Has it really been more than two weeks since I last skied? Bad weather and a horrible week long cold combined to remove two weeks from my season. Both the trails and I recovered earlier this week and this coming weekend looks very nice. I eased back into things at Cannon where expectations started low, got raised way too high, and ultimately the skiing was very satisfactory.

The trail report promised 4-5″ of new snow at the summit. The snow reporter must have meant the literal summit, as in underneath the observatory tower. Perhaps 4-5″ drifted in front of the summit building’s door for the measurement but I failed to observe more than 1-3″ anywhere on the upper mountain, not even in drifts.

The snow report raised my expectations which were subsequently destroyed during my first run down Vista Way. An inch or two covered small bumps and thin coverage which failed to raise my pulse. The skiing met my original expectations prior to reading the snow report. But the report set me up for disappointment despite arriving at the mountain with a solid understanding of what conditions to expect.

Cannon has recovered nicely from the end of December damage. Snow makers were rocking Bypass (while open), Skylight, Upper Ravine, and Taft. With the incoming storms Friday and Monday, I would expect Cannon proper to be 100% open excepting mid- and lower mountain glades by next week. Existing coverage was very nice but steeper pitches were considerably scraped down by late morning.

While skiing Zoomer Liftline, I spied Rob Rox riding the triple. I called out and met him at the bottom. I haven’t had the chance to ski with RR in quite some time so I enjoyed the opportunity to catch up. And after a ho hum morning, it was great to have someone to ski with. Rob was lapping some excellent low angle natural snow on Gary’s and I let him lead the way.

The snow quality on Gary’s was fantastic. An inch or two of fine powder layered over crusty natural snow skied far better than it looked like it might. The suspect looks of the pitch kept traffic to a minimum which meant more great turns for us. After a few laps, we headed for the summit via the tram.

Vista skied significantly better with the powder packed down, the bumps and thin cover more visible, and expectations set appropriately. Enough snow covered the trail to allow skiing down the center and right side of the trail as well as the right split at the island (unusual any time of the year but particularly early season). Perhaps it was the company, perhaps it was realigned expectations, or perhaps the skiing was just that good, but Vista was my run of the day and I came back multiple times for more.

The guns on Bypass made skiing interesting but the ejection onto Extension was sublime and worth getting blasted. I rocked it down skier’s right and dropped into Avalanche and onto Banshee following the top to bottom insider perimeter of Cannon’s hourglass. It was worth a repeat before commencing some final laps on Vista.