Cannon NH, 1/30/05

[awf170]

I got the Cannon at about 10:30 and went the summit for the first few runs. I did all the runs from the top once and they were all pretty horrible. After that I went to the base and did avalance which was also pretty bad. After that I was going to leave but decided to go up the tram once more down the peabody base. It was suprisingly good. Once the sun came out and the trail got more skiied off conditions got a lot better because the hard pack losened up and by the end of the day conditions were really good. The run of the day was probably lower hardscrabble or profile at the end of the day(profile was nasty in the morning) Even though the skiing was fun there were quite a bit of bare spots and rocks. Most trails really did not have much of a base and if we get into some warm weather and some rain cannon will probably have to close most of the mountain. There really wasnt much natural snow at all and thought there would be more because i checked on RSN and they said cannon got 20 inches of snow in the last week but there was probably on about 6 inches on the ground so i was kinda disapointed with that. But overall the day at cannon was a lot better than i thought it would be.

 

[Lftgly]

Boy, that RSN report was all lies. I skied Saturday morning, 1/29, and there was a little fresh left on the edges from mid-week, temps warmed up, and it was a beautiful sunny day; by Noon, it was a great ski day, if not the greatest ski conditions (but I had to leave...).

As you found on Sunday, none of that mid-week snow was to be found anywhere on the trail network. I got back from down south at Noon, and skied a couple hours Sunday afternoon. It was pretty scraped. The trails which have had no snow blown on them are mostly closed, as they should be. There was virtually no base left, not even a good layer of boilerplate, after that last major meltdown January 13. All new snow since then has been very dry powder, and almost none of it has stuck to begin rebuilding a base.

 

[awf170]

ya i cant believe there going to stop snow making soon too, they need to add a base to pretty much every trail. If we get any rain or warm weather cannon is going to be in real sad shape. I cant believe trails like paulies extension were open, because one sections was all ice. 2 years ago it was like that too and the person i was skiing with almost got seriously hurt because he went over that lip and hit a sheet of ice and almost went into the woods. They really need to do something about that trail.

 

[riverc0il]

not sure what you would recommend doing with paulie's extension, i don't think there's much wrong with the trail. it's just a really lean snow year and it needs to be approached with respect in that regard. two weeks ago it was in great condition with nice bumps skier's right, not sure what happened since then.

surprised to hear things were so beat up, the daily conditions report has been hyping the conditions as fantastic since the last time i was up there. not that snow reports are the definitive word on the conditions (that's what no bull is for!), but there's a pretty big gap between your experience this past weekend and what the weekend was billed to be.

 

[Lftgly]

You're talking about that last section of Extension, right at Killy's Corner where Avalanche drops steeply off on skiers right, and a J house on the left. Yes, I skated across that scraped, icy section a couple times on Sunday afternoon, trying to get across to top of Paulies and Zoomer.

You would think it wouldn't be hard to run a gun for an hour or two off the hydrants by the J house, and patch that up. It's a perenial icy spot, as predictable as many of the rock locations. My advice, either hug the left side right by the J house, or drop down the steep bumps on Killys Corner. They're steep, there's one rock halfway down, but they hold snow long after the middle of the trail.

Of course, there's another perenially scraped off section on Avalanche immediately below the corner. Often, the entire length of Avalanche will turn into a luge run.

Sunday afternoon at Cannon five days after the last snowfall, it's a safe bet it will be scratchy everywhere on the map.

It's an icy, rocky, windy, cold, no-frills experts mountain. I'm not sure I would love it anymore if it was groomed to perfection.

 

[awf170]

ya it does make the skiing fun with all the intresting and sometimes scary things on the trails. I hate places where every trail is groomed to perfection.