Unfortunately, I was tied up at work on Saturday the 15th, so I missed the better day of the week in which skiers trashed what little remained of a few inches of snow. Sloppy seconds were the order of the day on Sunday on the Front Face with slightly better snow conditions at the top of the mountain. Overall, the groomers were generally in sad shape, especially the beginner terrain which was scraped up from over grooming and lack of natural snow from the get to.
Began the morning taking the Eaglecliff Triple to the lake side, but was stopped by a patroller at the top of Rocket warning me that the Zoomer Triple was not running yet. Really appreciated Cannon having a plan in place to alert skiers to the problem. I took the cut back and grabbed a tram to the summit. I was amazed by the utter lack of wind at the top of Cannon. Out of my four rides on the tram, the car only bumped once and it was very minor. Very rare is the day that the tram docks at the summit without even a slight bump! Incredible!
Upper Mountain left much to be desired but it was better than the previous week. Profile, Skylight, and Upper Ravine were edgable hard pack from the get go and Tramway was quite scraped off later in the day. Down on mid-mountain, Bypass was scratched up but skiers right into Paulie’s Extension had some swell bumps and decent snow. I skied down skiers right of Extension and dropped steeply into Avalanche still keeping skiers right to witness a frighteningly thin covered trail. Early in the morning, there was some left over powder to be had far skiers right at the top of Avalanche, but it quickly deteriorated and soon everything not groomed on Avalanche was half grass and half bumps. It was challenging and occasionally fun but far far from ideal conditions.
The rest of the Front Face faired little better with the bumps skiers right on Gary’s being just ugly and those skiers right on Rocket being not too user friendly. Zoomer had decent bumps up top on skiers right with a decent line directly under the Triple Chair. Down lower on skiers right was ugly sporting fierce thin cover but skiable and moderately challenging.
I quickly tired and got bored of thes limited amount of thin cover bumpers and looked longingly at the stairway to Mittersill from the Tram. I decided it was time hoping that the previous rain had not washed away the base and that the 4-6″ recently received was enough to make things skiable. Man was I in for an ill advised adventure. Taft was dicey at best with little to no cover underneath a small coating of snow. I generally straight lined this section looking for spots to slow down and check my speed. Coming out at the Double, I opted for Baron’s and was devastated to see absolutely nothing resembling a skiable line on the trail. I hacked my way down the trail scraping ice or grass on almost every turn with an occasional rock thrown in for good measure. Side Stepping was a measure of last resort but utilized enough to keep me out of harms way. From the top of Cannon through Mittersill and back to the Peabody Slopes was a solid 45 minute time line during which my descent of Baron’s probably would have been quicker in crampons than on skis. Ugly!
After a few more runs down Zoomer and a top to bottom utilizing Extension and Avalanche for solid bumping, I called it quits for the afternoon reflecting on how ski areas ever opened during bad snow years prior to the widespread use of snow making. For Taft to Baron’s to be so lacking in snow halfway through January speaks to just how bad the winter has been so far in New Hampshire. But Cannon can still operate at nearly 75% due to snow making capabilities. Hopefully, this weekend puts the poor weather firmly in the past of the current ski season and we can ski on to better conditions.
