Hillman's Highway, Mt Washington, 4/23

[powderfreak]

All I can say is I'll be heading back to the largest pile of rocks in the
east. I'd never been there in the ski season and it was more than worth the
effort. Highlights for me include being able to skin from the parking lot
(and having lots of folks ask if skinning is harder than hiking with them on
your back), the bootpack ladder that just kept going, skiing Hillman's, and
watching JJ rip true tele-turns down Hillman's (where's that knee drop in
the winter!)...then there's phase two where we hung out on the HoJos deck
drinking reeb, with caretaker Chris who knows everyone, before skiing down
the ski trail back to the car (complete with JJ raising the bar in
mud-skipping on skis).

Here are my photos...

Hillmans
http://tinyurl.com/3wv2pj

Trekking Jimmy
http://tinyurl.com/53kw9b

MWN summit
http://tinyurl.com/4dxrco

Hojos
http://tinyurl.com/4fmcxr

Skiing the top of Hillmans.
http://tinyurl.com/3o4m3o
http://tinyurl.com/4tg9xm
http://tinyurl.com/3jcrkv

Jimmy dropping the knee in the throat. The first one is my favorite shot
from the trip.
http://tinyurl.com/4mcxqg
http://tinyurl.com/3tgzzs
http://tinyurl.com/4nqefu

Back at HoJo's, here's a view of the Bowl. The Little Headwall is open
water and the bowl had a lot of runnels. It was odd, for the number of
people we saw hiking up with skis I never actually saw someone come down the
bowl.
http://tinyurl.com/4lth9x

On the ski trail back to Pinkham there were a lot of smiles going around.
http://tinyurl.com/4vtjsy
http://tinyurl.com/4dego9
We may not know where we are going, but we know where we came from.
http://tinyurl.com/4cby4g

Jimmy saw this sign and said, "ok, fine by me."
http://tinyurl.com/3sy7qf
And proceeded to skip mud all the way to the bottom when the snow started
getting patchy about half way down.
http://tinyurl.com/45ywv7

I had a ton of fun and can't wait to do it again.

And lastly, what trip to northern NH wouldn't be complete without some
moose? We had two separate moose sightings about a half hour apart in the
NEK of Vermont.
http://tinyurl.com/3fbfw4

-Scott

ps: Day 100 will be Monday somewhere.

[danny p]

awesome report and pics!

[TheBEast]

As always top notch! Tell me again what kind of camera you use? I think you had said before it was a Canon Power shot, but what model?

[kcyanks1]

Thanks for the report!! I'm planning to head there on 5/4. Do you think the runnels are a reason to avoid the bowl (say, Left Gully or something else in that area) and ski Hillman's instead? I was hoping to do something in the bowl area.

[riverc0il]

Whoa, powderfreak in NH! Lemme guess, Route 2? Out of all the places I have ever heard referred to as "Moose Alley", that stretch of Route 2 from Lunenburg to the CT River is the most aptly named. Nice TR, HH rules.

[powderfreak]

Originally Posted by TheBEast

As always top notch! Tell me again what kind of camera you use? I think you had said before it was a Canon Power shot, but what model?

PowerShot S5

Its nothing too fancy but gets the job done and that's all that matters, right?

[powderfreak]

Originally Posted by kcyanks1

Thanks for the report!! I'm planning to head there on 5/4. Do you think the runnels are a reason to avoid the bowl (say, Left Gully or something else in that area) and ski Hillman's instead? I was hoping to do something in the bowl area.

I think Left Gully would be fine, most were staying away from a good chunk of the bowl but it appeared that the sides had seen a lot of recent activity based on what looked like moguls from a distance. Ice danger and runnels likely played a role in that. Someone who was skiing Hillman's told us it was the smoothest run around...not too much in the way of bumps yet and no major runnels. He was on his third run.

I'm sure you could ski the bowl though. I was thinking about going back next week to do a run in the bowl. I'm not too picky as long as its soft and not frozen solid.

-Scott

[kcyanks1]

Originally Posted by powderfreak

I think Left Gully would be fine, most were staying away from a good chunk of the bowl but it appeared that the sides had seen a lot of recent activity based on what looked like moguls from a distance. Ice danger and runnels likely played a role in that. Someone who was skiing Hillman's told us it was the smoothest run around...not too much in the way of bumps yet and no major runnels. He was on his third run.

I'm sure you could ski the bowl though. I was thinking about going back next week to do a run in the bowl. I'm not too picky as long as its soft and not frozen solid.

-Scott

Thanks, in the end I guess I'll be happy if the weather cooperates and I manage to not collapse from hiking prior to getting to the base of the ravine

[powderfreak]

Originally Posted by kcyanks1

Thanks, in the end I guess I'll be happy if the weather cooperates and I manage to not collapse from hiking prior to getting to the base of the ravine

Haha yeah. There are a lot of factors that go into the Mt. Washington experience but when you hit it right its unlike anything else in the east. Well, actually its probably always unlike anything in the east no matter what happens.

The highlight for me was standing at the top of a western-like above treeline chute, skiing that, then having a couple miles of olde New England style trail skiing...narrow with plenty of twists and turns. You get the best of eastern and western skiing on Mt. Washington...I'm hooked.

[powderfreak]

Originally Posted by riverc0il

Whoa, powderfreak in NH! Lemme guess, Route 2? Out of all the places I have ever heard referred to as "Moose Alley", that stretch of Route 2 from Lunenburg to the CT River is the most aptly named. Nice TR, HH rules.

Yeah PF in NH...these were actually my first turns in NH. 99% of my skiing life has been done in the NY/CT/VT region with the other 1% being several days at small hills in Maine (Black Mtn, Big Rock, etc). It was nice to finally make some turns in NH and what better place to do so than Mt Washington.

As far as Moose Alley...yeah it was RT 2 and one moose was in Lunenburg, the other was between there and St J in the highlands. That is textbook moose habitat, too. I can see why they love it there.