I am 39 years old, I live in NH and learned to ski last year.
I'm on my second season now, and I have spent a lot of time at Bretton Woods, and gotten a feel for many other local ski resorts. Cannon has been on my radar, but up until yesterday, I avoided out of fear. Like all the reviews here have stated, this is a no frills place, but what does that mean really? At the end of the day, this place is all about the SKIING.
The best way I can describe it, skiing at a resort feels like a leisure activity, skiing at Cannon is like going to the gym.
That being said, could you come here as a beginner? ABOSLUTELY!
The learner's area is unmatched, here's the catch: those that know their limits will be rewarded, those that try to advance too soon will be punished. Everybody learns at their own pace, but I can't imagine I would have been able to manage coming down from the main lifts without becoming comfortable skiing parallel down blues everywhere else. I have always scoffed at the comment, "the greens are blues!", but here it's actually true.
The runs are incredible, the snowmaking impressive, and the views are spectacular - on the weekend, you have the place to yourself.
There's history here, there's grit and a get down to business attitude. You can feel it, this is the place where legends were built.
For practice, I can think of no better NH mountain than Cannon. Bretton Woods has the comfort, the luxury, and that has it's place, but I'll save that for trips with others. Cannon will now be my practice mountain for the foreseeable future.
