On Saturday, March 31st three of us set out to hike Tuckerman Ravine!
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| Ready for the hike! |
I have hiked and skied Tucks many times before with my dad. The first time he took me up there was for my 16th birthday. Most of my early trips blend together though so I don't remember too many details. Like I have said before, I owe a lot to him for showing me and getting me to love the outdoors! I honestly can not imagine my life with out it. Its definitely a great way to de-stress and think just about anything and everything.
Our friend had hiked Mt. Washington with us last fall and saw the bowl without snow, but we wanted him to see how ridiculous it is up there with snow and people skiing. The day began with a cloud covered sky and temps in the 30's. We went in to the visitor center where they proceeded to scare the living daylights out of us with condition warnings! Since the weather had been in the 70's the week before with full sun, ALOT of snow had melted leaving behind deep crevasses and other possible dangers. Even though I listened to their advice, I decided to hike up with my skis anyways and see how I felt once we reached Hermit Lake Shelters which is 2.4 miles up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. It took us 1 hr and 45 min which isn't too bad considering the hefty load I was carrying (the boys each took a ski boot for me though, what good friends!).
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| Of course I needed my picture with the sign! |
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| I have never seen this sign before in all the times I've been up there... It must be new! |
Again we were informed by ski patrol of the dangers in the bowl... open crevasses, undetermined snow and falling ice. They said to avoid left gully (#1 on map) due to hard ice, avoid the lip (#8 on map) because of a huge open crevasse and avoid right gully (#10 on map) because there was hardly any snow left as well as falling ice danger. Once in the bowl, I watched what people were doing and quickly decided that I would be hiking/skiing the chute (#3 on map).
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| From timefortuckerman.com - Map of the ski routes at Tucks! |
I took off hiking up the bowl and the guys went and set up camp on lunch rocks! They had also lugged up a bunch of Bud's so they were set for the afternoon! I have no idea how long it took me to hike up to where I decided it would be unsafe to go any further (about halfway on #3). Since the snow had melted so much the week or so previously, the surface was ice. Solid ice! Good thing i'm used to it because of Wildcat! But, the night before it had snowed 5 inches so there were big snow drifts in random spots. This made for scary hiking/skiing.
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| Start of the hike up the bowl |
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| Shortening my polls to help with traction |
I decided to follow up a guy who was making steps up the bowl but once I got up a ways, I started sinking in to my knees or deeper. I knew this wasn't safe as I could slip and slide down quite a ways at any minute. The people behind me saw what was going on so they went over to the left a bit more where the surface was harder. With spikes, its much easier to get traction on ice. I decided to cut across until I got to harder surface. This was really scary and I had to make sure I had good footing or I would fall. I made it without falling thank goodness.
From here I hiked up to where a few other people were putting on their skis and getting ready to ski down. From below, it looked like a great place to stop but once I was there I was freaking out! The people told me to hike up past the rock and then scoot myself back down due to deep snow. This was probably one of the most nerve-wracking things I have ever done in my life. Turns out, I only had about a foot of space to work with on top of the rock, where I had to keep my footing, get my skis out of my bag and on my feet and get my spikes off my boots! After what seemed like eternity, I was ready to ski!!!
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| Putting my skis on |
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| The view from lunch rocks |
The ski down always goes by like a flash. Of course when it was finally my turn to ski, there were 6 people right in the way but what can you expect! The sky had opened up and it was now really sunny! The bowl was finally filling up with people, which was what we had hoped for! You see all ages up there either skiing, sledding or just watching people ski. People are able to bring their dogs up which is nice. One dog followed its owner the entire time he hiked up the bowl! Strong legs. Its amazing what you see up there.
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| Sitting at lunch rocks after the ski! |
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View from the middle of lunch rocks. To the left you can see
the large crevasse that was open. |
I sat at lunch rocks for a while working up the courage to do a 2nd run. This time I only hiked up until the rocks in the middle of the picture above. This section of the bowl is much less steep. It only took 10 min if even to get there. By this point the sun had been beating down for a while so the snow was a slushy mess. Thats spring skiing for you!! I skied back down to where we were sitting on lunch rocks and we packed up to head out for the day. It was probably around 2:30 pm at this point. I was able to ski to the base of the bowl too which was pretty awesome, but unfortunately the Sherburne Ski Trail was closed due to no snow so I had to hike back down the hiking trail with my pack on. Its really nice to be able to ski it, but it just didn't snow enough this year.
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| The 3 of us at the base of the bowl |
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| Back at Hermit Lake ready to hike down |
The hike down was really quick, taking only about 1 hr and 25 min. We were all pretty exhausted. At one point while hiking down I took off my sunglasses and the laughing began. Turns out I got a pretty bad raccoon sunburn... but so did everyone else! None of us put on any sunblock or even thought of it because it was so cloudy that morning! We all looked pretty ridiculous, but it was a great day!! Of course we headed straight to Flatbread for some pizza :)
Since we were up in the bowl the day before, I feel as thought I should mention this. On Sunday, a horrible accident happened to a Boston man, where it is thought that he fell while hiking and lost consciousness before falling into the large crevasse that is pictured above. It was too unsafe for the rescue teams to continue their search for him in the crevasse. My heart breaks for this man and his family because this accident could have happened to any of us up there skiing on Saturday. The warnings the ski patrol give need to be taken into account, even if they seem a bit extreme because accidents happen. We should count our blessings each day and live life to the fullest because we never know which day will be our last. This man and his family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Overall, we had a great trip up Tuckerman Ravine. It turned into a perfect day with awesome weather. I love everything that has to do with Mt. Washington and I can't wait to get back up there again soon!!
