Cannon Mt. 3/17/04

[anon]

Skied Cannon on St. Patrick's Day, and the report of 5"-7" new was accurate. It snowed on and off throughout the day, heavily at times, probably accumulating another 2" by late afternoon. It was "dust on crust" conditions, even though 7 inches is a lot of "dust". All this light fluff fell on top of ice, grass, dirt, and rocks. The base is like concrete, where there is any base. <BR> <BR>That said, I can't complain about first tracks in a half foot of powder. After it got cut up, it was almost better turning where other's tracks had scraped it into bigger piles. But anywhere you turned in someone's previous tracks, you heard that scatchy sound we know so well in New England. <BR> <BR>Tram is closed, of course, but riding the Cannonball Quad accessed Tramway, Upper cannon, Profile, Skylight, and Upper Ravine. Taft was closed all day; Vista Way was closed in the AM, but I heard the ski patrol opened it later. <BR> <BR>All were a sheet of ice under the new fluff. To be fair, I've been called to task for using the "I" word before, so I guess technically that was a "frozen granular" base. <BR> <BR>I'll never understand how that rates in the official report as "Primary surface: packed powder, Secondary surface: powder". What ever happened to truth in advertising? Harry Reid used to tell-it-like-it-is, and I actually heard him refer to "boilerplate" in a Cannon report back in the 70s or 80s. I guess that's why everyone hits NBS now for the real story. <BR> <BR>I stayed up on top most of the day, but went down and took a couple runs on Zoomer & Avalanche. Zoomer was OK, had some nice fluff between the rock-hard icy moguls under the lift. <BR> <BR>Avalanche may have been the best run on the lower mountain. They had winched it, and that mixed enough machine groomed granular from that concrete base in with the new powder to make it a heavier consistency, which stuck better. I went back at the end of the day for my last run, and by the way, the Zoomer chair doesn't run until 4:00PM, it closes at 3:59PM, just in case you are planning to take a last run on Avalanche, and enjoy hiking back to Peabody. <BR> <BR>I had to check out Mittersill to answer Frankontour's queries. The Taft Race Course from the top of Mt Jackson down to the top of the old Mittersill chair was excellent. "Excellent" is a relative term, since conditions in general are below par; it had 6"+ nice powder between rock hard icy moguls. Below there, it got ugly. I had three guys following me, so I figured we would check out Baron's Run, because if it's bad, everything else can only be worse. Sure enough, much of Barons Run had a half foot of light powder on top of <I>NO base</I>, so we were threading between the brush, scraping on grass, dirt, rocks, and when we were lucky, on ice. I enjoyed it anyway, since there may be few more chances to ski it at this rate; the three guys following me were disgusted. Not a run any of us would repeat that day. <BR> <BR>Then it was back to check out Tuckerbrook. I got first tracks down it, at least, so I can't complain. The upper Thirteen Turns need to be brushed badly (what are you guys doing the weekend after Columbus Day?). <BR> <BR>Tuckerbrook had a "firm" base, like Taft Race Course, of hard moguls under the half foot of fresh. CD Glade was a nice detour, as the base in the woods is a little more "edgeable" than the open trails. Meadow Brook glade was also surprisingly nice. As long as you could keep your speed down on that icy base, there were some nice turns. I think the lines that had been skied a lot this winter are holding snow better than elsewhere in the woods. I was worried about rocks and open water in the brook bed, but was happy to find a half foot foot of powder on top of solid water ice (the real "I" word). My luck ran out there at 2300' elevation, when I cut back on the traverse towards Mittersill. There I found the new snow had fallen on bare ground. I was only able to slide about halfway back to Cannon on my skis, without doing too much damage. I hiked back to Peabody from there, as there wasn't enough snow to skin back (the original plan). <BR> <BR>So that's it, the new snow was badly needed, but it was the low-density fluff that doesn't cover bare ground, doesn't stick to icy frozen granular base surfaces, and will blow off when the next winds pick up (unless temps rise and we get some freeze-thaw cycles happening). <BR> <BR>Frank-o, I don't want to discourage you from coming down, but even with the new snow, conditions are below average. Hopefully Steve will give us a good report for Thursday, since another couple inches fell overnight. <BR> <BR>P.S. I did see a couple tracks going under the rope into Kinsman Glade. Those guys must have a story to tell.

 

[Frankontour]

Very thanks for the report anon ! <BR> <BR>and I very appreciate your honesty. Particularly as the conditions will deteriorate a lot before the weekend... <BR> <BR>This year is too fu**in bad, it's so sad that I didn't come last year when it has been good most of the year.