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More face shots today in one run than all others in my life combined. Multiple trips to the white room. Well over two feet deep at the base and almost three feet deep most places on the mountain with deeper drifts. Snow was rather heavy but the snow never turned over despite the warm temperatures.

Steep runs were required for completely untracked turns. Any pitch less than about twenty to twenty-five degrees resulted in tip dive, snow above the thighs, and a complete stop. Slightly tracked runs were amazing. No competition with untracked freshies every run, all day, open to close. We hit every wood shot including two mandatories, Red Line, Black Magic, and two times down a pillowy and sensational Magician (a.k.a. Master Magician). Suffice to say, today owned. Best day of the season and I think a top ten lifetime day.

While the trailing weekend of the President’s Day Holiday period is much less busy than the opening weekend, one can still expect holiday crowds. And one can also expect not to find discounts. And one can expect to have prepaid vouchers blacked out making. Thus making the decision making process two days after a micro-storm rather difficult. After much consideration, I picked Cannon over Balsams (amongst other options), despite Balsams being a mountain on my “to do list” for this season. My decision was sound leading to spectacular results.

After grabbing my ticket, I took the first tram and began what would be the first of five hourly runs. I opted for one of my favorite stashes that reliably has “day after the powder day” freshies. My expectations were mixed. Yet I found extensive amounts of untracked lines through six inches of fresh. “Where were the powder hounds yesterday?” I wondered aloud before tearing up what they had missed out on.

Next I decided that Kinsman Glade could use an inspection. It was listed as open on the trail report but was roped when I arrived. I used the trail report as my guide instead of the rope. The upper section of Kinsman Glade skied fabulously well with plenty of untracked lines to pick from. The middle section was sketchy to say the least! By the lower middle section, I was making cautious and deliberate survival turns carefully placed and occasionally well executed. Whereas when I entered the glade I had been thinking this was a sure repeat, by the time I was nearing the end, it couldn’t be done with soon enough. Rare is the day that I can report that a rope was up for good reason.

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Magic delivered on MLK Day with the most new snow in Vermont. And while some locations in New Hampshire received the same or more new snow, Magic offered up the best combination of cost, terrain, and lack of crowds on a holiday weekend. Magic is always a safe (and cheap!) location on a holiday weekend for crowd avoidance. So this storm could not have been better timed.

Having said that, this was my first time skiing Magic during which they had a lift line attendant checking tickets and organizing the lift line. The two line coral backup up to a ten chair wait at one point. Wow! There were no chairs going up empty at Magic today until very late in the afternoon. It seems like the word is finally getting out about Magic.

Magic received half a foot of fresh. Powder consistency was fairly high moisture content but still rather of powdery. Great snow for packing down and improving the already ample base. My observations are that Magic did not receive rain prior to the snow. The new snow fell on a bomber but rather crusty base. The new snow was definitely much needed. Base is good but great conditions on a good base is better. All trails were open and skiing very well!

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“I gotta get to Smuggs”

This has been a yearly refrain of mine for some time now. The excuses are long since familiar and trite: “Jay has more powder”, “the lift lines will be really long”, “I don’t feel like the longer drive”, “not all of their trails are open”, “I have to max out my Jay pass first”, etc. Add in a few injuries these past few seasons for good measure.

But earlier this week, I started getting a feeling that it was at last the right time. Smuggs was fully open due to last week’s storm and was getting the same snow that Jay was getting. Lift lines would probably not be an issue due to this being the weekend between two holiday weekends and before the College kids came back to Burlington (and the cold weather certainly helped as well). And I do not have a season pass this year. Friday night before bed, I was giddily excited. Not because I thought today was going to be an exceptional powder day (which it turned out to be!). But rather simply because I knew I was finally going to ski Smuggs, a mountain that by all accounts is my type of mountain, and that made me very excited.

Pulling into Lot 1 at the opening bell, it did not look like more than an inch or two of fresh had fallen. I made the decision to grab my Legend 8000s but quickly changed them out after only a single run. Smuggs had conservatively reported 6-8″ but more than twice that amount could be found in the trees. I skied boot to knee deep fresh every run with plenty of untracked and the occasional thigh deep drift. Suffice to say, it was a very special first day at Smuggs.

Having gone entire seasons without skiing a new area, it is interesting that I have now skied two new areas in less than one week. Not knowing the mountain nor having a proper plan of attack was discomforting at first. But I gradually warmed to the wonderful feelings brought on by novel exploration and discovery. You only enjoy that feeling of wonder and discovery a few times at each area before it becomes just another routine. It was thrilling and tremendously enjoyable, especially considering what I found. Enough waxing poetic, let’s talk trip report already.

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On Sunday, we rolled the dice and bet against Cannon due to the wind forecast. While the result was wonderful yielding fourteen inches and a new discovery of a lesser known area, Mount Abram on Sunday would hardly qualify as epic. Based on trip reports and our clean up work this afternoon, I suspect most skiers at Cannon yesterday will rank January 3rd as their best day of the season when all is said and done. Suffice to say that this past Sunday at Cannon surely was a special day and we missed out.

Clean up operations commenced on Monday at Cannon and I was determined to find the left overs. And find them we did venturing forth into terrain likely never having previously been skiable this early in the season. In six hours we took six runs and worked excessively hard for four of them.

Our labor was rewarded with abundant two to three feet untracked powder shots that were frequently knee to thigh deep. During one epic descent, I took my first face shot of the season and ever so briefly entered the powder room.

After coming to a stunned stop shortly thereafter, I began laughing like a manic. Vigorously shaking the snow laden spruce tree behind me, I brought down copious amounts of snow on my head while yelling “powder room, baby, yea!!!”

Immensely satisfying. You only get a few of these every year. We missed the main dish but sometimes desert can be just as sweet if not as long lasting.

Hey Rocky! Watch me pull an epic two foot powder day with refills out of my hat!

Guess I gotta get a new hat…..

Mount Abram is the lesser known ski area that you see from Route 26 before proceeding to Sunday River where you will pay $79.00 to ski brutally groomed scraped down cruisers with no elbow room or character and wait twenty minutes for a lift. That little area? Only one thousand vertical feet? Only 44 trails? Only two double chair lifts and no high speed quads? Yes! This is Mount Abram.

The Rocky & Bullwinkle themed ski area has a family and local community vibe. It only runs Thursday through Sunday and holidays but does offer night skiing on select days of the season. The area features a tubing area and cross country skiing trails. The practical lodge is well staffed with friendly employees and a burger, fries, and soda will only set you back an Alexander Hamilton and some change. Tickets are only $49.00 full price ($37 on Liftopia in our case) and the mid-week value is exceptional with two-fer Thursdays and Car Load Fridays ($79.00).

With epic powder forecasted for Maine and high winds forecasted for the entire region, plans were hatched to ski a lesser known area in Maine that was guaranteed to spin their lifts. Even if Mount Abram’s summit double was taken off line, Mount Abram has a t-bar that nearly goes to the summit on back up duty. It was a brilliant plan based on the forecast.

But the forecast did not pan out. With exception of Saddleback, the Maine areas got a good snow storm over the course of three days. But Saddleback and Cannon were the only two ski areas to receive epic powder dumps. Mount Abram got about fourteen inches from Friday through Saturday. It was more than enough to open up all of their terrain. Terrain that we learned was quite exceptional. If limited in quantity of terrain, Mount Abram surely makes up the different in quality.

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Monday evening I retired to the bedroom at approximately 10:00 P.M. Which is when the day dreams began. Visions of untracked powder dancing through my head for two hours during which sleep was entirely elusive. It was a secular snowy equivalent of Christmas Eve and I was an anxious child unable to sleep a wink.

It reminded me of my childhood on evenings just prior to family ski trips. Those were big occasions only under taken a few times each year. Friday nights were torture. It did not matter where we were going the next day. I could hardly sleep a wink in anticipation of the family ski trip. Not much has changed in twenty years. I am still that anxious kid that can’t hardly wait to hurry up and get to sleep so I can wake up the next morning and get to the mountain.

Cannon reported in with seven inches this morning. Much to the management’s credit, Cannon is often honest to a fault with snow total reporting and often errs on the side of caution and underestimates (especially when the snow is blowing). It may be, in fact, that Cannon did receive only seven inches of wind blown fluff. But it skied more like 8-12″. Suffice to say, it was more than enough to make skiing absolutely sensational.

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I love this mountain. Cannon rarely fails to deliver. And when it over performs, it is damn good and like no where else. Even when I was a pass holder at Jay, I still considered Cannon my home mountain. When it is good at Cannon, it ain’t worth driving any where else in the east.

Laziness has crept into my skiing routine lately due to excessive fatigue and not enough sleep. I took Thursday and Friday off from skiing. With non-crystalline precipitation en route for Sunday, I managed to drag my sorry lazy ass out of bed and drive north to Cannon for what I expected to be lack luster skiing at best.

What I found was an extremely pleasant surprise. I found my way to the Zoomer Chair in the morning per my usual pattern when there is no fresh snow. I found Avalanche whaled on skier’s left and awkwardly bumped on skier’s right. Not bad but not what I was looking for. So next run, I took Zoomer Lift Line which was sublime! Blow in from Zoomer snow guns along with some natural combined for very soft natural-ish snow with occasional bumps and slightly thin cover without fear of base damage. Turns were silky smooth. I lapped Zoomer Lift a while before heading for the summit for further exploration.

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After a November to forget, it seems like a December to Remember has finally commenced. Thanks to significant Lake Effect snow bands reaching all the way into Vermont and across New England, Mad River Glen was able to open this weekend unexpectedly. With Jay Peak having lift issues and my ski bud Nhski going to Mad River Glen, it was a total no brainer!

Due to the unexpected opening, Mad River Glen had advertised a 10am opening but actually had us on the lift by 9:30am. Seeing the mountain covered in powder and without moguls was stunning, a sight rarely seen at Mad River Glen except during the very early season. Tracks from turn earners blanketed the mountain from the past two days and this morning. But there was more than enough to go around. And the silky smooth lake effect powder was a sublime treat.

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This past week has been nerve wracking. Where to go when it snows? The storm was complicated and many forecasters discussed the difficulties of pinning it down. Doubt was prevalent about the storm right up until the storm commenced. Prognosticators suggested Northern Vermont would get the jackpot with heavy up slope. But I have seen this pattern before. Watching the radar loop last night, I observed a huge gash on moisture attacking south western Maine before slamming into northern New Hampshire and changing over to snow. I had good vibes about Cannon. And those vibes were accurate.

As we drove north on I-93, I was stunned regarding the lack of snow along the highway. Thonton, Lincoln, Woodstock, entering the Notch, into the Notch. There was nothing on the ground at all. Not even a trace amount of washed away snow. Just as we passed the Flume, Ma Nature threw a switch and suddenly two inches appeared. Gradually increasing all the way to Cannon where we stepped out of the car to find a foot of snow at the base.

A skin track was set up the Banshee Slope and we hooked up with another skin track to ascend to the top of Avalanche and then onto Spookie and Upper Ravine. Snow on the mountain was more than a foot but less than two. Generally, most parts of the mountain had around 16″ with some drifts as deep as three feet. The Upper Mountain faired worse than the Lower Mountain due to high winds. The snow was severely wind buffed with half the trail deeply drifted and half the trail bare rock.

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Nothing like a forecast for a big storm to bring the powder hounds out of the wood work. Especially considering how unseasonably dry and warm February has been, beginning with a late “January Thaw” which was followed by two dry weeks. Needless to say, I wanted in on first tracks during a weekend long storm and requested Thursday off from work.

Had I waited until Friday for my day off, I would have skied better snow and probably have survived the weekend injury free. Needless to say, I did not wait and paid a horrible price for my powder anxiety.

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My backcountry days are normally limited to late season on Mount Washington. But three days after more than a foot of fresh covered much of New Hampshire, it was a sure bet that even the most secret of stashes at the resorts would have been hammered into submission. It was time to take to the backcountry for a rare mid-season powder day via earned turns.

If a 5 minute hike keeps 95% of the skiers away, then a 95 minute hike keeps greater all but less than 1% of skiers away. Despite that fact, the skin track was already set and we were grateful. Temperatures remained cold but comfortable all day with almost no wind except near the summit. Sunny blue skies rained supreme with occasional cloud cover every few hours.

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Black Mountain! It has been a half dozen years since my last visit and I was LONG past due. Black is one of my favorite “smaller” sized mountains. Mostly a family paradise, Black Mountain in Jackson, NH has sensational character and charm (not to mention cheap lift tickets). Despite the general lack of pitch, Black has several short but awesome trails that ski exceptionally well on a powder day. Aside from my skiing partner and myself, I counted no more than a half dozen other powder hounds on the mountain. I skied untracked snow from open until I left at 12:30pm and for sure there will still be pockets of untracked snow left tomorrow.

Today was the first day the double was open to the summit. So I wasted no time in taking first of the season tracks on completely untouched Lostbo, Lostbo Glade, White Knuckle, and Carter Notch Glade. That involves three individual laps off the summit yielding three completely untracked first of the season runs. Boot to knee deep. KILLER!!! Three unadulterated face shots resulted from those first three runs. The cold smoke was blowing right over my shoulders and up into my face. SICK!!!

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Lots of uncertainty about a storm and how much would fall in Vermont. Storm projections decidedly favored southern New England with storm totals rapidly diminishing to the north. With a rare drive to southern Vermont tipping the day trip meter at two and a half hours on dry pavement, I only wanted to make the drive if it was going to be worth the effort.

And it definitely was! Words can not describe but I will do my best. After a harrowing drive that lasted more than three hours and involved knuckles from a virtually unplowed I-91, I got to Magic at 8:45am and hooked up with Kingsley. Magic opens at 8am on the weekends which I totally dig but did not work in my favor today!

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Not bad, not bad at all. What a difference a week makes. Last week at Jay just sucked. That day last week will probably be my worst ski day of the season. But today… it was all good! Not good as in a two foot powder day (which was two days ago) but good as in “damn, three days after the storm and I am still finding some untracked” good.

Some tree shots still need more snow to cover up the sticks. But we are back to where we were before the Christmas melt down. Perhaps even a little better. On map glades were packed and tracked and bumped per expectations. Off map trees ranged from breakable wind slab foot plus deep (meh) to buckle/boot deep occasional untracked (lots of bush thwacking required). The cut up and tracked up powder in the woods skied very well and had some fluff factor.

Nothing to rave about… just another typical day at Jay that I have come to expect when there is no pow left to be had at most other areas. I brought my skins but was tired and sore and wanted to save some juice for tomorrow’s romp at Magic, so I opted to cut out at lunch time and save my legs for Sunday. No crowds to speak of. Last run I went out to the D and hoofed it back. It was surprisingly tracked out already but still some quality snow. Low angle BC is probably sensational right now.