A Cannon Day: It is good for what ails you.
Fourteen hours ago, it seemed like this powder day was not to be. I got up, took out the dog, and sat down looking out the window, dead eyes. I felt absolutely wasted. I had not been feeling well for days and the cold hit hard Saturday and Sunday. I knew that a foot of fresh was awaiting, but my body said “no way”. I sat there for half an hour watching the minutes tick away. I had to make a go decision soon to make first chair. I chugged some water, tossed some medicine in my bag, and got moving. I might not be able to ski much but I sure as heck was going to try.
I can report that I have found the cure for the common cold and it is a powder day at Cannon. Once I got going, I felt better every run. As per my usual plan of attack at Cannon, I started on Zoomer and found about eight inches over scratch on the groomers. Untracked on top of groomer is my favorite powder condition (since I get to ski it so rarely) but powder on top of scratch is not so hot. Lower angle Rocket had the best snow of this variety. But the better and deeper action was in the trees as I found in Lakeview and Echo.
I grabbed a tram to the summit and found excellent snow in the trees. I popped out at the bottom of Middle Hard and opted to do it the hard way. I was rewarded for my efforts with a nearly untracked and knee deep Red Ball (at 11:00am). The Peabody was on wind hold so I skated over to Mittersill where I met up with an old friend. We skied many of my favorite tree shots until splitting after noontime. I was amazed at how well the conditions were holding up. Perhaps one of the most uncrowded powder days I have ever seen at Cannon for a storm that was so well publicized.
Untracked powder was easy to score well into the afternoon. Boot deep was the rule and left over knee deep was occasionally the exception. I found untracked lines on every run all day right up until the last run. I picked off all of my favorite lines at Mittersill and felt no desire to work my way back over to Cannon proper even with Kinsman and Tramline open. I even managed to ski a “new to me” line that I always suspected existed but I hadn’t troubled to find the entrance before. It has been quite a few years since I have skied a “new to me” line at Cannon.
Goodness knows how extreme exertion in the cold can cure someone of the common cold but a powder day at Cannon appears to be just what the doctor should have ordered.
One thought on “A Cannon Day”
Hey good job fighting through being sick. I would agree a great powder day can make it go away! For years I have looked at the Cannon Mountain picture on your blog cover and your varies posts about Cannon and have always wanted to ski there. I’m from the Baltimore area and I do ski three for four trips a year in Vermont. I remember reading a post from you suggesting to ski different areas through the year. I took your advice this past year and skied Cannon finally. What a really nice mountain and it was not even crowed on the last week in March on a Saturday. In fact it was “Bode Day”. After reading about Mittersil reopening and your blogs about the closed mountain and pouching fresh tracks etc… I was finally able to experience the whole place. Reading the blog today about the slopes you skied I loved Zoomer and Rocket. I made plenty rapid runs on them. Hard Scrabble and Red Ball were great too. I really liked skiing Profile and skiing that chair. Great part of the mountain and in the morning not great visibility, but I didn’t care because nobody was skiing it except me. Some of my best turns for the year were on Profile. Lakeview and Echo glades had ropes up. I stood there and looked at glades and it looked like your posts I have read about. Wow, they looked great and were snow covered. I don’t know why they were roped? Anyway, I found plenty of runs and throughly enjoyed my open to close skiing that day. I will be back. I knew when hiked last summer the Franconia Ridge Loop and looked over at Cannon I was going to ski there in 2107. I enjoyed your powder post.
Thanks
Tom