Six of us OTHH took a ski trail route up Cannon Mountain on a perfect May weather day. Hiking up a steep ski slope is not as easy as one would think. A typical mountain trail would have a mixture of boulders and tree roots, providing regular somewhat like stair-like places to get the feet down level. On a ski trail, there is a lot of grassy, continuous unbroken slope, without those flat spots to get the feet down level. Some of found ourselves going up the steepest pitches in a series of back and forth switchbacks, to provide some relief for the calf muscles. The open nature of the ski trails does provide great views. After lunch on the outside deck of the upper tram terminal building, we took a different route down, avoiding the steepness of "black diamond" rated ski trails, taking instead the intermediate ("More Difficult") trails. While there were some stretches with loose rock, much of the downward route was over grassy slopes with good footing. This let us descend at a relatively quick speed, although being constantly "on the brakes" was something we felt burning our thighs. As it turned out, the descent took just 1:05, about the fastest we've ever come down a 4K.
Below are Dick, Pat, and Marie atop the big communication tower at the summit, with the Franconia ridge behind and across the notch.
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