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2 more great weekends and Eli does DJ’s Tramline!

The past 2 weekends have been awesome thanks to the 3 feet of snow at cannon and 4 feet of snow at bretton woods so far in March!

Last weekend was the big powder weekend after all the big snowstorms hit during the week.  DJ’s Tramline (one of the toughest trails in the east) was open for only the second time of the year.  Eli had been begging us to do it but neither Michele or I wanted to.  Eli and I took the tram up and inspected the trail.  We decided to do it.

Overall DJ’s was tough but I was able to survive it.  I had to do one section on my butt and a bunch of other sections weren’t great form (not to mention a few falls), but the look on Eli’s face when we made it to the bottom was worth it.

This weekend included a bunch of firsts for us:

Cannon:

  • Echo Woods Glade
  • Lake View Glade
  • Idiot’s Delight

Bretton Woods (Sunday):

  • Among the Clouds
  • Dark Star
  • Lazy Man
  • Over the Fall’s
  • Snowmaker’s Gully
  • Cliff’s Cliff

The next weekend we continued the same pattern w/ Cannon Saturday and Bretton woods on Sunday.

At Cannon, we tackled “Go Green Glade”, “Golden Birches Glade”, and “Cannonball”.  At Bretton Woods, we did “Mr. Moose”.

 

 

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Lots of visitors and skiing continues!

I need to get better about regularly posting!

Since my last post in January, we’ve had tons of visitors to the lodge almost every weekend.  We sure are enjoying this place!  Unfortunately the skiing hasn’t been too good in Jan+Feb, little snow and lots of warm temps have left the mountains unable to make snow and lots of icey conditions.

Fortunately the past couple weeks have been spectacular!  The mountains have received 2 feet of snow in the past week and are expecting another 1-2 feet this week!  The end of the ski season is looking great and we may potentially be able to keep going until April if the temps stay low!

Here are a list of visitors we’ve had to the lodge the past couple months:

  • Jan 27 – Noone, I forget where we skiied
  • Feb 3 – Coughlins (Jim, Kate, Eric, and Trixie) visited the lodge and we skiied Cannon
  • Feb 10 – We took a week off from the Lodge and skiied Sugarloaf w/ the Coughlins
  • Feb 17 – ClearMotion ski weekend, had a bunch of former coworkers up at the lodge and we skiied Cannon
  • Feb 24 – Noone, I forget where we skiied.  This was the end of school vacation week.  Michele stayed up at the lodge all week with the boys.  Some warm temps kept them from skiing some days, but overall they had a blast.
  • Mar 3 – Ingalls ski weekend.  Lots of family from CA, FL, CT, and MA!  We skiied Bretton Woods both days
  • Mar 10 – Were planning on the Imbeault’s but the boys all got sick.

 

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Ski fun continues

So far January has been an interesting month, filled with multiple feet of snow, a quick couple days of torrential downpours and thawing, then more snow.  I think it can only be described as wild weather!

The first weekend treated us with -20 degree temps, without the windchill.  On Saturday, the weather was so cold we decided to skip skiing.  We spent the day playing games, sledding, shoveling the deck, etc.  On Sunday we went to waterville and had a great time!

The next weekend we had some friends over, the Smith’s and Reimers.  It was our first time hosting 8 people.  The drive up on Friday was pretty rough.  The weather was in the 50’s and the roads were complete mud pits.  They were barely passable.  On Saturday we skiied Bretton Woods.  Due to the ice, the main lift (Bethlehem) was shut down the whole day.  This made the crowds pretty overwhelming at the base.  Overall the snow conditions were pretty good considering it had just rained for 2 days.  Tommy was in a lesson all day.  On Sunday we did Bretton Woods again and it was pretty busy, but at least all lifts were functional.  On Monday we did Bretton Woods yet again, this time it was pretty dead.  The T-Bar was open, though only to a single glade.

Dave had to head back for a work trip on Tuesday, but Michele and the boys stayed behind and did Cannon on Tuesday.  Apparently that was very successful and everyone had fun in the terrain park.  Even Tommy was getting some air.

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A cold, cold Christmas vacation

We spent the week between Christmas and New Years up at the Lodge, and boy was it a cold one!  Temperatures ranged from -25 at night, to a high of -5 during the day.  Without wind chills.  And it was windy.

Christmas was on a Monday this year.  We spent the morning after cleaning up the house and packing for the week.  The big presents this year were, for Eli:  a sewing machine, xbox one, legos; for Aaron:  electric guitar, books, pokemon;  Tommy:  legos.

On Wednesday we headed to Cannon.  It was so cold we headed home after lunch.  Dave and Eli explored Mittersill for the first time, and they will be sure to head back.  In the afternoon Dave took Aaron and Eli to the skating rink in downtown Franconia.  Eli is having  a blast learning to play hockey.  Aaron is still learning to skate and is getting pretty frustrated by it.

On Thursday we just stayed home, played outside and did some sledding.  In the afternoon Dave and Eli went back to the rink.  This time we discovered it has a little shed that you can get changed and warm up in.  Also, the rink has lights so you can play anytime at night.  I love this rink, we’re so glad we found it.

On Friday, just Dave and Eli went to Cannon, and the rest of the fam stayed back at the Lodge.  We did a few runs and headed back around lunch time.  At night we went into Littleton for dinner and a Chutters candy run.

On the Saturday the whole fam went to Cannon and we made it a good way through the day.  The Tossup terrain park is open and in full effect.  This park is nuts with some epic jumps.  The kids love it.

On Sunday we headed to Bretton Woods.  I’m pretty sure it was even colder there then at Cannon, with some strong winds that didn’t help things.   We ran into our neighbors and had fun skiing a couple runs with them.

On Monday we skipped skiing, again.  We spent most of the morning cleaning and packing up.  Dave and Aaron went on a hike in the woods, and discovered a sugar shack nearby.

Overall we had a real fun week, even though we skipped a bunch of great snow days at the mountain, we made the best of it.  We had hot cocoa, went sledding, went for hikes in the woods, decorated the lodge, played board games, had movie nights, and relaxed.

 

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First Ski Weekend!

This weekend we had the Holman’s up.  We rented a house with them all last season and really had a great time.  This year they are renting a place up at Stowe so, unfortunately, we aren’t going to be seeing them as much.

Luckily, Bretton Wood’s opened up the season early, so we were able to go skiing this weekend!  Only 3 trails were open, the bunny slope, Ben, and Range View.  The place was pretty empty, no lift lines.  Also, the average experience level was very high for this mountain.  Most of the people were on ski teams, getting some early season practice in.

At first Tommy (now 4) forgot how to ski, but quickly picked it up about half way through his first run.  Hard to believe this kid was doing black diamonds at Cannon at 3 years old!  The other 2 boys were kicking butt.  They’ve really turned into amazing skiers.  They can fly down any trail at Bretton Woods with ease and good form.

On Sunday the weather took a turn for the worse and was pouring rain.  The older kids went to do some indoor rock climbing.

I get to spend the rest of Sunday and most of Monday at the lodge by myself.  It was great to accomplish some home improvement projects.  I did some painting, organizing/storing the summer gear, and put up the Christmas Tree.