Category Archives: Skiing

Jay Powder Day!

At long last Ullr has smiled upon us and our prayers have been answered in the form of a bout a foot of snow across Northern New England! Anticipating this long overdue dose of snow, Rob, Ziehl and I cranked out a week of work in less than days, loaded up the car and hit the road bound for Jackson NH, where we crashed at the Denaro residence. Armed with a fire-hazardous quantity of coupons and discounts, we set our alarms for 7:30 AM.

We rolled up to Wildcat and were pleasantly surprised to see that the weather was fair, and the place was empty. They’d gotten 8-10 inches of fresh with a bit of a rain crust. It was one of those days where it was technically debatable as to whether or not we were slaying pow or slaying gnar, but in any event we were finally slaying something.

We spun laps on the triple until we were good and sick of it, at which time we swung by Attitash to see how things were shaping up over there. In hindsight we should have stayed put, but it was worth a shot.

By around 3PM we concluded that we’d skied pretty much all that was worth skiing in this neck of the woods, so we loaded up the car and headed off to Lincoln, NH to rally with Alex, Denaro, Shane and Hannah. We crossed the Kanc just as the weather shifted into high gear, without incident thanks to Rob’s new Nokian snows. We feasted like kings at the Woodstock Brewery, showered at Alex’s condo, and then rolled up our sleeves for some serious logistics. Coordination would be paramount if we were to make it from Lincoln to Jay in time for first chair the day after a blizzard. We unloaded the car, paired down our gear to the bare minimum, repacked the car with every we’d need for the following day minus whatever we planned to wear that day, drank some beer, set our alarms for 5:15 AM and hit the sack.

Almost immediately after we’d hit the sack our missing companions, Shane, Hannah, Alex and Denaro showed up and woke everyone up… We exchanged salutations of dubious sincerity and went straight back to bed. Miraculously we were all on the road by 6:05AM the following morning. The waking up and driving into a blizzard in the wee hours of the morning in 0 degree weather wasn’t so great, but the skiing was. We managed to get first chair and found fresh tracks on several occasions during the day. Check it out:

The astute listener may have noticed my incessant griping regarding the cold starting shortly after the first run. Well the wind chill was -40F, and around 1 PM I succumbed to my better judgment and went in to thaw. Upon yanking my boots and socks off, I discovered a couple of pearly-white big toes with severely limited sensation – OK no sensation at all… About 5 minutes later they turned a nice, angry, shade of black, at which time I nearly dumped my beer and snacks all over the floor in horror. Unfortunately there is little that you can do aside from keeping them warm and dry, and hope for the best, so I wrapped my feet in a blanket, passed out and dreamed of sweet powder turns while the rest of the crowd took their last few runs and collected my hiking boots so that I could hobble back to the car later.

To my surprise and relief, by the time Ziehl and Alex came by with my hiking boots, both of my afflicted big toes had begun a fairly remarkable recovery transitioning from a frightening black to the mundane black and blue characteristic of a simple bruise. By the following morning they had recovered nearly to the point where I could walk normally. There’s almost certainly some amount of permanent damage, but no where nearly as bad as I’d originally feared. Seems like a may have dodged a bullet this time… Hell, I might even be ready to ski again next weekend, as long as it’s not going to be 40 below zero again!

Gear List (click links for more product info):

New Years Day on Mt Washington

Tuckerman Ravine. Left Gully is far left, the Chute is next to it on the right.

Decidedly fed up with the snow conditions in the East, Rob, Sweeney and I headed to Pinkham Notch on New Years Day to see if there was anything skiable in Tucks. I’d spent the previous two days skiing, first at Cannon and then we’d been at Mad River Glen, where there was probably more moss and rocks than snow on some of the trails.

We did some beacon practice at MRG, since I’d never used one before. It took a bit of getting used to, but I feel a lot more confident if I ever had to do a single burial search–though I still feel like I’m just starting to get the hang of it.

Instead of partying hard, we crashed early in North Conway to get a reasonable start. We’d heard there may be some skiable lines, but with the variable weather, we weren’t sure what we’d find. I’d recently acquired the necessary mountaineering, and avalanche safety gear, so either way, this would be a good chance get used to it.

Sweeney lent me an old pair of his climbing skins–that we never got to use. The trail coverage was bad because of the recent rain. Sweeney and Rob hiked up to Hojos in their AT boots. Since I only have race boots (far more uncomfortable for hiking in), I put on my Brooks Trailrunners, and threw on MICROspikes over them, which proved to be a winning combination for the blue ice we encountered on the way up.

The bowl looked pretty gnarly, but Left Gully and the Chute were a bit filled in, so we made our way over. Sweeney was behind the camera that day, so all photos are courtesy him. His TR is here along with a goPro video of the expedition up through his first run.

Rob and I.

Some cool scenery.

Ice Axes out, on the ascent.

Rob and Sweeney, being more experience than me, stopped several times to evaluate the snow conditions. They didn’t find anything very worrying so we continued up.

Me, contemplating my line.

Left Gulley was a little firm, though Rob said Sweeney and I softened it up a bit for him–after he kindly ‘let’ us go first. Unfortunately, Sweeney only got photos of me standing on my edges, which I did a lot of the first run, due to the narrow trail we had to work with, and the ice crust on skiers left.

The Chute, our short second run.

Rob, laying it over on the Chute.

The Chute, although short, was MUCH better. The steeps at the top had a bit of an ice crust, but the middle, where it narrows down by the rocks, was a blast.

Heading out of the bowl.

You may have noticed in the photos that my gear was strewn everywhere, and that I carried race poles up. Bringing race poles was a mistake on my part–I’d left my 3 section trekking poles at home. However, I didn’t really have a winter pack either, I was using my old, trusty North Face Borealis, which clocks in somewhere around 23 L, and certainly isn’t meant for tossing almost 40 lbs of gear on. It did the job, but the pack looked and felt like it was about to burst–my skis were barely hanging on and there was nowhere to put things. Luckily I’ve now resolved this problem. Knowing the features my old pack lacked for winter use, I went and bought the REI Double Diamond pack, which so far looks pretty sweet.

We skied down through the bushes as far as we could, then we packed up and reconvened briefly at Hermit Lake. Sweeney and Rob attempted to ski the Sherburne as far as possible. I didn’t like the prospect of hiking any more in my ski boots, so I put my shoes back on and hiked down, ending up in Pinkham just behind them.

Overall it was a stellar day, and probably the best skiing to be had in the East on Sunday.

Certainly a memorable weekend.

New Years Day Tucks Expedition

Thoroughly fed up with the lackluster in-bounds skiing thus far, and more interested in shredding gnar (there was no real pow, but there was plenty of gnar) than partying our guts out, Rob, Ziehl and I set our sights on a New Years Day 2012 Tucks Expedition. We rolled out of bed around 7:30, and some how managed to squander a solid two hours of precious daylight before hitting the trail just after 9:30.

View New Years Day Tucks Expedition in a larger map

The Tuckerman Ravine Trail was about 50% water ice mandating some sort of traction. Rob and I strapped crampons onto our AT boots; while Ziehl, with the winning combo, raced ahead with trail runners and Micro-Spikes. No part of the trail was skinnable.

On the way up we encountered the Hermit Lake caretakers who confirmed that there may indeed be some half decent skiing to be done in the bowl. They also assured us that the Avy Fx was essentially unchanged over the last 12 hours and generally favorable. With so few potential slide paths even in existence with this unseasonably thin snow pack, only isolated and small instabilities could be expected. We decided to head into the bowl for a closer look at our prospective lines.

The bowl, looking pretty gnarly…

Left Gully in the center.

The Chute.

Hiking…

Gotta have evidence that it was actually us…

Once into the Left Gully, we spaced out and started to be more actively observant of the snowpack. After having to literally ‘put my back into it’ to cause a small slab to fail in a shear test, and finding almost no slabs in excess of an inch or so, we deemed the situation reasonably safe. Regardless, we spaced out and kept our beacons transmitting. Rob took the lead, with Ziehl in the middle, while I brought up the rear.

The climb was smooth going: the snow was dense from the slow trickle of wind-loading seen in the bowls over the previous few days and was firm enough to hike in but easy to kick into and edge on.

The Sun struggles to peak over the Boot Spur in the early winter sky.

Rob and Ziehl on the ascent up Left Gully.

At about 4500′ looking back toward NH 16 and Wildcat, from Left Gully.

Ziehl, on the climb.

Rob, breaking trail.

About 80% of the way up, Rob informs us that the top of the Gully is pretty bullet-proof: climbable but probably not worth it. Ziehl quickly catches up to Rob while I follow from a safe 200 yards downhill. When I arrive, they’ve already got a bench set up where we can get into our skis. I end up with the (slightly dubious) honor of first tracks this run, jump into my new Dynafits and begin to pick my way down. Check out some gratuitous POV action below:

The snow was cold and fast, and the line was narrow and hairy. With a conspicuous lack of elegance, but with an eye toward ‘skiing deliberately’ I picked my way down LG. Having completed my run without incident, I resumed camera duty…

The Headwall looking thoroughly un-skiable. Note the ice climbers heading
for The Sluice in the shady lower right region.

Ziehl picks his way down LG.

More…

Eyeing the finish…

Wildlife.

Rob charges out of LG.

Same.

Zoomed out for scale…

As soon as we finished up in the Gully we traversed back toward the bowl to scope out conditions in The Chute. We were only able to get maybe a third of the way up it before we were stopped by exposed rock. This time Ziehl took first tracks, followed by me and finally Rob. The Chute turned out to be the best skiing of the day, featuring softer and seemingly stable snow. Check it out:

Rob coming out of The Chute.

Straightened out for the choke point.

Rob rockets out of the choke…

Nice angles.

One last turn, for good measure.

Mission Accomplished! Leaving the bowl…

There wasn’t really any pow to be slain, but there was plenty of gnar which was sufficient to quench our back-country thirst for at least a few more days. The Sherburne was kind of a shambles, with a good dose of mud, grass and stumps, but it was skiable nearly to the parking lot at Pinkham Notch. Rob and I hacked our way down the Sherbie while Ziehl shot down the Tucks Trail with his Spikes and trail runners.

Long story short: season’s off to a decent start, now lets see if we can keep things moving in this direction for a few months!

Gear List (click links for more product info):

Winter Prep: Bring on the snow!

The ski box is on the car, the temps are finally getting low–all we need is a few good storms are we can officially say ski season has arrived. I got some turns in last Sunday with Sweeney and Rob up at Sunday River, but there’s still not much snow even that far north. The day held a few good bump runs for us with all the snow they were blowing. I felt pretty coordinated on the slopes for a first day, but my form was a bit sloppy after the 7 month break.

Recently I’ve been preparing to do some AT skiing this year in the backcountry. Last night Rob helped me get the new addition to my quiver set-up. I nabbed a pair of Atomic Heli-Daddys on the cheap, used but still in good shape. They have a bit of camber, but seem like they’ll be good in the woods, even though at 180 they’re a bit longer than what I usually ski.

We mounted Fritschi Freeride Plus’s on them, which look pretty solid. This is my first AT binding so I was trying to balance utility with cost. I was assured they were pretty bombproof, and lighter than Dukes. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to put them through the paces in some serious powder this season. I have been told that I’ll have Dynafit envy soon enough though. Some lighter boots would probably be a smart idea too….one thing at a time.

I plan to get some mileage on this setup over the holidays. Rob mentioned putting an early rise on the skis for better float and to decrease the camber. I want to test them out first but I’ll put up summary of the project if that seems like the way to go.

With the new gear comes the need to do some reading on backcountry safety and I see an avalanche course in my future. But first I still need all the associated accessories. I just need skins, a beacon, a probe, a shovel, ….a winter pack… There’s always a seemingly endless gear list for outdoor hobbies, however in this case the first few things really are essential, and I won’t be able really make use of my new skis without them.

Now, pray for snow!