polski
New member
I wrote this up the other day but haven't had time to pull together video or screengrabs from my Flip. I'm going to post just the words now - a lot of them, I know - and hope to come back soon and add images.
As I got more serious about backcountry skiing this winter, I set a goal: to ski the Sherburne Ski Trail on Mount Washington this spring. From a lot of skinning on local hills and a decent number of trips to big mountains I felt in sufficient shape for it, with noticeably more stamina than I've had in the past. Seeing reports Monday night of ~4" of snow (plus this enticing report) and with logistics worked out, the second day of spring wound up being the day for me to do it -- and then some.
My plan: Mt Washington in the cool morning, then south-facing Black (where I had a freebie) for corn harvest in the warm and sunny afternoon.
The fresh snow on the spruce trees as I pulled out of my driveway at 4:30 a.m. provided a nice charge of stoke to start the day. I wasn't quite as psyched about an hour later when while stopped for gas I realized I had, in one of the more idiotic moves of my skiing career, left my ski pants home. I managed to remain calm though, trying to think through possible solutions that I hoped wouldn't delay me too long - I'd specifically set out early with the intent of a 7:30 a.m. start of ascent so I'd be skiing before midday sun and rising temps affected the new snow.
Long story short: the AMC Trading Post (opens 6:30 a.m.) at Pinkham Notch to the rescue, with black L.L. Bean shell pants in my size and at reasonable price. By 8 a.m. I was ready to go.
Now although I've gotten a good amount of skinning practice this season it all was small stuff, with no individual climb longer than say 20 minutes and 200' or so of elevation gain - probably no more than maybe 1200' total in any one day, and perhaps a total of 5k for the season. One local hill I hit regularly did have some genuinely steep climbing though, and generally I'd gotten comfortable with gear and procedures (small vert = lots of transitions!). Still, my target this day would be a significant step up, 1800' or so vert in one climb.
On the drive north, when not mulling the ski pants dilemma, I'd thought about possibly trying the Gulf of Slides Trail instead of the Sherb. One consideration was whether it might be untracked but from the registration book at the lodge I knew that was unlikely, as a dawn patroller had gone up it. And in the parking lot I met two guys who'd overnighted at Hermit Lake and come down the Sherb, so that was a wash. I decided for a first effort to stick to where I'd have company - Tuckerman Ravine Trail.
I thought of Riverc0il's old TR of his first skin of the Sherb and how he encountered many people on the up. In fact at the start of the Tuck trail there was a group of eight or so who I thought were preparing to go up, but I never saw them again.
As it turns out, I didn't see another soul until HoJo's, nearly 2.5 miles later. Which was perfect.
A fine light snow fell most of the time but a couple times patches of blue sky appeared and the sun even broke through. I never did get a view of the full bowl though - it stayed socked in.
The temp at the base was around 25F and there was little wind down low. The new snow felt right-side up - greater density where it bonded well with the old hard surface, then nice and light up top. A lot of skiing bang for the buck in just 4" of that kind of snow.
The trail had two snowmobile tracks in it (USFS presumably) and several pairs of boots (those split off at Lion Head Trail). So breaking trail was not required; it wasn't a terribly difficult skin, just long and up a persistently decent grade. I didn't try to set any land speed records and I took frequent short breaks (sometimes just 30 seconds or so would be enough) along with several that were 3-5 minutes long (adjust layering, drink water etc). My gear is pretty heavy - Gotamas with Marker Barons and full alpine Nordica boots - but I was able to deal with that.
I reached a clearing where I could make out the walls of the lower part of the bowl and then got my first glimpse of HoJo's. Mission accomplished! Not sure exactly how long it took as I didn't check the time but I figure probably 2 to 2.5 hrs.
One other traveler was there when I arrived, a fellow on snowshoes. By the time I left HoJo's perhaps half an hour later there were six or eight others, including a couple skiers.
My next decision was whether to head down the Sherb (and perhaps thence to a second lap up GOST) or see if there was anything skiable just up from HoJo's, without going all the way to the floor of the bowl, where avy danger was high. I talked with the HoJo's caretaker about Little Headwall (avy rating low, nothing more than minor slough to worry about) and the Cutler River drainage (minimal open water) and I decided to give that a go, with the first emergency cache up the Tuckerman Trail as my drop-in point.
The fact that I'd be skiing this alone intimidated me a little, I'll admit, but the caretaker didn't seem unduly fazed, and anyway I'd always have the option of walking back down the Tuck trail if the skiing surface was inhospitable. OTOH - a big OTOH - I'd unquestionably have first tracks in true alpine terrain. I'd come all this way - it seemed silly not to give it a shot, while not getting in too far over my head.
I decided to skin rather than boot up this stretch as the snow was fresh. (Initially I was breaking trail, though I quickly got overtaken by three women on snowshoes who were training for the Inferno.) There were steep parts that required serious sidestepping though, and in one spot I stepped out of the skis and climbed up before resuming skinning. If I had it to do over again I might have strapped my skis to my pack and booted up, not that that would've been a piece of cake either.
I never did get all the way to the emergency cache as the wind became strong and visibility diminished. Looking at topo maps I think I topped out around 4300' - adding 400' to maybe 500' vert past HoJo's - before I decided to head down at a clear shot into the drainage. It appeared that if I continued on up I'd have a ways to go before the next clearing and I decided conditions were not conducive to that. I checked my map again to try to get as good an understanding as I could of where this run would lead me - being in this drainage, it seemed it would be difficult to go too far off course.
I have a hard time putting into words what was going through my mind as I took off my skins and prepared to ski. Certainly a part of it was sheer exhilaration at being able to make it to this point. In that wild wintry alpine environment I also felt a sense of being in some other world. What a rush.
Then I was off. My first few turns were admittedly timid as I checked out the surface conditions - coming up from HoJo's there had been spots that were wind-blown or a little crusty, but in this wide gully-like area it was soft and fairly forgiving. I opened it up a bit and got into a groove with my turns, though at one point I didn't check speed well enough and did take a fall with single eject on a steeper spot (which caused very minor sloughing) - but that incident proved reasonably uneventful.
I continued down to the flats above HoJo's, crossing the runout from Hillman's Highway. After a short break - mainly to try to start to fathom what I'd just done - I proceeded down the Sherbie. Perhaps six or eight skiers had lightly chopped the pow, leaving plenty of untracked on the edges. Temps did warm at lower elevations and the sun broke through more frequently so on certain exposures the snow did get grabbier, but I have a lot of confidence in my 09/10 Gotamas to charge through pretty much anything and they sure did the job here.
I was back at the car at 12:30 and driving down 16 while eating lunch by 12:45. By 1 p.m. I was in the parking lot at Black. There were maybe 20 other cars there.
It was warm, probably above 40, and the sun was out though fairly dark clouds still hugged the mountains. I got my free sticky wicket ticket and talked conditions with the guy who got it for me - he was heading back out to ski himself. We agreed I'd picked a great time to make my first trip to Black.
Only the double and platter pull were running so I took the chair to the top. I really like the idea that Magic's Red Chair is modern compared to this one ... Anyway, at the top, with my legs feeling in peak form (they were burning a bit at the bottom of the Sherbie but resting while driving helped), I started with Lostbo and thought that it merited its double-black rating although it was quite short.
Then, from Upper Black Beauty I found what what to be a mirage: White Knuckle (also double-black) was open - and, at around 1:30 in the afternoon, nobody had skied it yet. And being in the shade the new snow still had a fairly dry powdery consistency up there.
On any other day that easily could have been Run Of The Day ...
I'm not going to give play-by-play of the six or seven runs I took in the next couple hours. I'll just say there was lots and lots of untracked or lightly chopped pow and primo corn - one way or another, an extremely forgiving surface for hard-charging on a beautiful afternoon. In some natural snow areas there were thin spots to be skied around but I applaud Black for leaving numerous trails open regardless. And there even was some tree skiing - something I couldn't find on the map called White Forest Glades (there is a Black Forest on map but I think this was different) and an unnamed low-angle area mostly of not-that-old pines that was long and eminently skiable though a little tight and which had not a single other track in it before mine.
The word "awesome" is overused but it's really the right word for Black that afternoon.
I finally threw in the towel around 3:45 p.m. There were maybe five cars left in the parking lot as I repaired to the Lostbo Pub. Honestly I didn't even think of it at the time but the the Tuckerman's Pale Ale on draft was a particularly apt call.
As I got more serious about backcountry skiing this winter, I set a goal: to ski the Sherburne Ski Trail on Mount Washington this spring. From a lot of skinning on local hills and a decent number of trips to big mountains I felt in sufficient shape for it, with noticeably more stamina than I've had in the past. Seeing reports Monday night of ~4" of snow (plus this enticing report) and with logistics worked out, the second day of spring wound up being the day for me to do it -- and then some.
My plan: Mt Washington in the cool morning, then south-facing Black (where I had a freebie) for corn harvest in the warm and sunny afternoon.
The fresh snow on the spruce trees as I pulled out of my driveway at 4:30 a.m. provided a nice charge of stoke to start the day. I wasn't quite as psyched about an hour later when while stopped for gas I realized I had, in one of the more idiotic moves of my skiing career, left my ski pants home. I managed to remain calm though, trying to think through possible solutions that I hoped wouldn't delay me too long - I'd specifically set out early with the intent of a 7:30 a.m. start of ascent so I'd be skiing before midday sun and rising temps affected the new snow.
Long story short: the AMC Trading Post (opens 6:30 a.m.) at Pinkham Notch to the rescue, with black L.L. Bean shell pants in my size and at reasonable price. By 8 a.m. I was ready to go.
Now although I've gotten a good amount of skinning practice this season it all was small stuff, with no individual climb longer than say 20 minutes and 200' or so of elevation gain - probably no more than maybe 1200' total in any one day, and perhaps a total of 5k for the season. One local hill I hit regularly did have some genuinely steep climbing though, and generally I'd gotten comfortable with gear and procedures (small vert = lots of transitions!). Still, my target this day would be a significant step up, 1800' or so vert in one climb.
On the drive north, when not mulling the ski pants dilemma, I'd thought about possibly trying the Gulf of Slides Trail instead of the Sherb. One consideration was whether it might be untracked but from the registration book at the lodge I knew that was unlikely, as a dawn patroller had gone up it. And in the parking lot I met two guys who'd overnighted at Hermit Lake and come down the Sherb, so that was a wash. I decided for a first effort to stick to where I'd have company - Tuckerman Ravine Trail.
I thought of Riverc0il's old TR of his first skin of the Sherb and how he encountered many people on the up. In fact at the start of the Tuck trail there was a group of eight or so who I thought were preparing to go up, but I never saw them again.
As it turns out, I didn't see another soul until HoJo's, nearly 2.5 miles later. Which was perfect.
A fine light snow fell most of the time but a couple times patches of blue sky appeared and the sun even broke through. I never did get a view of the full bowl though - it stayed socked in.
The temp at the base was around 25F and there was little wind down low. The new snow felt right-side up - greater density where it bonded well with the old hard surface, then nice and light up top. A lot of skiing bang for the buck in just 4" of that kind of snow.
The trail had two snowmobile tracks in it (USFS presumably) and several pairs of boots (those split off at Lion Head Trail). So breaking trail was not required; it wasn't a terribly difficult skin, just long and up a persistently decent grade. I didn't try to set any land speed records and I took frequent short breaks (sometimes just 30 seconds or so would be enough) along with several that were 3-5 minutes long (adjust layering, drink water etc). My gear is pretty heavy - Gotamas with Marker Barons and full alpine Nordica boots - but I was able to deal with that.
I reached a clearing where I could make out the walls of the lower part of the bowl and then got my first glimpse of HoJo's. Mission accomplished! Not sure exactly how long it took as I didn't check the time but I figure probably 2 to 2.5 hrs.
One other traveler was there when I arrived, a fellow on snowshoes. By the time I left HoJo's perhaps half an hour later there were six or eight others, including a couple skiers.
My next decision was whether to head down the Sherb (and perhaps thence to a second lap up GOST) or see if there was anything skiable just up from HoJo's, without going all the way to the floor of the bowl, where avy danger was high. I talked with the HoJo's caretaker about Little Headwall (avy rating low, nothing more than minor slough to worry about) and the Cutler River drainage (minimal open water) and I decided to give that a go, with the first emergency cache up the Tuckerman Trail as my drop-in point.
The fact that I'd be skiing this alone intimidated me a little, I'll admit, but the caretaker didn't seem unduly fazed, and anyway I'd always have the option of walking back down the Tuck trail if the skiing surface was inhospitable. OTOH - a big OTOH - I'd unquestionably have first tracks in true alpine terrain. I'd come all this way - it seemed silly not to give it a shot, while not getting in too far over my head.
I decided to skin rather than boot up this stretch as the snow was fresh. (Initially I was breaking trail, though I quickly got overtaken by three women on snowshoes who were training for the Inferno.) There were steep parts that required serious sidestepping though, and in one spot I stepped out of the skis and climbed up before resuming skinning. If I had it to do over again I might have strapped my skis to my pack and booted up, not that that would've been a piece of cake either.
I never did get all the way to the emergency cache as the wind became strong and visibility diminished. Looking at topo maps I think I topped out around 4300' - adding 400' to maybe 500' vert past HoJo's - before I decided to head down at a clear shot into the drainage. It appeared that if I continued on up I'd have a ways to go before the next clearing and I decided conditions were not conducive to that. I checked my map again to try to get as good an understanding as I could of where this run would lead me - being in this drainage, it seemed it would be difficult to go too far off course.
I have a hard time putting into words what was going through my mind as I took off my skins and prepared to ski. Certainly a part of it was sheer exhilaration at being able to make it to this point. In that wild wintry alpine environment I also felt a sense of being in some other world. What a rush.
Then I was off. My first few turns were admittedly timid as I checked out the surface conditions - coming up from HoJo's there had been spots that were wind-blown or a little crusty, but in this wide gully-like area it was soft and fairly forgiving. I opened it up a bit and got into a groove with my turns, though at one point I didn't check speed well enough and did take a fall with single eject on a steeper spot (which caused very minor sloughing) - but that incident proved reasonably uneventful.
I continued down to the flats above HoJo's, crossing the runout from Hillman's Highway. After a short break - mainly to try to start to fathom what I'd just done - I proceeded down the Sherbie. Perhaps six or eight skiers had lightly chopped the pow, leaving plenty of untracked on the edges. Temps did warm at lower elevations and the sun broke through more frequently so on certain exposures the snow did get grabbier, but I have a lot of confidence in my 09/10 Gotamas to charge through pretty much anything and they sure did the job here.
I was back at the car at 12:30 and driving down 16 while eating lunch by 12:45. By 1 p.m. I was in the parking lot at Black. There were maybe 20 other cars there.
It was warm, probably above 40, and the sun was out though fairly dark clouds still hugged the mountains. I got my free sticky wicket ticket and talked conditions with the guy who got it for me - he was heading back out to ski himself. We agreed I'd picked a great time to make my first trip to Black.
Only the double and platter pull were running so I took the chair to the top. I really like the idea that Magic's Red Chair is modern compared to this one ... Anyway, at the top, with my legs feeling in peak form (they were burning a bit at the bottom of the Sherbie but resting while driving helped), I started with Lostbo and thought that it merited its double-black rating although it was quite short.
Then, from Upper Black Beauty I found what what to be a mirage: White Knuckle (also double-black) was open - and, at around 1:30 in the afternoon, nobody had skied it yet. And being in the shade the new snow still had a fairly dry powdery consistency up there.
On any other day that easily could have been Run Of The Day ...
I'm not going to give play-by-play of the six or seven runs I took in the next couple hours. I'll just say there was lots and lots of untracked or lightly chopped pow and primo corn - one way or another, an extremely forgiving surface for hard-charging on a beautiful afternoon. In some natural snow areas there were thin spots to be skied around but I applaud Black for leaving numerous trails open regardless. And there even was some tree skiing - something I couldn't find on the map called White Forest Glades (there is a Black Forest on map but I think this was different) and an unnamed low-angle area mostly of not-that-old pines that was long and eminently skiable though a little tight and which had not a single other track in it before mine.
The word "awesome" is overused but it's really the right word for Black that afternoon.
I finally threw in the towel around 3:45 p.m. There were maybe five cars left in the parking lot as I repaired to the Lostbo Pub. Honestly I didn't even think of it at the time but the the Tuckerman's Pale Ale on draft was a particularly apt call.
