TR: I could've skied South Gully, but it rained and so I stayed home - 4/12/08

[cbcbd]

...copied my t4t post

I am very thankful for the weatherman some days. Forecasting? I have no idea about pressures, lows, temperatures, gradients, systems, degrees... too many fancy terms and too much schooling for this joe. Some things you just have to leave it to the pros.
Like this recent one... I could've ignored all the warnings, wasted gas and time, and spent my time trying to swim out of the soggy and obliterated snowpack with my g-tex body suit.

Seeing that a wash was a-coming I decided to just chill out and stay home, and I'm glad I did.
I figured... after this amount of rain predicted, the snowpack would surely take a beating and this was it for spring skiing at the rockpile



I slept in enjoying the pitter patter of the torrent outside



Around noon I decided I should probably do something productive and got up



A little hungry, I had a half a dozen donuts to treat myself



Slumped on the couch and stared out at the wet, empty streets outside... I pictured other homes with kids stuck inside relegated to playing video games.



Cat came by, jumped on my lap... purred a little



Sometimes the kitty must be pet, so I pet the kitty



Kitty kinda got tired so he went off for some more sleeping. I peered out and the rain still hadn't let up - those weather guys really had it down.



I went back upstairs, laid down for a bit and took a nice mid-afternoon nap

[cbcbd]

Had some odd dreams and visions... some dude... walking up a hill or something



And with the sound of heavy thunder I woke up around 6pm



Scratched my ass, took a swig from a cold coffee mug and the cat came around again, waiting to be pet. Kitty wants to be pet... so I pet the cat again





All in all, it was a nice relaxing lazy Saturday. Just what the doctor ordered.

Maybe someday when I grow up and get real smart-like, I too can become a weatherman.



http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...kiing/south08/

[reefer]

Well done! Nice pics. Looks awesome!

[andyzee]

Nice!

[TheBEast]

Thoroughly enjoyed the commentary!

[billski]

I'm glad you bought into the "weatherman has all the facts" conspiracy. It saves the good stuff to those who risk life and limb for a few seconds of thrilllllllllll

[cbcbd]

Originally Posted by billski

I'm glad you bought into the "weatherman has all the facts" conspiracy. It saves the good stuff to those who risk life and limb for a few seconds of thrilllllllllll

Lol... I was just in the right place at the right time

Now the real story:

I was sleeping at Pinkham Notch and woke up to the last stream of heavy rains around 7-7:30... figured the day was really a wash, went back to sleep. Woke up around 8:30 and the sun was coming out... got my ass up and started up at 10...
I thought the heavy rains would diminish the snowpack but as I rounded the visitor center I see a snow ramp going up 4-5' onto the Tuckerman Ravine trail snow-highway!!! It felt like I was merging onto a raised super expressway.
The levels on the cutler were amazing and it was raging. The sun was out, I was sweating and there was no one around-saw <10 folks on the way up! I was thinking Central or South in huntington, got there and there were 2 going to Pinnacle and 4 ready to go into Central...

note: The amount of snow in Huntington is RIDICULOUS!! The approach used to include going around trees and some boulders... now you just walk right onto the floor - too easy!

I figured I wouldn't bother the folks and headed up South. The snow was corn/frozen granular and stayed like that for the whole day, even in the shade (temps were in the high 30s+ for the whole day).
Took a while to go up South in the unconsolidated snow, but it was all filled in and I was psyched/nervous for the ski down. I was thinking of possibly hitting the summit, but it had been windy up higher (60mph winds) so I didn't venture into the garden.


And then I skied South.... and it was good!! Oh so good! Exactly what I like... some open skiing, some steepish, some technical, not straight forward... lots of fun!

The gully starts out with a couple smallish bowls that meet and funnel into a narrow area with an ice bulge to the right and a boulder on the left-kind of an S... a narrowish section and then it opens more and more until the runout area. The runout area measured at around 35-37 degrees and the rest of the gully was measuring consistently throughout around 44/45 degrees.

I started at the skier's left "bowl" area, made some nice warmup turns and then traversed to the right bowl... made some awesome sweeping turns down until it was time to traverse left to the narrowing chute towards the ice bulge/boulder/S turn area. I made a few jump turns to make it right to the boulder and then went around it on the dirtyish snow and just went the rest of the way down with uninterrupted sweet corn turns all the way... heaven!

I contemplated going up Central but I didn't feel like climbing up the gully and a couple was already heading up it... I skied down the fire road to tux trail. At first I was just going to ski the sherb down, but there was literally NO ONE (<10 people) at HOJOs when I got there around... 3:30?... Hillmans looked empty, I kept considering Dodges in the back of my mind over and over (hero snow makes me a hero!)... but I was tired and alone... so Hillmans it was. Went all the way up the right side/right fork. Took a break, rest. Skied down the left(skier's right) fork. Exactly what I needed - minimally tracked, excellent snow, no one on the run at all (~4pm?).
Hung out at Hojos and skied down with Carter hut caretaker... very cool dude.
back at car ~6.

South Gully - get on it before the snow melts out from the middle section... which could make it trickier.

Really, one of my best days skiing on the rock pile - excellent snow, great runs, minimal crowds... psyched!!!

[TheBEast]

Well done. I had friends who were going to head up on Saturday to ski Sunday, but bailed. Sunday wasn't so good, but sounds like Saturday was it!! Oh if only I lived closer to the big hill.....