Good bye April

You don't skip a chance to catch 2' of snow at the tail end of April. So JE, MD, CT, and I hit the road. There was a lot of talk about where to go. Temperatures, wind, avalanches, crowds, and more all got factored into the equation. The result (as it so often is) was to head to Cannon. As a group we have about 80 years, hundreds of days, thousands of hours, and maybe millions of vertical feet of experience on this hill. But none of us have ever skinned/skied it. So the familiar became novel.

Front row parking is the first benefit of off-season skiing.


The skinning was smooth and easy. Although not so true for C on the slowshoes.


At the bottom of the Cannonball we spent some time deciding on our approach to the summit. We ended up choosing Profile which was a steep windy slog. But it was the most direct approach and the wind at our backs both helped our ascent and kept the body temp out of the red zone.





A nice little backcountry hut. I had big dreams of sitting out the deck enjoying the views and coldie. But the wind was easily 60-70MPH. The one sunny sheltered spot I found was getting barraged by 'knock-you-out' sized ice chunks. So we enjoyed a somewhat surreal indoor lunch break. It was also nice to lighten our loads....thanks Cannon.


Heading back into the sun, wind, and snow we debated options. From the tram building we could see that Tramway and probably Vista were totally scoured. On the way up we had seen that Hardscrabble was virtually untouched and looked better than ever. So we headed down Taft. The coverage was good, the snow was sticky but not bad. And then it all went down hill....or I should say we wished it would go down hill. The snow was so deep, wet, and sticky. Even the steepest pitches required straight-lining and turns were mostly out of the equation and ugly at best when attempted.

We decided the flat run-outs on that side were unwise so we slog-traversed are way over towards Zoomer. C was in and out his bindings all day. Even though is seemed that conditions would be board favorable, ultimately he had it extra hard.

We are actually pretty good skiers. And when I get a chance I'll post some video that proves it. In the meantime I hope you enjoy how hilarious water logged snow can be. My apologies to J for the evil laughter. (best viewed at 720).


There's plenty more to come, including the rest of the day's adventures.