# Cannon Mountain- 1/22



## Nick (Jan 22, 2012)

Had a great day at Cannon, my first time skiing there. Left the house solo around 5:30AM and arrived at Cannon right at opening around 8:30. Drive up was great, having never been there before, I was glad to get off the highway and literally be on the mountain. Beautiful bluebird day out. Cold on the way up - at one point the car thermometer metered -8 coming up into Franconia Notch - but it settled during the day into the low 20's, which was fine. 

I was surprised how dead it was, I never had to wait for a single lift anywhere. Not sure if that is status quo or if it was just because of the NFL playoffs competing for traffic that day. A lot of people on the lifts talked about ducking out early to head home for the game. 

I spent all my time on Cannon Mountain. I really wanted to try out Mittersil, but it was closed off. That, plus I was solo, and wouldn't want to risk anything happening while I am skiing alone. There were several poachers during the day I saw heading out on the Mittersil Access that extends from Taft Slalom. 

All in all, conditions were excellent in the morning - packed powder all around -  snowmaking was active on middle cannon bypass / paulie's extension. 

With the exception of Hardscrabble, which REALLY earned its name, there was mostly good coverage on all open trails. Hardscrabble was horrible, I skied it once and it was an icy, thin covered mess the entire way down. My quads were killing me at the bottom of that run just trying to keep myself up on my skis. 

In the afternoon, it got a little more tricky. Definitely started getting scraped off in the afternoon. I took a 15 minute lunch and skied straight through otherwise, by 3PM I called it and headed home as my quads were killing me (ugh!) and it was getting harder to hold myself up on the icy patches. The sun really gives flat light in the afternoon too, which started making it difficult to see - past the hump on Cannonball (why is Cannonball a black diamond again??) was particularly flat. Luckily it was smooth so there were no unknown terrain features or moguls in the center to cause any issues. 

Only other thing, I wish there had been more snow as I didn't get to hit any glades or woods ,or Mittersil. That said, I did get to get in some moguls, which were very nice and soft. Some great ones were out on Vista Way (labeled as Most Difficult on the trail, but listed on the trail map as an intermediate?) 

Some pics: 






Shot up mountain of Tramway





Mytracks for the day. I thought I had covered everything on the open mountain but looks like I missed a bit .





I *think* this is Turnpike





Snowmaking on Middle cannon bypass





Bottom of Tramway





More of Middle Cannon Bypass





Moguls on Vista Way





Like I said, Bluebird day for sure!


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## o3jeff (Jan 23, 2012)

How was it, did you make it back?


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## Nick (Jan 23, 2012)

Bump


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## xwhaler (Jan 23, 2012)

Great report Nick and photos. Looks like a great day to get up to Cannon. Prob one of the most scenic areas from the top in all of New England.


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## thetrailboss (Jan 23, 2012)

Very nice report and it is impressive how much ground you covered.  Next time go a little further and try Burke.  I bet the place was dead because of the game.  Good day to go.  And Mittersill is awesome.


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## bdfreetuna (Jan 23, 2012)

Looks nice. I'm waiting until Mittersill is open to go there


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## LiquidFeet (Jan 23, 2012)

Glad you liked Cannon.  Let's meet up some time.  I was there too.  Yes, it was icy in many spots after lunch - formica!

You skied under the tram all the way down?  That's natural snow on very steep rocky terrain.  There wasn't much snow.  It was closed.  Are you sure?


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## Nick (Jan 23, 2012)

LiquidFeet said:


> Glad you liked Cannon.  Let's meet up some time.  I was there too.  Yes, it was icy in many spots after lunch - formica!
> 
> You skied under the tram all the way down?  That's natural snow on very steep rocky terrain.  There wasn't much snow.  It was closed.  Are you sure?




No, I didn't ski down under the tram, that line you see on the map is my ride up in the Tram :lol: 

It looked REALLY sketchy under the tram line, from the tram. A couple people had poached it though, the tracks were there.


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## Nick (Jan 23, 2012)

Interestingly on my Mytracks line going up the tram, you can see where the position shifts as you go over the towers.


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## Nick (Jan 23, 2012)

Here's the ride up the tram, not a great shot though


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## Cheese (Jan 23, 2012)

Great report!

I can't wait for Mittersill to open.  I had some amazing days in the side country there last year.  I wonder if they removed the t-bar power line over the summer?  I took one hell of a spill last year when that fallen power line hooked my boot and sent me for a tumble.


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## David Metsky (Jan 23, 2012)

You didn't miss anything at Mittersil on Sunday.  Even Saturday it was pretty marginal.  I didn't ski it but friends did, and it was pretty bad.  I was there for the morning, showing a friend around while our significant others were race coaching on the lower mountain.  

Saturday had better snow, and some of the trees that aren't on the maps apparently were quite good until they got skied off.  I was pleased with the upper mountain, and Zoomer skied great, but Rocket, Paulie's, and Avalanche were in pretty poor shape by late morning.


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## Nick (Jan 23, 2012)

Zoomer and Cannonball were probably two of the most skied. I would have figured Cannonball would have tracked out / iced up earlier, but it skied good the entire time I was there. lots of talk on the lifts about sticking with Zoomer.


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## xlr8r (Jan 23, 2012)

thetrailboss said:


> Very nice report and it is impressive how much ground you covered.  Next time go a little further and try Burke.  I bet the place was dead because of the game.  Good day to go.  And Mittersill is awesome.



Anyone been to Burke lately?  I am going to hit Cannon this Saturday and then go to Burke for the first time on Sunday.


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## riverc0il (Jan 23, 2012)

Wow, Turnpike bumped up on skier's left, nice!

No surprise about DM's friends report of bad conditions at Mittersill. Another dump and I bet it'll be good to go. I've wrecked a lot of bases over there early season before a base has built up. Sometimes its worth it but most times usually not.

Can't believe you didn't ski Upper Cannon! Personally, I hate that trail (unless skied very early) because it gets scraped down quite a bit. Most people list it as one of their favorites. 

Nice report!


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## rocojerry (Jan 23, 2012)

Thanks for the TR.  Cannon is in my sights for next weekend, or possibly next Tues/Thurs thats worth the day trip....


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## witch hobble (Jan 23, 2012)

I was there too.  Lazy day.  Skied 11-3 with the kiddos.  All sorts of front row parking spots available as people were bailing for the game.  Turnpike was the run of the afternoon.  Fresh snowmaking whales and some soft, decent bump lines forming.  No active snowmaking like on the by-pass (I don't care, but the kids hate skiing in the guns).  

No crowd.  Most of the industrial skiing trails were a mix of hard pack/icy patches and piles of loose granular and packed pow bumps where ungroomed.

Upper Cannon was.......unusual. 

As usual, Cannon has some really, really strong, solid skiers.  But there sure are a lot of lower end skiers going mach 3 out there.  Learn to turn people!!! Slow down, enjoy the scenery.  Take some deep breaths.  Finish your turns.  

(not necessarily you, Nick) 8)


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## Nick (Jan 23, 2012)

Yeah, I noticed that to, lots of real speadsters and some great looking form on the slopes. I didn't really see anyone out of control other than a 3 or 4  year old who went flying probably 20' over one of the whales with obviously no concept of her speed and yard saled down and came up laughing, I was terrified for a moment when I saw it happen :lol:


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## David Metsky (Jan 24, 2012)

Here's what it looked like in some tight trees on Saturday.  That's not my video, it's my friend who knows all the ins and outs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4R866rbXqc


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## Puck it (Jan 24, 2012)

David Metsky said:


> Here's what it looked like in some tight trees on Saturday. That's not my video, it's my friend who knows all the ins and outs.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4R866rbXqc


 
Lost Boys was by far the best.  We ventured into Mushroom on Saturday and it was basiclly survival.  We also thought about Mitty and Bunny Direct but it was too thin about above the chair so it was no go.  Summit glades are skiing well though. Or were!!!!!


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## Nick (Jan 24, 2012)

Looks pretty damn good actually, he was cooking in some parts. Pretty tight up there!


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## Nick (Jan 24, 2012)

Also: that vid is a good example of editing POV so it's not boring


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## Black Phantom (Jan 25, 2012)

Nick said:


> Looks pretty damn good actually, he was cooking in some parts. Pretty tight up there!



Did you stop into the office and pick up the results of the questionnaire?


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## St. Bear (Jan 25, 2012)

Nick said:


> Also: that vid is a good example of editing POV so it's not boring



But it's not an example of good camera positioning so it's not nauseating.


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## Nick (Jan 25, 2012)

That's a good point, it is pretty much straight down at the ground


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## Nick (Jan 25, 2012)

Black Phantom said:


> Did you stop into the office and pick up the results of the questionnaire?



No, I tried to reach out to Greg but wasn't able to get in touch with him prior to getting out there. was hoping to meet him and say hi,and yeah prod about the challenge questions.


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## Nick (Oct 18, 2012)

Revisiting this TR... can't wait to try Cannon again this year! Hopefully I can meet up with some of you Cannon regulars and get some Mittersil exposure!


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## Puck it (Oct 18, 2012)

Nick said:


> Revisiting this TR... can't wait to try Cannon again this year! Hopefully I can meet up with some of you Cannon regulars and get some Mittersil exposure!




Give a shout out then.  We can neet up for the ride too if you want. I am just south of the 495 interchange, but I have met people in Concord to drop a car.


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## Cheese (Oct 18, 2012)

Nick said:


> Revisiting this TR... can't wait to try Cannon again this year! Hopefully I can meet up with some of you Cannon regulars and get some Mittersil exposure!





Puck it said:


> Give a shout out then.  We can neet up for the ride too if you want. I am just south of the 495 interchange, but I have met people in Concord to drop a car.



I'm always up for a day at Cannon so keep me on your contact list Nick!


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## Puck it (Oct 18, 2012)

Cool old pic of the 1st Tram.  Notice, they had to clear snow for it.


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## riverc0il (Oct 18, 2012)

Nick said:


> Revisiting this TR... can't wait to try Cannon again this year! Hopefully I can meet up with some of you Cannon regulars and get some Mittersil exposure!


Let us know when you go!


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