Author Archives: Andrew Ziehl

About Andrew Ziehl

An avid outdoorsman.

And We’ll All Float On Okay…

Euphoric. Unreal. Ridiculous. Life changing. I’m almost doing our experience a disservice by trying to put this weekend into words. The past three days at Jay have been the best skiing of my life.

It all started Thursday night when Rob and I left Boston and made record time to Jay Peak in search of the forecasted storm. We awoke to disappointment–no snow. Yet. We met up with a few of Rob’s friends, and hit the glades for a typical day at Jay. It was tracked, but good snow. It finally started snowing around noon and by mid afternoon it was puking huge flakes. For our last run, four of us headed for Big Jay where we got some sweet fresh tracks.

As we pushed cars up the access road to get by, little did we know the weekend was just getting started. The glades were starting to fill in as Rob and I ran to the Flyer for last chair.

That evening we made a rendezvous with the rest of our crew as they headed up in the storm. The final tally was seven of us, including me, Marshal, Sweeney, Rob, Alex, Deb, and Denaro. We woke up in a rush at the dark hour of 6 am, wide-eyed and pow-hungry.

After shuffling cars at the mountain we hopped on the lifts and scattered, everyone happily enduring 50 mph gusts on lift-rides for the blissful two feet of snow on the ground, and counting. The wind actually helped fill in the tracks, so it was almost constantly fresh. I skied The Orchard which was almost entirely untracked, and then we grouped up and headed for The Dip.

The Orchard, getting buried on Saturday.

The snow just kept piling up, and we were just getting more amped as the day wore on. Around three we made what was in hindsight a bit of a bonehead decision. We gathered our packs and started hiking for Big Jay. Before we left the resort, Marshal turned around and said he’d meet us back at the lodge. Most of the group had skins, but Denaro and I were going to have to boot-pack. After some deliberation we embarked on what became our Big Jay adventure.

The boot pack was tolerable, and we were making good progress, but began encountering issues when Sweeney’s skins fell off, and he started hiking instead. As we approached Big Jay the drifts got deeper, and the snow was not letting up. I was post-holing occasionally, and in a few spots we gave up and crawled to avoid breaking through. We transitioned, determined the group order, and made a concentrated effort to stay together. As we descended, the light began to fade, and most of our goggle lenses became too dark to use. A few of us spent some time wallowing and righting ourselves in the chest deep drifts. At one point I went to stop behind Sweeney, but my tips bounced off an icy rock and I rolled into a ten foot deep tree well. I was surprised I kept my cool, but it took a lot out of me as I swam up out of the snow and then Sweeney lent me his poles for support to hoist myself back onto stable snowpack. Needless to say I plan to avoid any future encounters with trees, or tree wells.

I’m sure each of us managed a few good turns, but in the end it was too darn dark to pick up any speed. We utilized Rob’s GPS to stay on target, and keep heading out towards the car.

By the time we reached the bottom and began traversing, we were skiing by moonlight. We had a few headlamps with us, but the rest of us were forced to keep an eye on the blurry dark shadow of the person ahead. No one had any major mishaps, but at one point Sweeney made a turn and dissappeared into a stream bank in a cloud of snow. Not much further on Deb got caught in a ditch, and then Denaro and Sweeney found some open water, which instantly froze to their skis and began gripping the snow like climbing skins. Finally, we were out on the road, where we skied back to the car by 6:30. It was buried so we whipped out an avy shovel and began digging and clearing it off. As this was going on, a pickup rolled by and kindly offered to tow us out, and asked where we were headed. We were mostly clear so we declined, but he proceeded to inform us that a tour bus had wedged itself on 242 from guardrail to guardrail only an hour or so beforehand, and they were bringing a wrecker and a tow truck up the pass to unstick it. Needless to say, there was no going that way, which meant the ski boots were staying on for the foreseeable future. The 6 of us piled into Rob’s car and navigated a route around. Unfortunately the route included a road closed for winter, and the only other way would’ve taken us 2 hrs to get back.

What we needed was a snack break, so we pulled into the local grocery store in Montgomery. All the back doors of the car were frozen shut, but we managed to grab the attention of two guys walking by to open up the trunk for us. As we stumbled out I realized one of our saviors was an old high school teammate of mine! What are the odds? We chatted briefly, but I’d gotten food on my mind and needed some asap.

With the goods acquired, we decided the only sensible thing to do is head back up the pass and wait for the bus to get towed. We made it halfway before Rob’s car could no longer make forward progress. Alex and Denaro tossed out ideas and saved the day: we started making rearward progress. Rob turned the car around and backed uphill mostly blind. And it was STILL snowing. At the top we found a few cars and emergency vehicles. Sweeney and Alex decided they were going to go on ahead and ski/hike the road back down to Jay. Just as we got all the gear back out of the frozen Thule, the bus was freed! Back in the car, it was time to drive to the lodge. We followed the snow plow, but even so, as we crested the pass, there was so much snow on the road it was flying over the windshield. Car faceshots!

Back at Stateside, we found Marshal, only 5 hours later, who we kindly left without keys or boots. After a quick change we dug Alex’s car out and left Jay, over 14 hours since we’d arrived. Jay was reporting 35″ on the ground as of 7 pm.

On Sunday, we were rewarded. Even though I almost didn’t want to get out of bed, once we got to the mountain, we were lifted. It was in the teens, Sunny, and there was 47″ inches of fresh pow on the ground. My legs were burning on our first run, but then we hit the jackpot. We started lapping the Dip, getting fresh tracks every run. You could do no wrong. We found some cliffs to huck, steep trees–everything was skiable. We hiked back up the access road a few times, grins on our faces the whole way. Several kind gentlemen let us pile into the bed of their trucks and drove us back. It was unreal. There were bottomless drifts, and everywhere you went you were floating on air.

Cue Sweeney’s camera work.

Rob, post-huck

Denaro catching air

Me following suit

Deb dropping in

Marshal breaks a slab loose

Alex catches some air

I almost get lost in pow

…but break through

Deb goes for it

Rob charges off the edge

Time to head back up, with grins plastered to our faces. We were able to hitch a ride a few times from some kind people. Photo credit: Deb

Another lap

Pow spray

There were also a few (minor) mishaps:

About to make friends with the snow drifts

Swallowed by the POW

The rest of the day looked like a lot like this. Eventually we were gassed. But we still couldn’t stop smiling. I’ll never forget those turns.

Update: Sweeney posted his goPro footage of the weekend.

A Foggy Endeavor: Chuting the Bowl

Our game plan, once again, was heading to Mt. Washington. Winter tricked us again this week, and left NE without much significant snowfall.

We’re quickly becoming regulars at Rob’s ski club where he, Sweeney, and I crashed Friday night. We got an early start Saturday for the usual skin up to Hermit lake. Avalanche risk was on the low-end of moderate, and after getting some details from one of the forecasters, we went to go scope out the bowl.

Even in the bowl it was a balmy 20 degrees, with little wind, and some serious fog with light snow. We hiked up past the lunch rocks and headed for the Sluice, with Sweeney in the lead for the first run. Sweeney quickly found an isolated pocket of thin cover that broke through to water runoff below, but we were able to safely skirt it. Cresting the top of Sluice the cover thinned and left us in low brush. It was time for me to do a test run of my new (used) Garmont AT boots. After a slow transition, we descended through the fog. The snowpack was firm and a bit chattery on the steeps, but overall pretty decent.

Sweeney’s camera is to thank for the shots, and he kindly played the main photographer role. The fog made for very low lighting.

Rob on edge passing the lunch rocks

Rob, again.

Me, past the base of the Sluice

Me, part 2.

By the time we were down to the base of the bowl we were already considering what to hit next. The visibility was coming and going, but the Chute looked good. It held firm, heavy snow all the way up, that made us feel more comfortable with the stability.

Rob and I ascending the Chute

Our descent was pretty socked in. At one point I thought I saw Rob not far ahead of me, and called out, not realizing I was trying to talk to a rock less than 20 yards away. When we reconvened, Rob remarked he thought the pitch was steeper than usual. I found it difficult to gauge in the pea soup fog, but it had felt steep.

Rob charging over the lip.

Me, getting ready to drop in.

The snow was good, and it was early, so we headed back up the Chute for a third run, a record number for me in the bowl. At this point the snow had switched to medium dendrite flakes, and was definitely collecting on the slope. The wind joined in by buffeting us as we crested the lip of the bowl. By our third lap I was finally getting used to my ski boots, and was able to play around a bit more towards the bottom.

Rob emerging from the Chute

Rob, on the right.

Me just past the narrows

Back in the bowl, we decided to call it a day, partially given the increasing weather, though we had time for another go. Back in Pinkham we were informed that the Chute had been measured as Steep as 62-65 degrees in spots, in other words, pretty friggin steep, and hands down the steepest I’ve ever skied.

Gulf Of Slides

Sunday was a different story. The forecast called for -15 degree temps on the summit with 65 mph winds, and the actual weather was even more severe. Given this, Rob and Sweeney were still considering heading into Huntington Ravine to check it out, with a friend of Robs. But they had Hotronics, while I have a history of frostbite, so I made other plans.

My main goal for the day was to stay warm and below treeline, so I skinned by myself up the Gulf of Slides ski trail.

I was aiming for the gulf in the middle. You can see the wind blowing snow around up top.

Trail head just past the Sherbe

The skinning was tricky even though cover was decent, because of icy slopes on steeper sections. At the entrance to the Gulf I scoped around what I presumed was the old slide path that tore through a swath of mature trees. I quickly decided it was bitter cold and blustery, and headed down.

I think the Gulf is supposed to be up there.

Looking downwards, not much of a view.

Disappointed with the skiing, I packed up and took advantage of a half day ticket at Wildcat while I waited for my friends to return. It turns out they encountered similar conditions and turned around at the base of Huntington, which was completely whited-out.

Its been fun up on Mt. Washington recently, but I really hope a POW day is in store for us soon. I sure could use some more tree skiing.

Back to Back Tucks Expeditions

We’d been away from Mt. Washington for over three weeks, and it was past time to give it another go. The weekends prior had mostly considerable avalanche risk in the bowl of Tuckerman Ravine based on the advisories from the avalanche center, but things seemed to be settling down. Rob, Sweeney and I met up in North Conway on Friday night, and made some final gear preparations.

Saturday

We made our way to Pinkham Notch Saturday morning to join up with our other compatriot, Alex. Little did we know, the annual Ice Fest was this weekend and we ran into swarms of climbers also making their way up the mountain.

We started skinning up the Ravine trail, with the intention of heading to the East Snowfields, since we figured we had the best chance of getting some turns in there. When we turned onto the Lion’s Head winter route however, we heard that it was slow going on the trail because of the heavy foot traffic. The group decided to change plans and scope out the bowl to see if anything was skiable.

Rob, as we approach the bowl. We used Sweeney's camera for all the photos, but it changed hands often.

When we got into the bowl the wind picked up. It was likely in the teens in the bowl with 35-45 mph winds. Most of the bowl had Moderate avalanche danger due to windloading. We veered off towards Lobster Claw once we reached the bowl, assessing the conditions as we went. The snowpack was variable with ~6+ inches in lee areas on top of a breakable rain crust. In one or two spots we post-holed almost up to our waists. As we approached steeper terrain to the right of Right Gully, we stopped. Rob, Sweeney and I spread out and dug snowpits. Even though my knowledge is rudimentary at this point, it didn’t look great. There were many layers shearing cleanly away from each other even as we were cutting the snow to do tests. Sweeney and Rob came to a similar conclusion: if conditions didn’t improve, we’d likely have to turn around.

The remnants of Sweeney's snow pit

Alex leading the way up lower Lobster Claw

We ascended a little further up to a rock wall which the wind was whipping around. At this point the wind was blowing in snow very quickly, and some of our earlier tracks were starting to fill in. We stopped here and transitioned to get ready to ski. Sweeney went first and was rewarded with a few good turns of some deep, dense powder, before cutting right through some brush. I followed suit, with Alex and Rob not far behind.

The group then headed in search of what was supposed to be a route down to the Sherburne, but ended abruptly in extremely dense brush and low woods. What followed was a few hundred yards of the densest bushwacking I’ve ever done, wallowing in waist deep snow at points, while maneuvering skis around branches. At one point we had enough room to link up some turns near the Cutler river, but then the skis came back off. An hour later we emerged on the hiking trail near Hermit Lake, where we chatted with one of the avalanche forecasters for a bit about the conditions.

We got the skis on for a few turns. Here's me enjoying a bit of pow.

Eventually we all skied down the Sherburne back to the car. The trail was filled in, but firm, and icy in patches. We’d managed a few sweet turns, but overall the consensus was we’d made the right call, even though we got skunked.

Sunday

Sunday was proof that you never know what the mountain is going to give you. We got an earlier start and skinned straight for Hermit Lake. We were greeted by the advisory indicating Low danger on most aspects of the Ravine. The Sunday Advisory said that strong overnight winds moved most of the new snow we’d been in yesterday out of the steeper sections of the Ravine.

Looking across the bowl to the summit.

We decided to head up Left Gully since we had the best bet of finding stable conditions all the way up. It was a beautiful, crisp winter day, with a completely clear sky. What else can you ask for?

Rob breaking trail up Left Gully

Me following Sweeney up after we spread out.

Left Gully was firm all the way to the top of the Ravine, with a just a bit of softer snow to edge on. We all had a great first run, Rob even found some pow he kindly pointed out to me near the runout of the Gully.

Rob getting ready to rip

Me, following Robs tracks into some dense powder

I'm thankful the mountain saw fit to reward us for coming back.

At this point, there were other skiers in the bowl already enjoying some turns part way up the Sluice, so we traversed over there for a short second run. We were rewarded with some soft creamy snow to toss around. It’s amazing the difference a day can make in the bowl.

Rob, heading down the bottom of Sluice

Laying it over in the soft snow.

Sweeney makes his move

...and tears it up

Time to head home.

Making the best of the weather

If you live in a place with perpetually very hard snow you should think about moving to a nicer climate, but not to Utah, please.” -Bruce Tremper, in Staying Alive

In spite of the rain in NE this past week, Rob, Sweeney and I were determined to find some decent skiing. We were at Smuggs on Saturday, where it was definitely a day to focus on the touring rather than the skiing. We bootpacked a mile or so in the area, where the rain crust made any potential runs look a little sketchy. I tested the diagonal carry of my REI Double Diamond pack, which I found works well for getting the skis on the pack quickly, but for excursions of any length I much prefer the A-frame carry. The diagonal straps allow the skis to hang a little too far off behind the pack.

In the afternoon we went on a brief skin, mostly to stretch our legs. It turns out having skins correctly cut for your skis makes a huge difference.

Sweeney ahead on the skin track

We passed a few deer and rabbit tracks on the ascent through some calm low angle woods. There wasn’t much snow so skiing down our skin track was pretty interesting.

We crossed lots of animal prints

Sunday, we decided to try Jay Peak, since Mt. Washington was reporting up to 80 mph winds. We skied the tracked trees all day and had a blast. Rob was on his new pair of Worth Daily Breads, which he let me try last weekend at Wildcat. Worth Skis is an up and coming ski manufacturer that designed a line of East Coast specific backcountry skis. I took Rob’s pair for a spin on some groomers where it gripped like a dream in variable snow. I felt comfortable making GS speed turns, and really enjoyed the rebound they delivered. I could swing around the 185s in the bumps as well. Rob got the stiffer version with the Power Core which I found was maybe a little too much ski for me when making tighter turns, but I bet I’d like the softer version.

Update: Brian put up a brief TR with photos of Rob laying it over on his Worth Skis.

Right now, I’ve got my nose buried in Avy safety books. Let’s hope the next few weeks hold some big storms for us.