Gulf of Slides - 4/26/08

[David Metsky]

Just another crappy day in the mountains.

Alas, we missed the skiing all the way to Pinkham by one week, most of GOS trail was mud and flowing water. We actually bare booted all the way to the base of Gully #1, no need for skins, snowshoes, or traction of any type. We met Winston (friend of Goliath and Brutus) along the way, what a big ol' love sponge. There's a big new slide at the entrance to GOS from the bottom of Gully #3, amazing what a bit of snow can accomplish when it puts its mind to the task.

Warm, almost hot conditions. We hiked up in t-shirts, I wish I had worn shorts. First run was to the top of Gully #1, great corn snow, unlimited views, 1/50th of the people that were in Tuckerman. Lots of smiling faces as we finally got a chance to make some turns.

Then we booted up again, turned left and went over to the snowfields. It's slightly less steep over there (only 35-40 degrees) with just a few people and completely open terrain. Again, some great skiing, beautiful corn snow, and lots of smiles.

One last climb up, another half run down the snowfields before we cut over to Gully #1 and finished our run there. We could only ski down about 1/8th the length of the trail before switching over to hiking. Lots more running water in the afternoon. Started up around 9:00, almost 5000' of vertical, back out to the cars by 6:00.

And, I bought a pair of powder skis on the way home.

More pictures are HERE

-dave-

 

[eatskisleep]

Looks amazing...

 

[riverc0il]

"Only 35-40 degrees"

I love it. I was talking to someone else in GoS this past Saturday and mentioned "how mellow" the gullies were at the bottom (I didn't bother skiing the run out of Main Gully #1 before booting back up for another run). And he replied that "I have an interesting sense of pitch!" or something along those lines. To which I replied back having skied over the lip in Tuckerman two weeks ago, everything seems pretty mellow in comparison.

I was up in the Gulf of Slides as well on Saturday. I will piggy back on your TR with my experiences. We went different ways so probably never bumped into each other though I got started only 15 minutes later than you guys. After skiing the Main Gully, I kept going one gully to the north each run whereas you guys went south towards the snow fields. Sensational skiing if a tad on the warm side. I have a differing opinion on the Gulf of Slide trail as I skinned up all but 20 minutes of hiking with only two short portages and skied down the same exact amount that I skinned with a short 15 minute or so down hike in the middle. It was mostly survival skiing, but I had my skis on my pack far less than any one skiing down the Sherburne for sure. Here were my runs:

Gully #1 (and snowfields):

Gully #2:

Gully #3 (four image panoramic):

Photo Gallery and Trip Report

 

[andyzee]

Sweet!

 

[snowmonster]

Don't get any ideas, andy!