...and adventurers out of the woodwork for spring skiing and hijinks up on mt washington. of course a cold month can have plenty of snow, which can mean high avalanche danger.
weather over april vacation--the third week in, for mascoma--can deliver some pretty iffy conditions, especially up in the mountains. this year, we hit the jackpot on MOC's annual trip up to tuckerman ravine! circumstances left only one day to use the school van and that was wednesday, the 17. it turned out to be the right one: sunny--read no rain--not all that windy, and + 50°F. you couldn't ask for more primo weather.
five students and a few parents met me in the school parking lot bright and early. a couple of the students and i had checked the avalanche conditions that morning--they were low--but at least one mother was well to the concerned side. the friday before, a lone skier had been buried and died when he triggered a sizable wind-slab in raymond's cataract, a large slide scar between tuckerman and huntington ravines. i assured her we would take all precautions and pay close attention to the warnings posted by the snow rangers. there is no shame in getting skunked out of skiing tux--the goal is to bring everybody home happy.
one thing about being in the mountains, in any conditions really but especially winter, you want to pay attention to all possible dangers. many of the kids i lead up there, have never been in an avalanche zone let alone avoided van-size hunks of ice careening down the super steep slope, or crevasses with waterfalls rushing at the bottom. it is exciting to be up there, but one needs to be aware and more than a little cautious!
we had a fine ride up with the kids getting more and more amped the closer we got to the white mountains. there had been a few substantial snow events over the past week, and a fresh 6 inches just two days earlier. it made everything look very white and super inviting--if you like snow. in the pinkham parking lot, we packed our gear according to whatever style we preferred: skis on packs vs. skis on feet with skins and headed over to the tux trail for the classic group photo in front of the weather-conditions board.
shortly before you reach the hermit lake shelters and 'howard johnson's', you get a great look up to the ravine. first timers do some serious omg-ing here when you point out "that's what you'll be skiing!"
at hermit lake, the fast youngsters continued on into the bowl after a short break and i waited for the rest of the group on the lunch deck. from the deck you look directly at the lower snow fields and most of hillman's highway. the rim of the bowl is visible as well.
it's a quick ski over to hillman's or a steep-ish 20-30 minutes up the little headwall into the bowl. as you can see, coverage was particularly good this year.
after the others came up and we had a bit of lunch, i took off after the advance crew. we had planned to meet at lunch rock, but justin and celia were already boot packing up to take a half-run--justin on nordic skis and celia alpine.
dirk and i watched celia carve turns down to us and we all wondered at justin as he went higher and higher--this was going to be good. celia captured his first run! he starts up behind a little clump of bushes in the middle/takes off/and oops...
the folks watching were all cheering when he got back up and continued...for a while at least. the cheering kept up, but justin didn't. nordic skis are sketchy at best on the steep stuff, but justin kept at it and by the end of the afternoon he had mastered circumnavigating the main part of the lower bowl in four big traverses, complete with a couple of step turns, a beautiful telly, and no falls!
celia and i took a hike up and run down right gully. it felt good to be on the steep again and would have been even better had i locked down my binding under my right boot. i was wondering why half my turns felt so loose. on our way down we passed hawk heading up and doing a little tanning. we got back to our packs in time to watch cardigan and josh come down the bottom of lobster claw.
cardigan smiling while setting up her next telly turn... bang--nailed it!
shortly after that hawk came flying out of right gully and zoomed by like he didn't even see us. (he didn't.) josh and i wondered aloud, "was that hawk? it looked like him." whoever it was, he stopped briefly at the top of the little headwall and then took off back down to hermit lake. we hoped he would wait there.
all that activity and some more justin runs got celia excited to do another--this time she aimed for the lip. timing was getting tight so she took right off and didn't dawdle on the way up. josh went up the whole of lobster claw and dirk, justin, cardigan, and i breathed deep at lunch rocks.
soon enough, the two skiers came down in fine style and we all met in the lower bowl for a picture--sans hawk who hopefully was chilling with missy down on ho-jo's deck.
shadows make it hard to see but we all were wearing wicked big smiles, pumped to have laid down a bunch of those tracks behind us!
we wound our way down the little headwall, cutting over to the lower snowfields to avoid the cutler brook which was starting to undermine solid coverage. at hermit lake we found hawk and missy and got everyone started down the sherburne ski trail. i was playing mop up and watched as the energizer bunny--justin--started to struggle as his energy to drive those skinny skis ran down. having had less than optimal sleep the previous two nights, he had been with the 'life smarts' team in florida (they got home at 2:00a that morning--with the van), all those runs in the bowl had worn him out. the moguls were particularly vexing... even so we caught up to dirk who caught a 'mysterious blue jacket' letting off the brakes for some bump action on his go pro.
when the two 'skinny skiers' and i got to the bottom and the van, hawk's and celia's gear lay beside it with no sign of them. cardigan reported they had run back up the tuck trail to the first bridge--something about celia was keen on a swim. sure enough as dirk, justin, and i were loading cargo, a dripping celia and laughing hawk appeared. sometimes it's the unplanned activities you remember most!
cardigan, josh, and missy were staying up in the north country for another night, possibly another day in the bowl. that meant there was an extra seat in the van for folks to spread out and catch a nap on the way home. i asked hawk to ride up front to talk to me and help keep me stay conscious behind the wheel.
as we headed south, every one seemed satisfied and talking about plans for future trips of all sorts--from going off to college, to coming back to the ravine. i judged it had been a perfect day.
justin was in total agreement and reminded us of the MOC motto, "go outside and play!"
weather over april vacation--the third week in, for mascoma--can deliver some pretty iffy conditions, especially up in the mountains. this year, we hit the jackpot on MOC's annual trip up to tuckerman ravine! circumstances left only one day to use the school van and that was wednesday, the 17. it turned out to be the right one: sunny--read no rain--not all that windy, and + 50°F. you couldn't ask for more primo weather.
five students and a few parents met me in the school parking lot bright and early. a couple of the students and i had checked the avalanche conditions that morning--they were low--but at least one mother was well to the concerned side. the friday before, a lone skier had been buried and died when he triggered a sizable wind-slab in raymond's cataract, a large slide scar between tuckerman and huntington ravines. i assured her we would take all precautions and pay close attention to the warnings posted by the snow rangers. there is no shame in getting skunked out of skiing tux--the goal is to bring everybody home happy.
one thing about being in the mountains, in any conditions really but especially winter, you want to pay attention to all possible dangers. many of the kids i lead up there, have never been in an avalanche zone let alone avoided van-size hunks of ice careening down the super steep slope, or crevasses with waterfalls rushing at the bottom. it is exciting to be up there, but one needs to be aware and more than a little cautious!
we had a fine ride up with the kids getting more and more amped the closer we got to the white mountains. there had been a few substantial snow events over the past week, and a fresh 6 inches just two days earlier. it made everything look very white and super inviting--if you like snow. in the pinkham parking lot, we packed our gear according to whatever style we preferred: skis on packs vs. skis on feet with skins and headed over to the tux trail for the classic group photo in front of the weather-conditions board.
parents josh and wendy, students cardigan, celia, dirk, justin, and hawk
the ~3 mile hike/skin up varies on your energy level. after starting with the skinning crowd, i fell in with the three youthful nordic skiers in fine shape--hiking fairly quickly. we stopped here and there to strip off layers and drink water--with lots of cameras we even took a few pictures.
cardigan and josh skinning, koby and hawk hiking... ...dirk, justin, koby, and celia posing!
shortly before you reach the hermit lake shelters and 'howard johnson's', you get a great look up to the ravine. first timers do some serious omg-ing here when you point out "that's what you'll be skiing!"
at hermit lake, the fast youngsters continued on into the bowl after a short break and i waited for the rest of the group on the lunch deck. from the deck you look directly at the lower snow fields and most of hillman's highway. the rim of the bowl is visible as well. it's a quick ski over to hillman's or a steep-ish 20-30 minutes up the little headwall into the bowl. as you can see, coverage was particularly good this year.
after the others came up and we had a bit of lunch, i took off after the advance crew. we had planned to meet at lunch rock, but justin and celia were already boot packing up to take a half-run--justin on nordic skis and celia alpine.
dirk and i watched celia carve turns down to us and we all wondered at justin as he went higher and higher--this was going to be good. celia captured his first run! he starts up behind a little clump of bushes in the middle/takes off/and oops...
the folks watching were all cheering when he got back up and continued...for a while at least. the cheering kept up, but justin didn't. nordic skis are sketchy at best on the steep stuff, but justin kept at it and by the end of the afternoon he had mastered circumnavigating the main part of the lower bowl in four big traverses, complete with a couple of step turns, a beautiful telly, and no falls!
celia and i took a hike up and run down right gully. it felt good to be on the steep again and would have been even better had i locked down my binding under my right boot. i was wondering why half my turns felt so loose. on our way down we passed hawk heading up and doing a little tanning. we got back to our packs in time to watch cardigan and josh come down the bottom of lobster claw.
cardigan smiling while setting up her next telly turn... bang--nailed it!
shortly after that hawk came flying out of right gully and zoomed by like he didn't even see us. (he didn't.) josh and i wondered aloud, "was that hawk? it looked like him." whoever it was, he stopped briefly at the top of the little headwall and then took off back down to hermit lake. we hoped he would wait there.
all that activity and some more justin runs got celia excited to do another--this time she aimed for the lip. timing was getting tight so she took right off and didn't dawdle on the way up. josh went up the whole of lobster claw and dirk, justin, cardigan, and i breathed deep at lunch rocks.
soon enough, the two skiers came down in fine style and we all met in the lower bowl for a picture--sans hawk who hopefully was chilling with missy down on ho-jo's deck.
shadows make it hard to see but we all were wearing wicked big smiles, pumped to have laid down a bunch of those tracks behind us!
we wound our way down the little headwall, cutting over to the lower snowfields to avoid the cutler brook which was starting to undermine solid coverage. at hermit lake we found hawk and missy and got everyone started down the sherburne ski trail. i was playing mop up and watched as the energizer bunny--justin--started to struggle as his energy to drive those skinny skis ran down. having had less than optimal sleep the previous two nights, he had been with the 'life smarts' team in florida (they got home at 2:00a that morning--with the van), all those runs in the bowl had worn him out. the moguls were particularly vexing... even so we caught up to dirk who caught a 'mysterious blue jacket' letting off the brakes for some bump action on his go pro.
when the two 'skinny skiers' and i got to the bottom and the van, hawk's and celia's gear lay beside it with no sign of them. cardigan reported they had run back up the tuck trail to the first bridge--something about celia was keen on a swim. sure enough as dirk, justin, and i were loading cargo, a dripping celia and laughing hawk appeared. sometimes it's the unplanned activities you remember most!
cardigan, josh, and missy were staying up in the north country for another night, possibly another day in the bowl. that meant there was an extra seat in the van for folks to spread out and catch a nap on the way home. i asked hawk to ride up front to talk to me and help keep me stay conscious behind the wheel.
as we headed south, every one seemed satisfied and talking about plans for future trips of all sorts--from going off to college, to coming back to the ravine. i judged it had been a perfect day.
justin was in total agreement and reminded us of the MOC motto, "go outside and play!"
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