• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

When will be the best time for tuckerman's

celts33

New member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
21
Points
0
A friend and I are gonna head up and try tuckerman's this year. He's been before this will be my first time. When will be the best time to go this year sooner or should we wait a week or two?
 

dmc

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
14,275
Points
0
Couple of questions:
Level of ability?
Do you have Gear?
Spending the night at the shelters?

Live close by?
 

celts33

New member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
21
Points
0
Currently we go to school in Worcester Ma, but were planning to stay at a motel (parkers possibly) closer to Mt. Washington. I have a hiking pack for my boots that I can strap my skis to as well. Ability wise I'd say we're advanced skiers. Also, like I said my buddy has experience as he's done tuckerman's before
 

cbcbd

New member
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
1,720
Points
0
Location
Seattle,WA
After you have said yes to the dmc safety questions:

Now, go now, don't wait a couple weeks. Right now the Sherburne has coverage all the way down but up top the little headwall has a huge hole. From now on the snowpack will only get less and less.
Try to spend a couple days there to up your chances for good conditions - opt for a sunny day. Yesterday I was at GOS and the snow was perfect spring corn until 3pm - once the sunlight wasn't direct and the shadow hit, it instantly got harder - but still lots of fun (at that point most of the snow was broken up by skiers, so it was never a hardpack surface)!
 
Last edited:

dmc

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
14,275
Points
0
Excellent point...
Shadows are not to be taken lightly at Tucks.. I've turned around on climbs due to shade..
 

riverc0il

New member
Joined
Jul 10, 2001
Messages
13,039
Points
0
Location
Ashland, NH
Website
www.thesnowway.com
From now on the snowpack will only get less and less.
unless it snows ;)

seriously though, now is a good time. from the pictures i have seen, we are already looking at a mid to late april snow pack even though it isn't april yet. reports on T4T suggest that the little headwall is essentially not even worth skiing... so you may need to plan on down climbing from the bowl even as soon as next weekend.

watch the weather and don't get set on a date if things are not looking good. pick something in the sun and start hiking early. if you want more of a party atmosphere instead of just going for the skiing, mid to late april weekends are the ticket. those are the weekends i generally avoid the ravine in favor of other runs though...

the biggest factor is the sherburne. hiking out sucks, so go sooner rather than later to minimize the walk out as the 'Burn isn't gonna last long without more snow.
 

celts33

New member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
21
Points
0
Thanks for the tips we're gonna try for hopefully this weekend or next.
 

JohnGD33

New member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
191
Points
0
Good luck, it's one of the best trips I have ever been on. STEEP Check out the town of gorham NH cool town and their is a sweet hotel with good rates and a pool/hot tub. You will need the hot tub after the hike. Pick the best day weather wise to do it, the other days you can always ski sunday river if you have the asc pass
 

celts33

New member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
21
Points
0
So my friend and I are hoping to do it Sunday, but the weather seems to be calling for clouds on weather.com and the Mount Washington Avalanch Bulletin doesn't make it sound like conditions will be great by the weekend. So we'll see most likely we'll check the bulletin on saturday and decide based on that I guess.
 

AdironRider

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 27, 2005
Messages
3,636
Points
83
Ill be there Sat April 7th. Should still have decent snow I would think by then.
 

SIKSKIER

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
3,667
Points
0
Location
Bedford and Franconia NH
The ravine will have plenty of snow right through the end of April.You might not be able to ski over the Lip in a few weeks but most people won't venture that far up.The only exception will be some of the other runs and most certainly the Sherburne trail to ski down to the bottom.BE VERY CAREFULL OF CREVASES ON TOP OF THE HEADWALL AND ALWAYS WATCH FOR FALLING ICE IN THE BOWL!!
 
Top