Gunstock/Cannon

[moe ghoul]

We had a family reunion in NH, rented a nice house along Lake Winnipesaukee in Laconia. Left Sunday and drove thru the storm which dropped over a foot on Gunstock and upwards of 30" at Cannon. Skied Gunstock Mon/Tues, Cannon on Wed., Gunstock on Thurs/Fri. Came home yesterday. Highlights were good snow the 1st 3 days and spring conditions Thurs/Fri. Visibility at Cannon on Wed. was poor on the upper half of the mountain and the snow kept falling lightly. Cannon is a solid hill with some expansion that was recently completed and the new Mittersill lift should be up and running this month accessing about 86 additional acres of terrain. I spent most of the morning on the lower half where they left a few trails ungroomed and managed to find good snow in the Echo Woods glades. Flat light and fog don't work for me sightwise, so we only made one top to bottom run that day. My brother's mother in law lives in Sugar Hill, so we skied Cannon and met up with the rest of the family for an early dinner in Sugar Hill, about 15-20 minute ride from Cannon. Went Past Bode Millers' mom's store, saw the area of the 1st ski school in the US and some other interesting historical tidbits. Most pics I took are of family, etc, so I don't have a whole lot to post up. I might do a little video edit later of some footage I took and post it up. Gunstock is a decent little hill, got crowded by midweek, and skied off by early afternoon. For whatever reasons, some of the better trails that were closed lacked snowmaking. Poached a run called Hotshot on Thursday and got busted by ski patrol. My first time ever getting caught, tee hee. He clipped my ticket, initialed it, was stunned that I wasn't under 30 yr. old, and called me "Sir". After giving me the usual lecture, he wanted to know how good it was on the trail, lulz. I ended up poaching another run way off to skiers left which ran out into the Tiger Chair that had really nice snowdrifts top to bottom and nobody noticed. Access to the run required skiing a narrow and fairly flat traverse along a hiking trail that was roped off, a few small hucks down to the main trail and then a fairly mellow pitch thru some plush untouched pow mixed with rox and meadowlike growth.

 

We ate and drank like royalty all week, including 20 fresh lobsters for 6 adults one nite. I picked up a bunch of fireworks for New Year and we put on a nice light show over the lake with clear skies Friday nite. Just got back from dropping off the wife at the ER (again), seems like I should just take her directly to the hospital after a vacation. Getting ready to head for Maine by Thursday, hopefully.

 

Tram at Cannon

 

Sign outside Bode's Mom's shop

 

!st Ski School sign on Lover's Lane in Sugar Hill

 

Looking out towards the lake from the top of Gunstock

 

I tried uploading some other pics but got error messages.

[moe ghoul]

They were a nice size, my guess 3-4lbs. My sister in law's son is a GM at a seafood restaurant and supplied them along with several gallons of NE clam chowdah.

Edited January 2, 2011 by moeghoul

[rgrwilco]

Cannon is somewhere i want to get to sometime. I have been hearing about the off-map tucker brook trail and it sounds like fun.

[Shadows]

nice tr. i have no idea where either of those mtns are.

im assuming your wife works at the hospital, right?

[moe ghoul]

nice tr. i have no idea where either of those mtns are.

im assuming your wife works at the hospital, right?

 

No, she's a patient.

[Shadows]

thats kind of what else i was assuming. hope all goes well.

[moe ghoul]

A Touron edit from Cannon/Gunstock and Sugarloaf/Saddleback trips. Pick out the frame that's fake.

 

The frame of a large log house is the place we stayed at in Rangeley. tommy Guns Pit Stop is in Mexico, ME, next to Rumford, ME. Shots of "Bode" sign and the 1st ski school are in Sugar Hill, NH.

 

Edited January 14, 2011 by moeghoul