i can think of better places to be doing some skiing though once they are closed such as the jet off jay or the gondi at mansfield. next weekend looks like a voucher i gotta burn at loon and perhaps mount washington if the weather cooperates. that might be a good idea for friday, since i have it off. without more snow, cannon would only be worth while skinning because it is closer than other options, i would rather drive for better snow than take the closer option. i might do a skin up burke after work this week since we have more day light, i suspect they are about the same though.

i guess to sum things up, i wouldn't bother skinning cannon unless mother nature delivers on wednesday.

 

[Lftgly]

i wouldn't bother skinning cannon unless mother nature delivers on wednesday.

I'd second River's evaluation. The snowmakers did the best job they have in over a decade, which is the only reason there was any open trail count this late in the worst snow season in over a decade.

Saturday morning was remarkable, in that we were skiing trails covered with little more than an inch or three of ice - trails which would ordinarily be closed, except the ice was soft and edgeable in the warm air and sunshine.

There's just nothing left to ski on, on the lower mountain, upper mountain or anywhere in between. So Cannon will not be worth the effort to skin up. You will hear no complaints from me that they closed too early this year. Thanks to the staff for stretching it to the bitter end!