Franconia, New Hampshire — Conditions are pretty awesome at Cannon Mountain at the moment. Recent snowfall and cold temperatures have allowed them to open most of its terrain, including the legendary DJ’s Tramline and Kinsman Glade. Plus, it’s snowing right now. Unfortunately, Cannon caught a bad break yesterday that is impacting their lift operations.
Yesterday, a mechanical failure on the Peabody Express Quad chairlift resulted in the lift being shut down for the rest of the day. Sixty-four people had to be saved via rope evacuation by ski patrol. The evacuation took around two hours.
Cannon confirmed yesterday afternoon in a statement to the public that the cause of the lift evacuation was the failure of the bolt affixed to the power take-off shaft. Wait, ski areas can publically address lift malfunctions on social media? Incredible stuff.
In response to this closure, Cannon planned on running the aerial tramway today, but it, along with the Cannonball Quad and the Mittersill chairlift, are currently closed due to heavy winds. The open chairlifts today include the Eagle Cliff, Tuckerbrook, and Zoomer.
As a New Hampshire resident, I’ll say that I wouldn’t mind seeing my taxpayer dollars going towards some new chairlifts on the Cannon side of the mountain. The lift infrastructure on the Cannon side, including Peabody, is aging, so I think it’s time for the State of New Hampshire (i.e. the state legislature) to think about replacements of lifts outside of the planned tram upgrades.
Image/Video Credits: WMUR (Jeff Giangregorio, Ty Kerem, Peter Anania), Cannon Mountain (Rad Smith)
