One version of off-piste lift-served skiing

[LiquidFeet]

Just found this video.
It's an unmarked run off the summit of Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire.
Thoughts? Comments? Do you ski this type of terrain?

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Heeeeellllll no but stuff like this is sure fun to watch. Thanks for posting.

 

[slowrider]

Just side slipping around trees. Not really skiing.

 

[Crank]

Sure done plenty of similar runs mostly in the NE. Adventure skiing. That is why my main skis are a bit short for me at 177: manueverability in tight spaces.

 

[mdf]

Just side slipping around trees. Not really skiing.

You may have given up too soon. He doesn't really start skiing till after the cliff drop (preceeded by "Jake! Seriously?") at 1:33. This route clearly gets quite a bit of traffic -- notice how scraped the tree root is as he side steps past it at 2:31.

I started off thinking this looked like a fun adventure, but changed my mind at the two drops. I wonder if there is an alternate route around them, though.

 

[slowrider]

Reminds me of crawling around the Woods at the bottom of a canyon in the pnw Elk hunting. Thick brush, slick footing and raining. At a certain age the fun isn't there.

 

[Sibhusky]

There's a lot of that kind of skiing here. Area 51 comes to mind. It's amazing the places that have tracks. I've never skied anything that dense voluntarily and certainly would have climbed out of (and have) anything with that kind of drop. There's folks here I refuse to ski on groomers with because of those kinds of adventures in the past. Fortunately, the endless bushwalking traverse was always an option, but I can see where it might not have been.

 

[Tony S]

I hate that stuff. Boring and tense. Unfulfilling combination. Some lift served areas' clientele seem to think that's tree skiing. Wildcat and Cannon come to mind. Some of Brackett Basin at the Loaf is like that. It's awesome if you're nine.

Other areas seem to have my sensibilities around tree skiing: Burke, Jay, Saddleback, Le Massif.

 

[nemesis256]

I've gotten stuck in stuff close to that at Wildcat, minus the drops. Now I know the mountain well enough to avoid it, although there are a couple "secret trails" that are still fun.

What's the run he comes out on at the end?

 

[KevinF]

Hell to the no.

 

[Josh Matta]

Looks like a lot of work for almost no reward. Stowe spoils me. I am not against bushwacking but it got to be good skiing at some point in time to make it worth it. Some of the best runs at stowe require some crazy things to get to them but the skiing once there is worth it .

 

[KevinF]

Looks like a lot of work for almost no reward. Stowe spoils me. I am not against bushwacking but it got to be good skiing at some point in time to make it worth it. Some of the best runs at stowe require some crazy things to get to them but the skiing once there is worth it .

And if Josh says it's a "crazy" entrance...

 

[Tony S]

I've gotten stuck in stuff close to that at Wildcat, minus the drops.

Yeah, I keep asking people at the Cat about trees and they keep sending me into crazy brook beds and other luge runs.

 

[Josh Matta]

And if Josh says it's a "crazy" entrance...

It's not even that crazy....its just not worth it.

I think this video made with me and my friend's Erik footage 3 runs all mostly lifted served at Stowe. We usually edited in a little of the bushwacking.....because it can look really cool.


highlight include skiing under 20+ foot icelices.

The entrance to Tusk at :26

Me skiing the crux of Tusk @ 2:42

the thing is 5-15 minutes of bushwacking to get 1200-1800 of vertical that is open enough to ski is worth it. Also unlike the entirely tracks cannon video, these runs even to this day are so shielded by bushwacking that that can have snow days after a storm in some cases.

 

[mdf]

Why does an open trail like that even exist? The end looks like it might be a stream, but not the rest. Summer hiking trail? Pirate maintenance?

 

[Josh Matta]

in which video?

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Why does an open trail like that even exist? The end looks like it might be a stream, but not the rest. Summer hiking trail? Pirate maintenance?

Some of those are creek/river beds, some is from landslides. Some have big ice cliffs above where the ice falls down and smashes everything in the spring. The video really flattens them a lot. Some of those are very, very steep.

 

[KevinF]

I wasn't sure where Tusk was but Googling Tusk Stowe brought up a pretty neat article regarding the history of some of these lines:
http://www.stowetoday.com/stowe_rep...cle_cbfb8f6c-1125-11e1-8835-001cc4c002e0.html

 

[mdf]

Excellent find, Kevin! So Tusk was the result of a massive mudslide!
But many were manmade in the 1990's. Attitudes may have been differentback then (or not ...). Personally, I've got nothing against it, as long as it is done with some consideration of potential summer erosion.

 

[slowrider]

Like an obstacle course on skis.