Cannon/ Loon 1/10 and 1/11

[Ragged#1]

Started off my mid-week trip at Cannon Mountain, a place I haven't been to in year nor did I remember a lot about it. We parked front row with 20 other cars, the place was dead all day long.
We decided to head for the summit first, we hit vista way and upper cannon which were fantastic, windy trails with decent snow on them. We then followed Rock Garden down to the Front Five area where we hit Rocket, Gary's, Zoomer and Avalanche. Later on in the day we came back and hit Banshee and Paulies Folly and got some extra laps in on Avalanche and Rocket.
I really enjoyed the front five area, it was the best place to go to escape the wind and the cold that day, plus all the runs over there are really fun. The snow wasn't amazing but the trails skied fast with little ice.

This was my first time back since Mittersill re-opened so I was excited to check it out. The double lift is really nice and they also added a brand new T-Bar. Unfortunately, the snow was horrible over here. Ridge Run, Skyline and Barron's Run were ice traps. While the natural snow on Candy Side, Idiot's Delight and North Slope were very hard and frozen over. As for the mountain itself, its a really nice design and all the trails have tons of character to them. This is the place to be on a powder day. I could see them cutting more trails over here and even adding a new lodge.

We finished out the day on the Cannonball Express and hit some of the best covered trails of the day. Skyelight, Hardscrabble, Profile and Upper Ravine were all fantastic. They still had massive snowmaking mounds on Skyelight, Profile and Hardscrabble which made it even better. Overall I really enjoyed Cannon. It has a cool "old-school" New England charm to it.
Runs of the Day: Skyelight and Hardscrabble


Loon- Wednesday 1/11/17

Loon is one of my favorite mountains in New Hampshire, so seeing the parking lot almost empty when we pulled in got me really excited for the day.

The mountain got 4-5 inches of snow the night before, we followed the lift attendants advice and headed for North Peak. We arrived to find amazing powder on Flume, Walking Boss and Sunset. The higher elevations at Loon received some fantastic snow that held up nicely all day. South Peak was not as good, it was extremely stiff and slippery. Boom Run and Ripsaw were nice but Cruiser, Jobber and Twitcher were a disaster.
Over at the West Basin, the trails skied fast. Not as much natural snow as the top trails but they were not slippery like South Peak.

East Basin had some of the best snow of the trip. Angel Street (my favorite trail on the mountain), Big Dipper, Can't Dog and Triple Trouble were all amazing.

Loon has such a cool vibe and some really nice runs.

Runs of the day: Angel Street and Flume
Overall Loon and Cannon had a lot of great coverage and were both tons of fun. I'd say these two mountains are some of the best ones in NH. The only mountain I would rank above them is Wildcat. Thanks for reading!

[ski18vt]

I think you accidentally posted on the wrong website...

[RustyK]

Thanks for the report. Never skied Loon or Cannon.

Always want to get over to NH, but never do.

[freeski]

Thanks for the report. Never skied Loon or Cannon.

Always want to get over to NH, but never do.

You should hit Cannon. On a good day when they've been getting small storms for days it is an awesome mountain. It's come a long way in the last 10 years since a guy from Sunday River came over.