Hillman's Highway- May 3rd, 2008 (First BC Experience)

[eatskisleep]

X-Post from T4T.

Hillman’s Highway

May 3rd, 2008.

Cloudy and Rainy

After all this time on this forum, I have finally had my first Mount Washington skiing experience. If it weren’t for awf170 I would have most likely have put it off until next year, but he insisted; and I am glad he did.

I woke up at around 4am

Met up with awf170 at around 6

Got to the visitor center at around 9:15

Original plan was to hit up GOS, but due to the rain that we drove through on the highway and the fact that it was starting to look pretty gloomy, we decided to go with Hillmans instead.

Made it up to Hojo’s by around 10:30 or 10:45, the hike was tough with a 40+lb bag (yes I over-packed) but it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be, but still motivation to get in better shape next year. Saw RR and Tig on the hike up, and cbcbd on the way down.

We booted up at the Hillmans Avalanche Rescue Cache and then we were on our way.
The higher you hiked, the crappier the weather became and the worse the visibility got. Despite the weather, I can say with honesty that it was one of my best days of skiing this season. Just a ton of fun overall; the whole experience was great. Hillmans was awesome and so were the Lower Snowfields, never skied anything like it before.

Now for the fun part, aka the pictures.

“The Sign”


No doubt about it, Wildcat had much better coverage last year. Cannon seemed to have really good coverage when we drove by it. I would say that Wildcat could have still opened as the Wildcat trail and Catapult trail and Bobcat seemed to have really good coverage.


awf170 getting ready to head up to Hillmans




The first view, of Cathedral and Dodge’s Drop in the clouds:




awf170 begins the hike


Looking up:


A skier stands above The Lower Snowfields. While I was eating lunch here I saw someone take a fall and take a slide, luckily stopping before hitting some small trees.


I thought this looked pretty cool:


Me somewhere on Hillmans, starting to get steep:

[eatskisleep]

Two skiers hiking up Hillman’s Highway


awf170 turning:




Random skier on Hillmans




Bumps on Hillmans Highway, lower half was all bumps, top half was, well it was skiing:


Random skier makes a jump turn on Hillmans Highway


Look closely:

[eatskisleep]

Skiers on Duchess, awf170 might be up there hiking, hard to tell:








awf170 climbing out of the Lower Snowfields


Hillman’s Highway and the surrounding area:




I thought this looked pretty cool as well:


Avalanche Slide Path, it took out a few twigs on the way:

[eatskisleep]

The Sherburne Ski Trail ranged from great cover to grass skiing




awf170 looking for any obstacle he can find:


Waterfall next to the Tuckerman Ravine Trail that we stopped at on the way down:




Only 37lb on the way down… I guess the helmet and snowpants and food and drink could add a few pounds to the pack:



Comments highly appreciated… Sorry about the somewhat late TR, but “Better Late than Never.”

Hope you enjoy.

[andyzee]

Good for you, glad you had a good first experience!

[riverc0il]

Ooooooohhhh, look.... BUMPS!!!

Glad you had an awesome first time up there! Sorry to bail but I just wasn't feeling it that weekend. Looking at your pic of Cathedral, I am putting that on "the list" next year pending good coverage and I can get a good day to do it. Next year I need to remember to go into April without needing to use up comps at ski areas so I can feel free to go right after the better lines in early April when everything is in and just starting to corn up. Still need to cross Dodge's off the list too. Nice report and good pictures considering the weather!

[cbcbd]

hello love2ski

nice stuff

[kcyanks1]

Thanks for the report and pics!! Impressive that you went. I canceled my trip there Sunday and went to Sugarbush instead based on the bad forecast of rain, fog, falling ice that you can't see.

[snowmonster]

Thanks for the TR and pics. I was thinking of hanging it up for the season. Then, I saw this. Looks like there's a lot of skiing left in this season.

[eatskisleep]

Thanks for all the comments guys.