Mia's Breakthrough On Skis At Cannon Mountain

A photo I took of Mt. Lafayette from the summit of Cannon.

Well anyone who has been to this website in the winter knows that my obsessions switch to 2 things, skiing and snowmaking.  I am a life long skiier, and on most weekends between January and April you will find me at my favorite ski haunt - Cannon Mountain in Franconia, NH.  I have had a life long love affair with this place.  I grew up skiing at a lot of different mountains, usually the one we could get the deepest discount tickets for, but I had a special place in my heart for Cannon Mountain.  My father used to have a map of New England in his glove box, and I would always read about all of the ski areas that were listed in its margins.  Cannon had the most imposing sounding description, a whole lot of vertical drop, a ton of expert terrain, and a lot of history.  Before I even made it to the mountain I had already dubbed it the best of the bunch sight unseen.  Once I finally skiied it I was infatuated.  I had never witnessed a more hardcore place, where most of the skiiers, were truly great skiiers.  Back in those days Cannon didn't have the greatest snowmaking, but boilerplate ice and all I was totally hooked. I talked dad into skiing the place quite a bit over the years, and although it was never the place we skiied the most it was my "true love".  When I proposed to my wife Cathy, it was the summit of Cannon Mounatin that I chose as the place to pop the question.  I told her afterwards that if she said no I had plans to throw her off the top, of course I was joking, I think.  As life has gone on and we have started raising our family, naturally it was Cannon that we have gravitated to as our family's mountain.  I am now on child #3, my little Mia, and I have been determined to give her a love of skiing that Abby and Ailey both share.  It started last year when she was 2-1/2 years old.  I thought she was some kind of prodigy, and figured she could hack the beloved Junior Development class called the Polar Bears.  Truth is, she was just too young to hack a 2 hour class with the kids.

After a couple of weeks we pulled her out of the class, and I started working with her as much as I could.  I got the little sucker skiing pretty well, but at 2-1/2 the attention span just wasn't there, so I didn't push my luck, but I could see the potential for her to be a great skiier.  Even if we only did one or two runs sometimes, we got out on most days and we had a good time with it.  I have been really excited to get her on skis this year, and this weekend we finally made it to the mountain for the first time after the holiday rush was winding down.  I knew it was going to be great when we put her skis on and her perpetual little smile just lit up the instant she started sliding around on the things.  On our first day out she did 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon.  What can I say, she is just beautiful on those little K-2 skis of hers, and she totally loves it.  She is now in the polar bear class and is keeping up just fine.  Today she even graduated to the larger of the two beginner lifts, and she did it with style.  I think the only one smiling more than Mia was her goofy old dad skiing down behind her.  She even tried to hit a jump on the Huckerbrook trail (she kind of stalled on the top of the jump luckily!).  I am just so proud of her, and relieved that we have created another Cannon lover, and skiing lover out of her.  As far as Mia is concerned there isn't anywhere else in the world to ski, and hell for that matter her old man is right beside her.  I will be on this hill for the rest of my life, as long as my body will allow, and I hope I will be skiing right alongside my awesome family, Dad, Cathy, Abby, Ailey, Mia, and the rest of all the hotshots I have the privilege of skiing with on a weekly basis.  God Bless Cannon Mountain!


Happily,


Wacky Dad