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Driving north on I-93, things looked bleak. Raining until Concord and only light snow fell occasionally from there. The roads were clear all the way to Cannon when I was expecting a long snowy drive. At Cannon, during the morning I was skiing Tramline and noticed the sun was poking through the clouds! What happened? Where is this huge storm? The sky clouded over and started dumping by early afternoon and all was good.

I warmed up on Vista Way to Bypass to Zoomer carving some mighty fine arcs that felt good. It seemed like Vista Way had been groomed recently and Bypass was still a disaster. Like bypass, Profile was also opened but still looked nasty with powdery bumps building up in between groomer tracks etched into the ice.

Lakeview Glade was had twice with nice untracked powder near the trees on skier’s right where it was really nice. Still some thin spots to watch out for though. Echo Woods was crap, still really thin with tons of rock under the snow. Paulie’s Folly skier’s right was sick! And so was Avalanche! Powdery/crudy bumps that you could just plow through, I was loving it! Gimme more! It was the first time I ever skied avalanche bumps skier’s right top to bottom without having to stop and catch my breath or reassess lines… I simply could not stop it was so good.

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Epic! Powder! Best day of the year!

Cannon got rammed by the recent storm. Yesterday had limited operations at Cannon due to the storm. With the upper mountain lifts not operating yesterday, today was just as good. Cannon is now fully open except for Profile and Bypass which took a huge hit from the wind and look about as ugly as I have seen them. Vista Way was rather ugly too except skier’s left which was nice featuring some wind slab jumps with extra soft landings.

Opened the morning with some hot groomer action via Middle Cannon to Extension to Rocket. The groomers in great shape! I am not one to rave about groomers but the snow was excellent under foot. Front face trails were quite variable with diced up choppy wind slabbed powder. Slabbish at times, bumpy at others, and occasional powder to keep it interesting. Essentially, I could ski any of the three conditions but the variability was not choice within the same run. Untracked powder on banshee was followed by a tram to the summit.

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March roared in like a lion on the first of the month dumping over a foot of fresh in ski country. By Wednesday morning, 20 inches of light fluffy powder had fallen on Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch. When I arrived at Cannon on Thursday morning, I was greeted with reports of epic powder over the previous two days. Many folks claimed it was one of their best days of skiing ever. One even quipped it was “better than skiing out west.”

Unfortunately, my long weekend through vacation time did not perfectly coincide with the epic powder dump. As a result, I arrived to a mountain that already was pillaged of much untracked powder…. but not completely. Knowing some select and secret lines in combination with the Tramline opening for the first time this year combined for one of the more satisfying ski days I have had this year despite the conditions being somewhat less than epic.

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Who knew all the vacationers would sack the goods?? The powder that had been reported on Thursday was no where to be found. I managed to score 300-400 linear feet of untracked all day. Things certainly could have been worse, if that is a complaint! Essentially, all the main routes were packed down and most of the non-main routes were too. I have become rather snobbish about my snow lately, powder to the people! But not much powder to be found today

Taft Slalom was groomed flat as a pancake. Upper/Middle Hard were both fantastic! Vista Way, generally the worst or the best on the mountain on any given day along with Paulie’s Folly, was the best today with awesome packed powder and occasional soft bumps with quality lines. Profile had good bumps in between the scraped off sections which made it not worth repeating. I was not feeling Zoomer. Paulie’s got the winch treatment last night and was flat as a pancake. Decent bumps was found on skier’s right of Paulie’s Extension down through Avalanche with exception of the section by the Banshee Cut Back (something needs to be done about that area, it is uglier than the Links).

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Saturday dawned with amazing blue skies after 4-6″ of fresh light powder fell in the Franconia Notch region. Originally, the plan was to tackle Burke and enjoy some refreshments in the Lyndonville area before and after. However, a report of fresh light powder at Cannon Mountain had me thinking otherwise and I was unable to by pass Cannon while heading North on Interstate 93. Parking at the Tram Building, I opted for the powder boards and anxiously headed inside to boot up in time for the first tracks Tram at 8:15AM. While boarding the Tram, I was surprised by the number of folks on AT gear as I was, mostly sporting the Freeride.

Upon reaching the Summit, decisions had to be made. I could either nail a top to bottom hard scrabble run while the getting was good or make a B-line for the Saddle. I opted for the Saddle with the deciding factor being the delayed opening of the Cannonball Quad which would further delay a return to the summit. Whereas a Saddle run would take plenty of time allowing for the delay to catch up to my tracks.

The hike up the Saddle was simply amazing with fantastic colors and photo opportunities everywhere. The trees were especially spectacular as they were coated with white candy. Disappointment was had on my first run down Taft as I noticed that the powder was less than Cannon had stated and had fallen over a thin coating of NCP making for interesting turns in conditions best described as “Dust on Crust.” I didn’t let conditions on Taft hold my disappointment as conditions below the Taft were amazing in places and worthy of four hikes up and three hikes back which ties my perpetual Saddle in a Day high of Four.

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Whereas normally the day immediately following a huge dump is the best day for turns, in this case two days after the dump turned out to be the better of the pair. Saturday was an epic day at Cannon and saw record numbers of people to the mountain. I picked up skiing buddy Porter at Bentley and made a B line for the Tram base at Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Prospects from the base area were excellent with some sun shining through despite the ugly cloud aloft on Grumpy Old Man Cannon’s Shoulder.

From the summit, we headed straight for the best snow on the hill descending Upper and Middle Hard by way of Taft Slalom. All trails had phenomenal snow that was occasionally packed with mounds of softer snow. Taft was best on skier’s right which would deteriorate into unsafe thin cover later in the day due to beginner and intermediate skiers snowplowing and side slipping near the rock ledges. We then boarded the Peabody Quad and took Bypass to find scraped conditions and rather firm bumps. Paulie’s Extension had decent snow dumping into skier’s right on Avalanche which still contained occasional untracked patches and amazingly fun snow to plow through.

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Thursday saw more than two feet of fresh snow coat Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire within 24 hours time. Suffice to say, there is no other place in the world I would rather be than Cannon Mountain on a powder day. The storm was originally suppose to strike eastern Massachusetts, but the storm track kept moving further north until the White Mountains became the clear jackpot recipient of the first major snow storm for ski country of the season. I cleared a vacation day with the boss and anxiously drove up to Cannon for the first of two days of snowy bliss.

Driving into the Tram Parking Lot, I noticed lots of cars turning around towards the Peabody Slopes and I quickly followed suite as the Tram was on a wind hold. At the Peabody Slopes, I was surprised to see a parking attendant directing traffic into the lower lot despite arriving well before the lifts began turning. Myself and every other car behind me pressed on up into the upper lot to confirm in disbelief that it was already full! Weekdays at Cannon are usually not very busy, but this Friday saw weekend sized crowds as most Cannon die hards were also taking the day off from work.

With the Tram and Cannonball Quad both on wind hold, the Front Face was the place to be. After a brief delay, the Peabody Quad uploaded people to mid-mountain for a race to Zoomer, Paulie’s, and Avalanche which got tracked out ridiculously quick. Within a half hour, no completely untracked line could be made top to bottom and by 11AM most of the Front Face was tracked out completely. Avalanche was a notable exception that lasted well into Saturday morning with awesome lightly picked over freshies.
Fresh Untracked But Too Heavy for Good Turns

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We pulled into the Peabody Slopes upper parking lot at 8:18AM to see it was almost full! I thought the Super Bowl Sunday Two-fer crowds were gonna be ugly, but it turned out that everyone showed up early so they could leave early. Crowds were definitely not a problem and had this been a normal snow year with better than 90% of terrain open, what little crowds there were, would have been slightly better distributed.

Sunday was a Blue Bird day with no clouds in the sky and awesome views of the Franconia Ridge with a little haze on the horizon preventing far views towards VT. The temperature at the summit at 9AM was 40F! The afternoon only got warmer, what a beautiful day.

Sunday was the best groomer action I have experienced at Cannon this season in the AM. We took laps on Middle Cannon, Gary’s, and Rocket and they all had really great snow. Bumps on skier’s right of Gary’s and Rocket are still kinda blah but much better than my last report. Over on Avalanche, there had been a water leak near the Banshee Cut Off that left much of skier’s far right on avalanche frozen ice. Bumps skier’s right were more like random mounds that were best skied by turning on the backside, which was kinda fun. Nice line on Zoomer right under the chair with delightful soft snow.

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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.

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The Tram was in operation for the first time this ski season on Saturday. Additionally, Saturday saw the opening of several trails due to the snow maker efforts including Bypass, Avalanche, Zoomer, and the Tram Cutback. Despite a harsh early season at Cannon, skiing on Saturday was fantastic all around with the mountain making an unofficial opening of the real ski season with all lifts running and most of the Front Face open.

After punching in a quick warm up on Middle Cannon which was delightfully edgable fast packed snow in the early morning hours, I wasted no time in tearing down skiers right on Paulie’s Extension heading for Avalanche. Avalanche had man made powder covering the right half of the trail with the groomed option to the left. I naturally wasted no time in trashing the edgable yet soft 3-4″ of man made powder on skiers right. I began the morning proper by cycling the Zoomer Chair optioning Avalanche and Zoomer which hosted huge ungroomed whales down the center with delicious man made powder over thin cover on skiers right with excellent man made powder between the woods and the whales on skiers left that skied like buttah.

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Driving up to the notch, I was amazed how beautiful the day was beginning. Bright blue skies without a cloud to be seen on the whole drive up Interstate 93. The Franconia Ridge was as majestic as I have ever seen it with its white capped peaks fronting a sky of bright blue. Visibility from the top of the quad was about as far and clear as I’ve ever seen it from cannon. everything was perfect about the weather except one thing: the wind.

Cannon opened with Middle and Lower Cannon and Ravine, Big and Short link, and Spookie on the Peabody Slopes with Zoomer Triple Chair turning for Gary’s on the Front Face. The Tube Park was replaced by a handle tow beginners area (great call!) and the Tuckerbrook Quad was spinning, but I did not get over there.

The HSQ was essentially only useful for uploading to ski down to the Zoomer chair. The wind was ferocious, just about as bad as cannon can get and still have that lift turning. The brutal wind made the ride on the Peabody Quad extremely uncomfortable and it was avoided by everyone as much as possible. Conditions off all trails from the quad were boiler plate. By 11ish, Big/Short link and Ravine got roped and a sign was placed at the loading area of the quad stating the lift serviced terrain for experts only. To bad the Eaglecliff Triple wasn’t turning as Lower Cannon had okay snow in between the blown off sections and would have been a more enjoyable ride getting over to Gary’s.

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Demo day at Cannon today which allowed me to sample all the skis you want for only $20.00. It was an incredible deal that I could not pass up. The big winner of the day was the Dynastar Legend 8000 178cm which I later purchased.

The original plan was to ski Cannon on Friday and then stay overnight at the ‘Dice in Gorham from where I would decide where to attack Saturday. I just was not believing the hype regarding potential snow fall overnight when I was leaving Cannon so I decided to head home and research the skis online after wrapping the day up at Cannon.

Middle/Lower Ravine with Big up top provided the only way down with the side option of Short Link just like the previous weekend. Snow conditions were much better overall this weekend with the same general situation of decent pushed around loose powder on skier’s left on Big Link, skierls right on Short Link, skierls right on Middle Ravine, and skierls left on Lower Ravine. Essentially you could link turns on non-groomed feeling snow 75% of the route on mini-bumps and loose snow. I established a “route” down the trails to keep my testing conditions essentially the same for every ski. While the conditions were boring they allowed for excellent ski comparison for the demos.

Regarding other non-opened trails, the groomers and ski patrol were busy on Middle/Lower Cannon today and that is a lot to open for this coming weekend. All other trails had less snow and coverage than last week, especially the Front Five which would need a solid one foot dump to open without snow making at this point, and that is not happening any time soon.

The weather was fair with patchy fog and cloudiness. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the fog in the valleys making an under cast near the lower surrounding hills, but I was too busy pushing the skis to pull out my camera. The mountain saw a small amount of sleet or freezing rain around noon time and just a touch of light snow when I left at three. hardly a prelude to a dumping. By the time I got to Plymouth, the sky opened up and started raining. Cannon will definitely benefit from the system moving in this weekend but don’t expect any additional terrain to open other than Middle/Lower Cannon.

Opening day at Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Regardless of trail count or conditions, there is no place I would have rather been on Saturday the fourth of December in Snow Year 2004 A.D. While making my way to Cannon, I noticed a familiar event occurring along the highway: the further north I drove, the more snow I saw. Coming around a corner on Interstate 93 just past the Lakes Region, I spied the four major peaks of the Franconia Ridge caked in a snowy white, sparkling in a near cloudless blue sky. A rare perfect weather day bestowed upon Cannon’s first day of the season along with a snow storm the night before and a near blue bird day to follow.

After breaking the pre-season legs in at Killington twice during November, I thought I might be in for a disappointment at Cannon. Boy was I ever wrong in regards to that prediction! Despite only operating one lift with one way down, Cannon was not to disappoint due to mother nature’s untracked bounty and a whole lot of thigh burn. The trail report saw Big Link, Middle Ravine, and Lower Ravine all open, serviced by the Peabody Express Quad. I eagerly bought my $25 reduced price lift ticket and ascended Cannon’s Peabody slopes.

Guns were blazing everywhere with special attention being paid to opening a small stretch of Lower Ravine that was closed and Upper Cannon. Guns would be turned off on Lower Ravine and the top part of Upper Cannon later in the day as snow making moved down Upper Cannon towards Middle Cannon. With a decent base already provided by mother nature, it obviously is not going to take much snow making to get more slopes online.

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What a difference two days makes. Having experienced an epic powder day just two days prior, I had expected Cannon to ski very good this weekend. However, the wind took a severe toll on Cannon today, blowing clear off the mountain most of the snow that fell earlier this week and almost all of what cannon claimed to have received in the past 24 hours.

Visited the saddle three times and I found untracked lines in two locations where I had hoped they might be. But by noon time, it was slim pickings and things were getting pretty thin almost everywhere. A lot of people were hiking for turns but the snow could not stand up to the traffic for long. Without more snow, I do not know if I will be back to this year. Today was my shortest day out of 2004. I packed it in around 1:30 due to my tired legs, the brutal wind, and conditions rapidly deteriorating. The 2003-2004 ski season is winding down and we could use just one more storm!

Weather forecasts were predicting a decent size storm dropping lots of snow on New England Tuesday and Wednesday. With this in mind, I asked the boss for Thursday off hoping for a powder day. Cannon delivered with 7-11″ of light powder and an epic day of adventure. Quite possibly my best day on skis ever to date.

While driving up I-93, I was dismayed by the apparent lack of snow. The further north I drove, the less snow appeared on the road side. By the time I arrived in the White Mountains, no more than a few inches covered the ground. Amazingly, all that changed once I drove into the Franconia Notch. Arriving at Cannon, I noticed fresh snow covered everything and knew this was going to be an epic day. I giddily gathered up my gear and practically ran towards the Peabody Base Lodge.

Suffice to say, the Cannon Trail Report had not exaggerated even slightly reporting 7-11″ of new snow. It came in the form of light powder and continued to snow all day long. This is the stuff most skiers spend their entire lives dreaming about but rarely skiing. I would search Cannon and Mittersill all day for fresh untracked powdah, and found myself more often than not making tracks where there were none before me. Boot to knee deep in freshies all day.

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