Cannon has a wild feel and it’s a beautiful, inspiring place to ski. The mountain is big, rugged and the Franconia Ridge is a stunning backdrop to everything you ski and do.
The Northeast Ski Bloggers Summit chose New Hampshire as its base of operations for this year’s meeting. Our first day was spent at Cannon; arguably the state’s most challenging lift-served mountain. With the reopening of Mittersill, the mountain has a little bit of everything.
I hadn’t been to North Creek since mid-January and two things surprised me — the lack of snow on our stoop and the extent of cover on open terrain at Gore. It seems clear that management has decided to make snow on open trails, and put aside, for now, thoughts of further terrain expansion. After skiing today, I think it might be the right call.
Underneath everything there’s a very firm base. Most trails had enough loose snow on them to make turning fun and those with intermediate pitch or recent snowmaking were fairly “quiet.” And then there was Uncas; guns on all day, swales, frozen goggles, a little gak, and some really fun bumps on the steepest sections.
Late Saturday night, I sent Laszlo Vajtay, the CEO of Plattekill, a note: “Laz… I have a few hours tomorrow — should I come up? I need a steep trail lined with soft bumps.” His response: “Come to Plattekill.”
As I made my way up the valley Sunday morning, I could see the snowmaking crew was going all out. Almost everything served by the triple was getting new snow, and coverage looked good. I was pumped.
I ran into Laszlo in the lodge, and he introduced me to the snowmaking chief, Macker, and some other Plattekill notables. Plattekill has a unique, relaxed feeling in the morning: it’s the only mountain I ski where I’m willing to socialize, while chairlifts are running. You have the feeling that the snow isn’t going anywhere.
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