Once upon a time, the only way to exit Middle Hardscrabble was a short uphill climb. Half a dozen years ago, the powers that be at Cannon decided to tame the final insult to Cannon’s most rough and tumble trail.
A pussy path was cut, MH Cut Thru was added as a trail (all 100 feet of it), and Middle Hard got a little easier. I was disappointed to see the classic trail’s final pitch blown open. But I’ll shamefully admit, I always use the cut thru.
No more!
I’m bringing the uphill back to Middle Hard. This is the kick off to the Middle Hard the Hard Way Campaign. In the spirit of the way this classic trail was cut, I invite all skiers and riders (if you have it in you) to climb out of Middle Hard the Hard Way up to Lower Hard. You’ll then have the option to ski the excellent first (and only) pitch of Red Ball. Let’s bring it back.
Who’s with me?
7 thoughts on “Middle Hard the Hard Way Campaign”
We will see won’t we? 😉
All in… Ah designer trail and traffic management.
There are a few of those at Tremblant and the original parts are abandoned, like a meander lake.
Upper Cannon has also lost something since my first visit back in 1997.
Please educate the recently relocated: how did Middle Hard wind up running essentially parallel to Lower Hard? Was it added at a later date, to ease some previous congestion problem from an earlier era? Or was Lower added later as an easier way down?
I’m trying to think if there is anywhere else that you can’t take an Upper/Lower or Upper/Middle/Lower as a top to bottom run.
Nick, I have no answers to that one.
This old map (http://www.nelsap.org/skihistory/cannontm40s.jpg) shows that Upper, Middle, and Lower Hard all used to just be called Hardscrabble without Upper, Middle, and Lower. While odd that does not account for why Lower was not simply changed to a different name. It is an oddity, no doubt.
Sure. Why not?
I love this idea. Except that now most skiers use the MH Cut-Thru there are moguls all the way to the bottom of MH, making it much harder to gain speed to use on the uphill exit. That, and the fact the so few people use the uphill route that it’s often not fully tracked make it really, really tough.
I remember with great pride the first time I made it out of MH without climbing, i.e. with enough speed on the runout. Haven’t achieved it since they put the cut-through in.
I don’t think I have ever made it out of MH with enough speed without climbing a bit. That is an amazing feat! It would have to be a rather hard and fast snow day to make that happen with a really high up straight line. Well done!