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HOME MOUNTAIN: Cannon Mountain, NH
A Home Mountain is not a home mountain, if you can’t drive there and back faster than taking a run, with lift time included. However, I have managed to find a home mountain, that being Cannon MTN in New Hampshire. What a great season I had there, starting off with early open, great snowmaking, massive dumps, and of course the long lasting spring hiking. Cannon was the top notch in the area this season, getting almost 300in for the year, which is a lot for the east coast. I work an afternoon job, so getting up early was the best, going out the door to see snow falling on Cannon. I did not measure the distance, but I know it takes me fifteen minutes to leave my house, drive, park, boot up, and get on the lift. This made for a lot of day of being on snow, possibly my second most for a season, first being my season working on Loon Mtn. However, Cannon is a rider’s mountain, putting double pitch fall trails all over, and trails that hang off the mountain. I think my first time riding at Cannon was my first time almost flying into the woods. If you have never been to Cannon, it is by far the place to be. Riders are home here, while yuppies and their thousand dollar jackets go ph-ut ph-ut around Loon. What a great snowmaking team they have at Cannon, and how great to see that Cannon allows them to ski while doing their gun run. I mean how you can be a good snowmaker if you can’t ski all the time, the love has to be there, and nothing lets you get a good snow feel than being on your skis. But, more still is the amazing feel of Cannons freedom, whale backs from the snow guns are like a play place for any sort of free style. Massive spines, spikes, side hips, and step-up piles that made for a great early season for me. Blasting down the front five into my favorite whale back sliding the crest, and jumping over to the powder that just fell the day before, call it heaven. Sadly that was a short week, as the groomers had to push out the whales. This season also took off with a rough start as there were two deaths early on. I like to think of Cannon as that business woman you see power walking down the road in the suit. She is one damn good looking lady, but she means business. So, when patrol says trail closed, better listen, because that’s like taking orders from the lady. I think my season was close to five days every week at Cannon, a few weeks of seven days. Wow, I almost forgot the Mittersill area, well perhaps that would be best for another essay, but that area is amazing too. Find the old ski lift, and riding under those towers is amazing.
