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My predictions of Sunday being an epic completion to three days of incredible skiing at Cannon went wrong. The snow storm never materialized in full at Cannon. I would estimate a three day total of about 5-8 inches (matching the actual numbers provided on Cannon’s web site). Not much snow fell after I left Cannon Saturday night. Sunday brought out a huge amount of people which would explain why the crowds were light on Saturday. The Cannonball Quad went down for two hours during the morning which sent massive amounts of people to the Tram (people were queued up over the bridge!) and the Zoomer Triple Chair (5 minute wait). These were the longest lines I have ever seen at Cannon by far due to the Cannonball Quad being down.

I was feeling significant pain after nearly back to back powder days on Thursday and Saturday. I did not think I was going to make it past noon time as the turns were hard and painful. Bumps were solidifying across the front face trails with regularly groomed sections of Zoomer and Avalanche featuring ice between the bumps. The regular bump lines are okay in the troughs except Zoomer Lift is a tad thin. Lakeview was very packed down but skied rather well. A lot of scraping was featured everywhere on the mountain, despite the fact that it was still snowing during the day and loose snow bumps were forming on nearly every trail by day’s end.

Snow report at 7:15 A.M. stated that all 55 trails were open but Kinsman and Tramline were roped. Did they close it due to the crowds and to keep the joeys from hurting themselves? Honestly, Tramline was definitely skiable from the view above. I was disappointed for my skiing partners who wanted to give that trail a run as it skied fine Saturday and looked fine Sunday as well. I still found some untracked Sunday, but it was very heavy snow and I would rather have been skiing through something more tracked up.

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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After earning turns across the Notch on the John Sherburne Ski Trail via skinning up the Tuckerman Ravine Trial, I ventured across Route 16 to Wildcat Ski Area to capitalize on the $20.00 Sunday Afternoon Cruise ticket. Despite knowing the snow would be disappointing compared to the excellent natural snow conditions of the Sherburne, I believed it would be worth the money for several additional two thousand vertical foot runs from the summit. Boy, was I wrong!

The sound of the day that afternoon at Wildcat was “Scraaaaaaaaape!” Despite the 2-3″ of fresh snow that fell the evening before (the Snow Report on Wildcat’s web page claimed an unbelievably over hyped lie of 4-7″), nearly all of Wildcat’s trails were unmercifully scraped down by my first descent around 1 P.M. Even the sides of the trails had little to nothing to offer where normally loose snow and powder piles are to be found. If my legs had not been so tired from skinning for two hours earlier that morning, I may have found it more bearable. But scraped hard pack was hardly what I was looking to end my day on.

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Awakening from a night of restless sleep at the Hiker’s Paradise in Gorham, I casually stretched out on my bed and debated when I should rise for the day of skiing. Since I would be skinning up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail for backcountry turns in the morning, I considered a late start to be worth while as the bank sign across the street was reading 16 degrees. Packing up my gear and gathering my clothing choices for the afternoon, I was eagerly looking forward to and imagining my first foray into the realm of backcountry skiing on my new Alpine Touring (AT) rig. After a scrumptious breakfast served downstairs, I packed up my gear and drove South into the Notch.

Arriving at Pinkham Notch Visitors Center around 9 A.M., I noticed I was not alone in considering Sunday afternoon an excellent day to earn turns. Die hards of all sliding persuasions including Alpine, Alpine Touring, Telemark, and Snowboard were all gearing up at their cars for the trek up to the Hermit Lake Shelters and Care Taker Cabin. Snow enthusiasts on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail were evenly split between hikers and snow sliders.

The John Sherburne Ski Trail was ideal for my first foray into the Back Country for many reasons. I desired natural snow and during this lean snow year, Pinkham Notch has faired surprisingly well with recent online trip reports indicating the trail had decent cover, all things considered. Additionally, I was skiing alone and desired a popular trail in which I would hardly be alone despite not having a partner. The busy Tuckerman Ravine Trail provided safety in numbers for the solo skier. Finally, with 2000 vertical feet down a classic ski trail cut by early trail blazing pioneers, I was assured of an excellent decent on a legendary trail.

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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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After making a couple powder turns on Gallows Hill in Salem, MA after a sizable coastal dump, I went in search of fresh at the closest big mountain I could find. After having a great initial experience at Crotched Mountain the previous weekend, I anxiously set off in hopes that the mountain scored some fresh snow. I met up with the Marketing Director Chris Bradford to say hello before hitting the slopes.

I immediately noticed that the wind had blown most of the fresh powder off the mountain by the time I arrived. However, the groomed snow was an excellent packed powder with occasional fresh snow snow pushed off to the side of the trails. From the Summit, Satellite had great fresh snow skier’s left that bumped up quite nicely. Skier’s right also had some fresh snow on Satellite which continued on the right side of Cosmic Blast. Continuing down skier’s left of Meteor there was additional nice loose powder on skier’s left. I tried ducking into an unmarked glade to sample the woods which looked decent from it’s entrance; however, I quickly discovered that looks were deceiving as I immediately began bottoming out and scraping all sorts of nastiness.

I cycled these runs from the summit quad four times then headed inside to refresh due to the high wind which generated a cold skiing experience. I went back out and cycled another four runs before packing it in for the day. Pluto’s Plunge turned out to be decent in places with some loose powder on the edges and Equinox also proved to be a decent powder stash. However, the little powder that was available was little and far between. This would have been an excellent day of skiing for late November or early December. But for my eighth day on skis after dropping turns in foot deep powder in the morning, it left an immense amount to be desired. Crotched Mountain is shining like a diamond amongst New Hampshire areas struggling through the conditions. But without natural snow, skiing just isn’t the same no matter where one skis. Hopefully the new year will bring some sizable snow dumps without the rain-freeze-thaw cycle New England has experienced so far this winter.

Crotched Mountain re-opened for the 2003-2004 ski season after laying dormant for more than 10 years. The ski area originally opened as Onset Mountain in the late 1960s and was renamed Bobcat Ski Area for a brief time before being incorporated into Crotched Mountain; a completely different ski area further east along the same ridge. After being interconnected with its sister mountain and renamed Crotched Mountain West, things took a turn for the worse and the combined ski area closed.

Enter Peak Resorts; a Ski Resort Company with a Model of Success that is most unlike the other major Ski Resort Companies in the industry. Instead of building a roster of mountains with impressive vertical drop statistics and lots of slope side and base area development options, Peak Resorts has opted to acquire and develop Family and Never-Ever friendly lower elevation ski areas close to major population centers. Peak Resorts re-opened the western portion of Crotched Mountain investing a sizable initial investment into new equipment, facilities, and one of New England’s most intense snow making systems.

Crotched Mountain is Peak Resort’s first foray into New England skiing; however, their criterion for success remains unchanged. An uncompromising dedication to providing the best snow conditions for a massive amount of skiers is quickly evident when viewing Crotched Mountain’s impressive facilities and statistics. With over 100 brand new tower snow making guns capable of creating massive amounts of snow in a short period of time, Crotched has laid claim to having the highest production per acre snow making capacity in New England. After having skied Crotched Mountain with 90% of its terrain open during a December characterized by its warmth and non-crystalline precipitation, I can subjectively vouch for the accuracy of that claim.

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