Sunshine and Avalanches at Tuckerman's Ravine

So the day up at Tuckerman's Ravine went great. We started the hike with a light rain shower, but that quickly passed. The majority of the hike was under a partly to mostly cloudy sky, which was very comfortable, given the temperatures on Saturday. I arrived up at the ravine around 9:15, absolutely exhausted from the hike, yet, so excited for my day of skiing. At this point the sun was shining down on us. We sat at a nice spot on the lunch rocks, where we were able to kick off the hiking boots and get into our ski gear.

What a rush looking up at this towering ravine up above, staring back down out you, just waiting to partake in our day of fun. Our first hike up the ravine was great. A couple people had already gone up ahead of us creating a ladder like stairway to the top. My only suggestion for hiking this stretch is to wear pants that cover your boots. My boots kept getting filled with snow. Though enjoyable, wearing shorts, it was not exciting getting a boot full of snow.

My first run down started with a couple of runs in the upper snowfields. My turns lead me over to the head wall, just right of wear there was open running water from the melting snow. As I take a couple of turns into the head wall, I feel the show give way below me. I tumbled twice then re caught my edge, only to see that I am skiing in a gently avalanche of snow, if you will. I turned to the side a bit and proceeded to ski the remainder of the way down next to this sliding snow.

My second run, was right gully, a little less steep, yet, a lot more narrow. That was actually a great run. I got some great turns in on the slushy sun melted snow. However, my legs were burnt at that point. There was no way I was going to hike back up for a 3rd run.

Overall the day was great, we counted 3 Larger sized avalanches and 2 smaller ones. There was a rolling rock off the head wall and a chunk of ice from right gully. There were people drinking and people laughing. There were some strange kids skiing down in Santa suits, bunny suits and the infamous Borat bathing suit (That was a site for sore eyes.) There were people launching off the head wall and some not purposely. Wow, what wipe outs we saw.
The day was great. There was so much fun had in that 75 degree sunny day in the ravine at Mount Washington.

See you on the slopes next year!

Tuckerman's Ravine

I am looking to do the hike. If there is anyone out there that is interested in climbing Mt. Washington to ski Tuckerman's Ravine this month (April), please let me know. I was contemplating going on Sunday April 26th. For those of you who don't ski, it is still worth the hike. If you are feeling extra ambitious, you are more than welcome to carry my ski boots.

Let me know if it is something you might be interested in!