Cannon Mountain Ski Resort — Attraction in Franconia

First off, let me say that I went on a holdiday weekend, after a rainstorm, with no snow on the ground.

And I STILL had a great time!

The courses that were open were well maintained and challenging. The staff were extremely helpful and expertly adapted to the covid restrictions. (Individual comments below)

Slopes: the winding, well designed slopes give you exactly what you want when you want it. Just when you think it's too steep, or too windy, it eases up and gives you a break. You can always find a pleasurable way down the mountain. I found Upper Ravine into Middle Ravine to be my favorite. They make no pretensions about the difficulty of the slopes. You ski at your own risk and you should be aware of your skill level before taking a lift to the top.

People: Cannon was "sold out" but the slopes were anything but packed. I waited exactly one time for a lift, and that was just on the family friendly park when I was getting my warm up run in. Every other lift had almost no wait times all day. A lesser park would have sold twice or three times as many tickets and let the skiers suffer. Not Cannon. They kept the slopes clear by limiting their patrons. That's a big move on their part.

I'm from the Poconos, so I'm used to the most dangerous thing on the mountain being mobs of hundreds of inexperienced skiiers. This was not the case at all, and I saw only one injury all day and the ski patrol was already there handling it. Fantastic job.

Staff Mentions:

There were no comment cards so I'm forced to thank the staff in a public forum.

Props to Kate in the sport shop for getting me a map and telling me about the area.

Ashli in rentals took the initiative and got me situated when one of my own boots broke at the start of the day.

Mandy in rentals went out of her way to get my skis secured and the bindings checked.

[Boot guy was also great but I didn't catch his name...=( Sorry boot guy!]

All in all, fantastic mountain, cool history, great people, great slopes. My only complaint is that they didn't have comment cards so I could thank the...

Cannon can be a beast. It does not invite lazy or casual skiing. Even the view of the mountain when driving up I93 is really quite foreboding and those runs are pretty much as steep as they look. It isn't a mountain with a cheery smile on it's face but if you go in with the right attitude and expectations, you might find you come away grinning. I've never skied a mountain anywhere else that easily compares to Cannon. It's raw and uncompromising at times, and although there are quite a few trails that are more forgiving of the less experienced, it aint no beginner's mountain. Rarely is there a dull moment and it pays to keep your wits about you. I was a little disappointed on my recent visit that a few trails that were previously groomed had been equipped with moguls but in some cases you had already committed to a run before this became apparent. Skiing moguls at my age and level of fitness takes too much out of me and usually results in my day ending sooner than I would like. One of my favorite challenges at Cannon is zooming down Taft Slalom and up The Saddle to Mittersill but on this occasion, there was zero grooming of the uphill section and so the momentum was quickly lost and skating was not an option, just hiking...

I don’t know if I had garbage luck, if the mountain is just in a weird spot, but snow quality here is extremely poor. First day I went it was pure fog. Second time it was all ice, barely any snow coverage. Third time was the same deal, all ice. Luckily my pass also works for Bretton woods which is just 20 minutes up the road. I gave up at Cannon after one run, went to Bretton and it was a completely different story. Very good snow coverage, well groomed. Another issue I had was with the lift operator. I was standing in line, she scanned the people ahead of me, looked right at me then turned and scanned the group that had just walked up. I figured okay and headed toward the lift, but then she yelled at me for doing that. Don’t skip me then! Ordinarily this wouldn’t bug me, but there had been some issues in the mountain before that like an instructor sipping his students in the middle of the trail for instruction. Got stuck behind them multiple times. I don’t know if they are affiliated with Cannon or not, but it was extremely annoying. Had to get off my board at one point to go around them at the top of a little uphill section they stopped on. I gave Cannon a shot, but I won’t be...