Gulf of Slides - 3/18/2012

[David Metsky]

After using up some free lift tickets for Sunday River, we spent the night at a friend's house in Jackson and got ready for an early morning start. We pulled into Pinkham right on schedule at 7:30, and went to the Visitor's Center to try and find an M5 Allen wrench to swap the heel plates on Monica's AT boots. Fortunately they had one and in quick order we swapped out the plates and were back at the car gearing up. Along the way we ran into MV Skier and Freighttrain48 in the parking lot, each there for their own trips. This was Monica's first trip to GoS, and her first foray on AT gear. She's always carried her alpine gear to Tuckerman so this was a new and exciting adventure.





We hit the trail at 8:20, planning to skin all the way. It was quite warm, almost but not quite t-shirt weather. As soon as we started climbing it we stripped down to t-shirts however and wished we had packed shorts. The trail was in better shape than I had expected, with a few interesting sections and some stream crossing that weren't likely to survive the day but all in all we had good hopes for the trip out. Among the many folks who passed us on the way up were Carbo and Willow, VT friends from TeleTips. In about 2 hours we hit the first rescue cache and soon after that we could see the main gully. It looked like we were going to get some good skiing in after all.



Side note: just before the cache we ran into a group of 7 coming down. They had no skis or snowshoes, having camped in the Gulf the night before, and were now post-holing the hell out of the trail. After getting yelled at by all the skiers and by us, they finally started marching single file on the edge of the trail, but some serious damage had been done. It looked they they walked 3 abreast in places, completely destroying sections of trail that were otherwise great skiing. Morons.







At the bottom of the main gully we found a spot to set up our little base camp and got ready for the skiing. We stashed some gear we didn't need to carry and strapped the skis to our packs. There was a well established boot ladder on climber's right and up we went, occasionally stepping off to the right to let faster climbers go by but no one seemed to be in a rush. At the top we took in the views, drank and ate some, then put our skis on for the first descent. The snow was soft but not completely slushy and it skied pretty well. No significant bumps had formed and what had just added some texture to the canvas. The run went well and soon we found ourselves back at our stash, eagerly eating our lunch and thinking about run #2.










The second run went about the same, 45 minute to climb and 10 to ski back down (with picture taking). The sun continued to bake the snow and us, we must have reapplied sunscreen 5 times each. At around 2:30 we decided that the trip out and long drive home meant we should probably head out, so we reluctantly packed up. The people who had gone ahead of us helped smooth out many of the postholes and the ride down was like a video game. I always love the trip out of GoS, much more than a run down the Sherby. The top half was fine, the bottom half had some issues and a few funky stream crossings to navigate. The final crossing is missing a bridge and our choices were ski out to Rt 16 and hike back to Pinkham or risk it all in a breath-taking leap of faith. Our faith was rewarded and 5 minutes later we were at the cars, opening our first beers and slipping out of the boots and into more comfortable footware.




A great day in Gulf of Slides, couldn't ask for a better introduction to backcountry touring for Monica.

[Cornhead]

David, great TR, and great pics as always. Great pic of Monica climbing with a big smile on her face. Looks like a great time. I met you at the Snowfields last year during the Slackfest. I was the bald guy with the sunburned noggin. I was looking forward to it this year, looks like I better get there sooner than Memorial Day. Nice video too, Yes, "The Clap", correct? Haven't heard that song in ages, great tune. Nice fall in the middle there, love the dog romping down the hill too. Nice creek crossing at the end.

[kingslug]

Nice! Won't make it this year but hope to next...

[Nick]

Great TR!! Love the vid and the pics. Looks like a absolutely beautiful day, the stuff memories are made of!

[Abubob]

Great report and photos!

I definitely want to ski here next year. But do you think with the weather the cover will hang on for a couple weeks?

[David Metsky]

But do you think with the weather the cover will hang on for a couple weeks?

The main gully will stay in for a while yet. The trail in and out will be shot sometime this week, which means a painful and messy hike in and out. The trail isn't built for hiking so the footing is petty bad.

[Newpylong]

Beautiful!