Magic 12/27, Bretton Woods 12/28 & Cannon 12/29

[Talisman]

Wow, what a perfect day for skiing Friday was, sun, fresh powder, warm without snow melt and no wind. Magic has great snow conditions, but not 100% open as Slide of Hans was roped which was strange as it was open before the Dec 25 dump. Magic claimed 30 inches of fresh, but there was at least 24 inches. <BR> <BR>Magic had lift problems with the Red Chair and was only running with two full chairs then one empty chair. Lots of people left, but it turned out the lift wait was reasonable 10 to 15 minutes and the powder held up fine. Wish i could have stayed in VT, but didn't have a hotel room. <BR> <BR>Bretton Woods had a good man made base, but NH had less snow than SoVT. To their credit Bretton had lots of the glades open and while not super sweet, there was some stashes of powder. I did find the scraped off snow on some of the better lines frustrating when it was obvious the slider side slipped the entire trail. Saturday was a record at Bretton with 6000 tickets sold. The crowds were concentrated on lift line trails and there was a five chair wait for the singles line. Many trails could be skied top to bottom with no other skiers while the lift line trails were full. <BR> <BR>Sunday AM was snowing at Cannon and this restricted visibility at the summit. The trails with snow making had a great base. The 'front five' had the best bumps, with stashed of fresh powder avialble here and there. Didn't go to Mittersill as some of the natural snow trails Cannon were sketchy in places. Taft was good, but others were a challenge to ski without a NH granite grind. Cannon's parking lots filled up, but the lift lines were mageable. The crowds stuck to the blue trails of the HS quad and the conditions got firm by noon. <BR> <BR>Three very different daus of skiing, but all good. What a difference between last season and this season!