Last week before the rain storm Saturday morning, the entire mountain was covered. This week, there was barely any snow on Paulie's and no snow under Zoomer Lift with lots of bare spots showing on Avanlanche and Zoomer when I was driving up the parkway. Not totally unexpected, but the damage is considerable when you take into account just how deep the snow cover was a few weeks earlier.
Snow frooze hard overnight and was teeth chatteringly frozen granular in the morning. I stuck to the groomers which skied okay but begged for some sun. Things didn't warm up as fast as i had expected, but around noon time, every trail on the mountain was gold. But by 1pm, it was mostly mushy mashed potatos.
Pick of the day was Vista Way for nice soft bumps and fine views with hardly any clouds. Yet another fantastic day at Cannon! I have had more good weather days than bad this year at Cannon, it's been an amazing year. Honorable mention goes to Middle to Lower Cannon for a great run to just let the skis run. It's how i opened my season at Cannon, it's how i closed my season at Cannon.
Of course, I needed to have a Mitt fix just once more. Most of the saddle had no snow, but Taft skied great! I took a look down the 13 turns and wasn't comfortable with what i was seeing. I was debating a skin up there the 13 turns after Cannon closed but definitely wasn't seeing optimal conditions. Options were limited to Barrons at the spit. Islands of former bumps mixed with islands of trees were found on Barrons. It would have been fantastic if the snow was a little softer with just a little bit more snow left. I had to make some saving turns in places were the cover ran out. A fun adventure though.
Pond Skimming.... what a joke! These guys need to check out Burke's Pond Skimming and see how it's done right. No one even made it half way across. I know it's fun to see people go down, but you can't keep people interested when snowboarders are stopping just before the entrance to the pond due to lack of speed, stepping out of their bindings, and then jumping in any ways! You gotta have at least a few people make it across to have final elimination rounds.
Any ways, see ya next year Cannon. Thanks for a great year.
Panormaic Shot of the Franconia Ridge with Loon Mountain in the Distance
Panoramic Shot of the Franconia Ridge
Panoramic Close Up of the Franconia Ridge
Panoramic Shot of the Backside of Cannon (Kinsman Ridge and Drainage, Cannonballs, and Mount Jackson