Tag Archives: Tuckerman Ravine

One Water, One Coffee, One Beer…

…Such was our demeanor when we lumbered into Cafe Noche in Conway Village and hastily ordered all of the food and drink appropriate to the circumstances. We had just skulked down from a day of superlative skiing in Tuckerman Ravine and were on the ride home this past Sunday . Let’s rewind back to last Friday night for a full trip report…

Over the course of last week, Mount Washington somehow managed to pick up enough snow to fill in most of the lines in Tucks to a reasonable state. Most of it was due not to actual heavy snowfall but to wind loading. Our hope was that during the course of the week things would sinter enough that much of it would be skiable for the weekend. We rallied in North Conway and prayed for a favorable weekend update and avy forecast.

As we got closer to the Notch, we were dismayed to see that snow was falling a good deal more heavily than had been forecast – great for the Wildcat crowd, not so great for us. Between new snow and windloading we could be in for some sketchy conditions. We arrived at Pinkham to find a fairly startling mix of Moderate and Considerable ratings.

We decided we’d skin up the Tucks Trail, change into crampons at the Lion’s Head Winter Route, climb to the ridge, and have a look at the east snow fields from which point we could easily summit and lap the East Snow Fields. With so little protection from the wind and such mellow terrain, they should be pretty scoured and free from touchy slabs.

We arrived at the Winter Route to find a log jam of climbers messing around with their gear. We were promptly advised by one of them, that shortly down the trail we would encounter an hour long wait while dozens of novice climbers were coached up and over the steeps. None of us relished the idea of standing around in the wind in sub-zero temperatures, and we were forced to abandon Plan A.

We quickly settled upon a contingency plan: we’d try our hand in The Lobster Claw, with the thought that it might be just filled in enough to be skiable, but still small enough to preclude the presence of any truly large slabs. We continued to HoJo’s, de-skinned, got dressed for the cold, and prepared for some boot-packing.

Rob looks dubious as we head up into the bowl.

Alex breaks trail as we begin to wallow into drifts…

We realize it’s time to stop and evaluate the situation.

Some deep and crumbly looking snow pack.

Once we got into the bowl, it became totally socked in and gusty. We started toward the snow fields under The Lobster Claw, bushwhacking through the un-buried shrubs and into ever deeper drifts. Eventually, we realized that we needed to seriously consider the safety of the situation. We started digging some snowpits and discovered small chunks of slab breaking off before we’d even finished digging out columns. Kinda shady… The poor visibility and double-digit sub-zero temperature didn’t help much. We decided to go no higher than the snow fields at the bottom of the Lobster Claw and stay out of the slide paths. We’d get a few good turns in, and then pick our way to the Cutler River for maybe a few more untracked turns before the Sherbie. In short: skunked.

We tried to make the best of it…

Ziehl in front and Alex in the background getting ready for action.

One of about a dozen decent turns….

Gettin’ tossed back…

Alex celebrates our prodigious accomplishment of skiing about 6 turns.

Well we tried to make the best of it anyway. It was better than not skiing… After picking our way through all the shrubs and junk in the floor of the ravine we began searching for the Cutler River in what was probably slowest wilderness travel I’ve ever participated in in my life: a knee to thigh deep wallow through frozen bushes and back and forth across the only partially frozen Cutler…

Yea. Adventure…

We finally make it to the skiable part of the drainage and get ready to make about 4 more turns…

Ziehl gets in a few good turns before the bottom of a pitch.

And then there was profanity…

Back at HoJo’s we conclude that we’d made the right choice…

And right on cue, as soon as we get back to the car, the skies clear and it turns into a beautiful day…

Well that was a debacle. We called it quits for the day, planned out some rest and refueling, and contemplated our next move. After some thought, we decided we’d get an early, start head up to HoJo’s and see what the report called for. We were none too enthused about the inbound skiing story in New England, and thought a bad day in Tucks would probably be better than the same day in the resort. We were pleasantly surprised, to say the least. We arrived at HoJo’s to find that Left Gully and Lobster Claw were both de-escalated to a rating of Low. Our path was laid clear before us: we quickly agreed to ski The LG and then make our way across the bowl to The Lobster Claw. The LG if nothing else would be long, steep, and fast. The Lobster Claw, we knew from the previous day, would have a decent amount of snow at least toward the bottom. It was a good 20 degrees warmer, less windy and visibility was great – in hindsight I could have used my black lenses. We eagerly went after The LG.

: Rob leads the charge up LG.

: The bowl from about half way up LG. Temping, but maybe not such a great idea.

: At the top of LG, setting up a bench to get into our skis.

: Check out that boot-pack.

: Skier ready!

: Rob charges some really firm, wind scoured snow.

: Toward the runout, Rob steered us toward this sweet stash.

: Ziehl slashes some powder turns toward the bottom of LG.

After warming on Left Gully, we decided to traverse across the floor of the ravine to scope the conditions on the south facing aspects. In the clear skies, we could see that the coverage in Lobster Claw was a lot worse than we’d expected. We decided to poke around under Right Gully to see how the conditions would be. A number of people had already hiked all over lower portions of the south facing aspects. The snow felt a good deal more stable than it had the previous day, and the southern aspects had been in the sun for a while by the time we got there, but we were still concerned about the pillowy convexities toward the top or the Sluice and Right Gully, so we stuck to the low angle bottom parts. This was easily the best skiing of the weekend. Ziehl took a turn behind the camera for a few runs.

The view on the way out. Has to be one of the bluest days on record for this place.

After a short dry spell of epic skiing, we finally hit some good luck and scored some high quality turns. It seemed like we might finally be through the worst part of the winter (the part with no good skiing) and with lifted spirits we headed back down into The Valley in search of sustenance.Gear List (click links for more product info):

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.

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!

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Spring: the part of the ski season where the weather is more enjoyable.

That’s right, even after hanging out on the beach in California I could not be deterred. As of April 30th there was still plenty of snow on the mountains (if you know where to look) and it wasn’t going to get skied on by itself! This time out, me managed to round up a pretty epic crew: myself, Alex, Rob, Shane, Hannah, Ziehl, and Christine. The plan was ski Tucks (or more accurately, what’s left of it) on Saturday. The weather was shaping up nicely: partly sunny, breezy, and highs in the mid 40s. An excellent day of spring skiing by any measure!

Anticipating crowds, we tried to arrive reasonably early. Even so, we ended up parking down the street from the trail head. All of the overflow parking was in use. I dropped Alex, Ziehl and the gear in the main parking lot and went to park the car. Miraculously (given the thousands shambling around the area), when I got back to the parking lot, Alex and Ziehl had managed to meet up with the rest of the party who had arrived separately. After messing around with our backpacks and skis for a good 20 minutes we were ready to hit the trail.

Tucks, on a late spring day is a sight to see. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s a spectacle. In fact there is no shortage of people who are along just for the ride: to watch hundreds of people rocket down the icy slopes. On one hand, the situation is annoying: you’ve come to do some backcounty skiing and enjoy the pristine White Mountains but find yourself surrounded by hordes of people who may or may not have any idea what they’re doing, and seemingly going out of their way to be right in front of you at all times. On the other hand, it’s pretty cool: the place is transformed into a huge staging area, full of people ready to embark on various expeditions, which likely have gone through several stages of planning and possibly hours of travel, all leading up to this point. You really have to take a glass is half full approach here: it just so happens that loads of like minded people have arrived to enjoy the same awesome place. Who can blame them?

After a couple hours of mixed hiking and skinning, we arrive at Hojos, which serves as a base camp of sorts. Here we get our first good look at the bowl.

Some obvious deterioration, but still plenty of snow!

After a quick breather, we start planning our attack. Word on the street was that Dodge’s Drop, one of steepest, tightest and most technical runs in the area was skiable. The Drop is not really in the bowl proper, it’s to looker’s left of Hillman’s Highway, which in turn is to lookers left of the Bowl. We decided that we’d head for Dodge’s by way of Hillman’s Highway and take a stab at it, while anyone not wishing to tackle the Drop could return via the slightly mellower Hillman’s.

Wait, so much further?
Photo Credit: Ziehl

A long way up!
Photo Credit: Ziehl

Our approach: Hillman’s Highway.

And a long way down…
Photo Credit: Ziehl

Anxious to get to the top, we climb up about as fast as we can, laden with skis, clothes and other equipment.

Just for frame of reference…

Once at the top we re-assemble and start getting into our ski gear – near the top of the run the wind is quite a bit stronger and the temps are probably a good 10 degrees cooler than at the base. From the top of Hillman’s be begin the short walk south-east toward Dodge’s Drop. Up on the ridge, the weather is up to it’s usual tricks. High winds, wand fast moving clouds race up and over the ridge in dramatic fashion.

The usual business…

Shane outrunning the clouds.

We find the Drop without too much trouble, click into our skis and give Rob the honor of first tracks, as it was mostly his route finding that led us here.

Rob, off to an aggressive start…

Unfortunately, shortly after he dropped in, we started to hear him calling back to us. Over the wind, we can just barely make out something along the lines of ‘still pretty firm’, ‘not worth it’ and ‘no fun.’ We hastily get out of our skis and head back to Hillman’s Highway, where we knew the snow to be plenty soft. Rob took one for the team this time…

The staging area.

Ditto…

Hannah declares victory.
Photo Credit: Ziehl

Just about ready for the good part.
Photo Credit: Ziehl

This is where the left entrance to Hillman’s
rejoins the main part of the run.

We take a nice run about two thirds of the way down Hillman’s where we stop for lunch and rest. We find a sunny spot by a rock where we can all sit comfortably and watch other skiers going up an down.

Snacks and beers.
Photo Credit: Ziehl

After another run we pack up our gear and roll out. The snow from the top of Hillman’s, all the way down past Hojo’s until about one mile from the end of the the Sherburne was excellent spring skiing: bumped up but soft and forgiving. We all but ran our way out for the last mile. By this stage of the game I was starting to turn my thoughts toward dinner, which would certainly be more attainable at the bottom of the mountain, out of my ski boots and with the aid of car.

View Hillman’s Highway in a larger map

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