Category: April

2002-2003 Season, April, Wildcat

Wildcat Mountain, NH

Mount Washington

Thin Coverage on Lift Lion

Closing day at Wildcat Mountain in the White Mountain National Forest. Many trails were open that required side slipping, grass walking, or precision skiing to bypass snowless sections. Skiing was amazing for so late in April! The top section of the old Gondola Liftline was particularly satisfying and challenging. While I often take issue with Wildcat’s management, pricing structure, and operations, I can not fault Wildcat for opening a respectable amount of terrain for just one more day of Spring Skiing.

Northern Presidentials

2002-2003 Season, April, Cannon Mountain, Powder Day

Cannon Mountain, NH

Lafayette from Zoomer Liftline

The plan was originally made a week ago; before it snowed. The plan was to hike a lower elevation mountain with good views such as Mount Monadnock or the Welch-Dickey Loop in Waterville Valley. The southern facing trails on such mountains were completely snow free by the last day of March and I was itching to get a jump on hiking season. With most ski resorts reporting lots of bare ground, slushy snow, and low trail counts… I planned to hike instead. Little did I know that I would be hiking in ski boots up a well known saddle on the northern flank of Cannon to Mount Jackson instead.

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2001-2002 Season, April, Cannon Mountain

Cannon Mountain, NH

Sunday Morning, I awoke just prior to my 5:30 A.M. alarm. For some reason, getting up on a Ski Day is always so much easier than getting up any other day. Only problem with getting up this morning was that I forgot to set my clock forward an hour! Yep, that damn Spring Ahead thing caught me off guard and as a result I was an hour late getting the wheels rolling. No biggie… for my last day of the 2001-2002 season, I was taking it easy and savoring every moment.

I had the wheels rolling around 7 A.M. (which would have been 6 A.M. if I had left on time!) and made the base lodge promptly at 9 A.M., half an hour after the first lift turned. Approaching the Front Face of Cannon, I was greeted by what would normally be a disturbing site… but instead made me giddy with anticipation! The Front Face was beyond thin cover. From the Franconia Notch Parkway, twenty foot long patches of dirt were visible. For some odd reason, I was really looking forward to skiing these rapidly deteriorating trails.

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