Cannon, NH: 11/27/05

[riverc0il]

one run for the price of none. i have been pretty harsh in my criticism of cannon's decision not to open for whatever reason. however, i would like to offer a big ole thank you to cannon management for keeping new hampshire's best powder stash off limits to any one not willing to earn their turns. powder lasts for days on end when the masses can not access it. so here it is, thanks cannon! now that i think if it, if cannon wants to join NELSAP, i might even be okay with that if this weekend is the result!!!

yesterday heading up to cannon's summit, i felt like superman. today my legs were tired but not shot. i originally planned to yo-yo some locations a few times and try to sample some virgin lines. however, the weather was mighty fine and the summit was begging for a visit. so i skinned all the way up, making a leisurely tour of the mountain looking for other skin tracks. found a blow down on a traverse and wished i had brought the tools for the job.

views from the summit were excellent today unlike yesterday which got socked in by snow and clouds. i found a foot deep all over with drifts slightly deeper and wind blown areas not so deep to not deep at all. snow up top was dust on top of slab on top of dust on top of a nice frozen base. mid-winter form! WOW! can't believe i was skiing this stuff in november, many of these lines i wasn't able to touch until february last year!

managed to get about 500 vert of completely untouched trail to myself and suffered only minor scratches for my efforts. i pushed my luck big time but it paid off without any significant base damage or core shots, incredible! the rest of the descent was occasionally untracked but mostly looking for fresh snow amongst other tracks, not a difficult proposition by any means. if any of you cannon guys haven't gotten there this weekend, i highly recommend taking monday off from work and getting a run or two. the snow is still mighty fine with lots of fresh lines days after the storm!

panoramic shot

 

[powderfreak]

Awesome report and I always love your pictures, River.

I'm kicking myself for not skiing this week. I really had no choice as I has other obligations for the Thanksgiving holiday, but now that its 35 and raining in Burlington, I know I've missed my chance.

 

[BigSpencer]

Very nice pics rivercOil

 

[Lftgly]

River, I usually agree with you, but yesterday's rant is an exception. Having been embroiled in many apres-ski bar discussions of Cannon's failure to open this past holiday weekend, and after talking to management and snowmakers, as well as other skiers & riders, I've been persuaded it was the right thing to do.

As noted with typically great photos in River's two reports, the skiing was there to be had by anyone who was willing to get off their tail and earn it. If you wanted to ride a lift, BW was open 20 minutes away.

After skiing 3 days of great runs in excellent snow conditions on some of New Hampshire's best terrain, I sit here at work with a huge s***-eating grin - how could anyone who skinned/hiked/snowshoed up to sample the goods complain?!? It would have been trashed in one hour if the lifts had run. Instead, we were still finding fresh tracks 4 days after the storm.

How quickly everyone forgets to thank Cannon management for remaining open an extra week after their scheduled closing day last Spring!? As CD is fond of saying about Kmart, I'd rather we had the extra lift-served days on the other end of the season.

Hats off to the snowmakers for making the best preparations possible for this next warm spell!

A couple shots follow from Sunday to supplement river's great gallery

 

[HDHaller]

Yeah, there is so much snow in the notch, and yet a delayed opening for Cannon. The holiday week had me driving all over the state and there were no bigger snowbanks by the road than there were right in front of Cannon's front five. And with warm weather and a couple inches of rain predicted for this week, I wonder if they'll even open this weekend.
-HDH

 

[riverc0il]

how could anyone who skinned/hiked/snowshoed up to sample the goods complain?!? It would have been trashed in one hour if the lifts had run. Instead, we were still finding fresh tracks 4 days after the storm.

How quickly everyone forgets to thank Cannon management for remaining open an extra week after their scheduled closing day last Spring!? As CD is fond of saying about Kmart, I'd rather we had the extra lift-served days on the other end of the season.

great points all, lftgly. i hope i didn't come off as complaining. i did extend a big thanks to cannon for not opening due to the fresh lines found all over the place. honestly, i enjoyed the weekend much better hiking than i would have riding the quad.

very good call about last year's week extension at cannon. i put my hat off to them then, but this weekend still baffles me lftgly. i would be interested in hearing what the snowmaking and management guys you talked to had said. i would also rather have lift serviced on the other end, but it still doesn't make sense how they couldn't make their scheduled opening day.

i guess that is becoming an arguement for the sake of an arguement... me just wanting to hear the straight poop from the horse's mouth so to speak. clearly i enjoyed myself better earning them as i mentioned, but i have a saying i am fond of: "it's never the what, it's the why." i pay more attention to why people do things than what they do, and it irks me i just don't understand the why in this case. regardless, killer late november pow!

 

[riverc0il]

lftgly, after rereading your comments i almost start to wonder if cannon's management didn't open specifically because of the people that would rather earn pow than see it get trashed from the lift! that would be pretty ironic if it was the case, heh!

 

[HDHaller]

i would be interested in hearing what the snowmaking and management guys you talked to had said.

I bumped into a Cannon employee yesterday. He said a compressor went down during the cold days just before T-Giving and that now they're just waiting out the warm weather and rain. It doesn't look good for opening this weekend.
-HDH

 

[hamdog]

it's all about the bc, huh? 8) i'm hoping this area is still skiing well in about a month too.

Rcoil says:

found a blow down on a traverse and wished i had brought the tools for the job.

uhm, what's a "blow down"? drift?

 

[From_the_NEK]

A tree that has blown down across the trail.
Requires a bowsaw for extraction.

 

[riverc0il]

I bumped into a Cannon employee yesterday. He said a compressor went down during the cold days just before T-Giving and that now they're just waiting out the warm weather and rain. It doesn't look good for opening this weekend.
-HDH

thanks for sharing what you heard. i have no beef with equipment failure, that's for sure. there was SO much snow blown on ravine when i was there saturday, i would be amazed if they don't have enough snow after the warm period and NCP are done, plus they can still blow later in the week when colder temps return. we'll see how it goes though.

 

[HDHaller]

there was SO much snow blown on ravine when i was there saturday, i would be amazed if they don't have enough snow after the warm period and NCP are done, plus they can still blow later in the week when colder temps return. we'll see how it goes though.

...and, as it turns out, you were right, Steve: Cannon opened. I didn't ski it this weekend, but I heard it was painful. Also heard that it was much improved, nice even, yesterday (Tuesday). I believe it was still just Middle and Lower Ravine, from the top of the high-speed quad, yesterday, but they're now open midweek and will be adding more terrain soon. Maybe something more for this w.e.