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 spy 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, 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.
Big Link started the day with loose granular and death cookies, fun! Middle Ravine was about the same down the gut, but a small amount of delightful packed and loose powder was to be had on skiers right, by far the best section of the route. Where Lower Ravine begins, the decent packed and loose powder switched to skiers left which quickly formed okay bumps that didn't satisfy but were very much appreciated. Franconia Ski Club was out in numbers and was a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, their drills were a bit too aggressive for a single route down, but with more terrain opening quickly there shouldn't be a problem from here on out from FSC which I normally do not even notice on the hill.
From the quad, I spied a fellow solo skier of a similar disposition as my own skinning up Upper Ravine to access what was obviously a filthy amount of fresh powder off the summit. I longingly looked up the untouched powder of Upper Cannon knowing that I did not want to undertake such a hike solo. After five runs, I decided it was time to warm up and grab a bite to eat. While contemplating how late I should bother staying for such meager offerings, I bumped into Porter who I knew from previous ski outings at Cannon and from an online ski community. I was delighted to join Porter and his three friends for some late morning turns. Also, I was delighted to have a potential hiking partner or four, for an adventure that just turned from slim possibility to reality.
Early afternoon brought warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine which softened things up on the one route skiable from the lift. Big Link was decent on skiers left and Middle Ravine was getting really good on skiers right. After a few runs, we broke for lunch and began devising plans for a trip to the summit. After a quick trip up the Peabody Express Quad, we noticed a skier coming down Upper Cannon. I searched the man's face for a sign regarding the conditions. At first the man's face was rather blank as if transfixed by a trance. But then as he skied past us, I noticed the begins of a huge shit eating grin begin to spread across his face. We quickly clicked out of our bindings and began our ascent via Tramway.
Shortly after Tower 2, we spied another party following hot on our heels. At the intersection of Tramway and Vistaway, two skiers skied out of Vistaway saying their good byes as one of the skiers clicked out and started right back up again behind us. As he passed me, I asked how Vistaway was. The guy paused, then said it sucked with a laugh and he kept on climbing. Not sure whether or not to believe him or not and knowing Vistaway was already tracked up, my mind focused on Taft Slalom where I believed the best snow might be.
About halfway up I came to the conclusion that I was definitely purchasing AT gear as soon as possible. The climb was shorter than it felt even though the snow was getting deeper as we ascended. Porter out distanced our party and took a ski from the summit down to Tower 3 where the rest of us were still slogging along. The excitement was contagious and carried us up to the beautiful summit surrounded by trees caked with snow. Porter and I skied back down to Tower 3 once more and met the other guys at the top of the Cannonball Quad. We found Taft Slalom untracked with about 6 inches of light fluffy powder with a decent base, with some blown areas almost a foot. I made the sacrifice to go first since I had a camera that could take both pictures and movies to record the descent. Though with a run of untracked, everyone in the party got fresh snow. Staying left of the rock band, no one bottomed out and much mirth was had. I especially enjoyed the last hundred feet of descent before veering off onto Upper Ravine. The snow depth here was considerably less in quantity, but just as sweet in quality.
With thighs burning, we slugged it out back to the base lodged where most agreed it was time to call it a day. But Porter began a rally realizing a movie camera was in the lodge and more fresh tracks were to be had. With the words spoken that "You only live once," the entire party was destined for the summit once more. By now the sun had begun to set behind the mountain and the wind had picked up. Our original boot prints up the mountain a mere hour and a half ago had disappeared, filled in by blowing snow. We moved quicker this time, with full knowledge of what awaited us from the Summit.
My right thigh began locking up almost immediately during the hike. I knew my legs were tired before we went up again, but I hadn't expected a cramp to stall our progress. After spending a solid 10 minutes stretching and massaging the problem area, I deemed myself good to go and would have no further issue with the offending muscle. Porter had to return to the base lodge for missing gear when my cramp struck, we continued on without him knowing he would catch up to us. But we hadn't figured how quickly he would undertake that task! Halfway between Tower 2 and Tower 3 we spied a Possessed Porter making haste up Tramway behind us. Clearly, Porter was Possessed by Powder and was going full on the ascent and soon passed right by us. We stopped for movie footage at Tower 3 before continuing on to the Summit where we determined Tramway would be the best line of descent.
Stopping twice to film video, we made filthy turns through near virgin powder carving soon to disappear S's into the snow. Six inches was the norm but I found a blowed in boot deep patch skiers right down low. What a rush. You never realize how long a single trail really is until you hike it, but you never realize just how short it is until you ski it with fresh fluffy light powder cascading between your legs.
With thighs burning, we were brought back down to reality unmercifully when we hit scraped to a bone Big Link. Even though I have said it many times previously, Big Link was about as bad as I have ever seen it. Which probably means it was about the same as all the other times as nothing seems worse than having to make side slip turns that won't catch an edge on hard pack that retains no snow. Had I not just hiked for turns twice, my legs probably would have held up to the challenge. Middle and Lower Ravine suffered similar fates to a lesser degree and had our party descending in a less than graceful style after such hard earned heroics up top.
You only have so many opportunities in a life time to ski fresh powder. If you're lucky, a few of those times will be untracked. You simply can not pass them by hoping they will come another day, as there may never be another day. And even in the likely event that there is, why waste one of the few? To this end, I know a winter hiker was born in me heading up Tramway that first time. Earning turns increases the opportunity to find untracked by an unfathomable amount. You only live once indeed.
