By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
FRANCONIA – I am always looking for good deals when I ski.
On Wednesdays, New Hampshire residents can ski and ride at Cannon Mountain for $45.
That is all winter long, except for some busy holidays which you don’t want to deal with anyway.
This is just about the best deal I can suggest, this ski season.
The state of New Hampshire provides a good product, with about 20 of their 97 runs and glades to choose from, including some of the front five.
There was lots of room to roam and the conditions were exceptionally good for the early season Wednesday.
Right now, the ski industry in general is taking advantage of the cold nights and hoping for snow this week as they prepare for the all-important Christmas week. They can make as much as 20 percent of their revenue for the year in those nine days.
After meeting with them several weeks ago amid the warmth and pouring rain at an industry kick-off event at McIntyre, it definitely feels like winter, finally.
Rime ice covered the metal chairs and the pine trees were caked in frost and wind-packed snow making them look like wobbling little dribble sand castles on the beach.
The wind was forcing them to place 50-gallon jugs on some of the chairs as ballast against a brutal wind.
Sometimes, that was all the sound that could be heard, the wind through the trees. There was something so peaceful about it. I just love being up there on a cold winter day.
Wednesday was a perfect sort of day for what I call the season “shakedown.”
This is about giving a test to all the equipment, old and new, to be sure it’s ready for winter.
I skied for two hours and never made turns on the same trail twice and never had a care or concern about my gear.
It was mostly dry carvable powder snow with two inches of new white blanketing everything from overnight. The light was flat.
I started with a run on the curvy Upper Cannon, a blue square or more difficult trail which has great character and views to the northern Presidential range on good days. I had it to myself.
There was tons of snow on the edges and some patches of ice in the center to keep you on your toes but the edges held well and I felt confident.
While about 20 F degrees at the base and colder at the summit, with the wind cranking up there at about 25 miles per hour, it was really perfect for a test drive of the new bright and bomb-proof Goretex jacket I got out west in November. It stood up very well to the elements.
The only thing cold after a few hours were my toes and the only thing that works is to go inside for a few minutes.
I love Cannon because it is so laid back. You are bound to run into somebody you know in New Hampshire Wednesdays or meet someone who knows someone you know. It’s a small state and particularly so on New Hampshire Wednesdays at Cannon.
I made friends with a lift attendant who noted we have the same last name, took a few lift runs up with a guy from the Mount Washington Valley in Carhart overalls and a wool hat, who laughed at my goggles and watched the local ski teams run a few gates in the fog and snow on Tramway.
Finding your gear after winter is often a process and I always seem to have a hard time finding stuff and I forget things. This year I forgot a neck warmer.
Goggles were easy this year. I took three and found one with the perfect lens for the dark light but they were about 25 years old and stretched out.
Over at the quiver of skis in the garage, I had to look for the perfect rock skis to start the season.
Usually, these have rusted edges and you can tell the minute you drop them into the snow and pull away, leaving a brown stain in the snow.
This year, the old boards were not too bad, likely because I think I had them sharpened at the end of last year. I will take out the new, finely waxed, sharpened, and spiffy pair later in the season when there is not as thin a cover, which at Cannon, looked to be about a half inch or deeper. I hit no rocks.
The weather report online matched up with the conditions on the hill and they were not sugar-coating how biting the cold breeze was, perhaps that honesty impacted the number of folks there but I don’t like to be fooled and dress for weather that is milder.
The snowflakes and the white landscape were just what I needed to get in the mood for the holidays, which has been lacking so far.
The snow report indicated they were taking their snowmaking show on the road over to the beginner area at Tuckerbrook and onto Mittersill, so no face shots of frozen water from a gun for me! I appreciated that.
The bonus was the Zoomer chair was running and although they have not smoothed out the incredible whales of manmade snow on the trails like Garys and Rocket, it was fun skiing among the molehills, with their incredible height and appearance almost as a cresting wave.
Skiing through them was like moving through the Valley of the Dolls.
This year, I am doing something different.
After the past few years of buying both Ikon and Epic passes, I bought a Cannon Mountain season pass.
As an New Hampshire resident, the price was $644 for an adult under the age of 65 with no blackout days.
I will pay as I go to other places when friends want to ski somewhere else, but I will be happy to call Cannon my home hill this winter.
As their advertisement said, Cannon is Mine!
Last year, I left money on the table with those multi-mountain passes if you figure $100 a day.
I skied about 14 times and not all of them were on those passes.
So I will look forward to getting out, particularly on Wednesdays at Cannon, and hope to see you out there!
InDepthNH.org’s Paula Tracy learned to ski at Pats Peak in Henniker in 1972 and has been looking for ways to fit it into her work life ever since. Her first ski column First Tracks was for the Salem (Mass.) Evening News. She then wrote one for the New Hampshire Union Leader and later for WMUR. Paula now writes A Winter Run for InDepthNH.org when she is not busy on her State House reporting.