Tuckerman Ravine, NH 5/22/99

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 5/26/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>My friend Chris and I left work early on Friday to drive to Mount <BR>Washington. We had planned to hike up to Hermits Lake in the dark, but <BR>when we called at 9:30pm there was only one space left in the shelters. <BR>Darn. We got to Dolly Copp around 11:00 and went right to sleep. We were <BR>up early and made HoJo's by 9:30. Chris doesn't ski so we split up and he <BR>headed up Lion's Head for the summit. I got to the bowl and found a big <BR>flat boulder across from lunch rocks where I could stash food, water, and <BR>my hiking boots. I was early enough to be able to count the number of <BR>people I saw in the bowl. Only 28 others were there before 10:30. <BR> <BR>For my first run I hiked up through the hourglass shaped chute to the <BR>climbers left of the headwall. I could only climb about 100 feet above the <BR>waist, but it was exciting even if it wasn't that long. I had to kick in <BR>the boot steps as I climbed and I decided I must have been one of the first <BR>to ski this chute that day. I clicked in and dropped off the ledge. The <BR>next five or six turns were some of my favorite all season. Each turn was <BR>freefall, slough was rolling past me like water and emptied into a trough <BR>that formed at the bottom of the waist section. The wave of slough rolled <BR>down the trough back down towards the rocks I had started at. <BR> <BR>My second run was down Left Gully. This was the longest run remaining in <BR>the bowl and the snow reach almost up to lip of the gully. There were soft <BR>corn bumps all the way down to the bottom. <BR> <BR>By the time I got back to my rock there was a constant stream of people <BR>hiking up to the lunch rocks. I decided to take a nice long break for <BR>lunch. I met up with Gil Fagley, but never did see Pete Baldwin. <BR>Hope you made it Pete, because it was a beautiful day. I ate lunch, sunned <BR>myself on the rock, and watch skiers for quite awhile. One skier took a <BR>fall and rolled over a huge rock in the middle of the bowl. It must have <BR>been a 10 or 15 foot drop, but he slid to a stop and stood up waiving his <BR>hands in the air while the crowd roared approval for such drama. Chris <BR>could hear the crowd while he was hiking down the Lions Head trail from the <BR>summit. Chris has been on Mount Washington many time before and said he <BR>has _never_ seen better weather. The current conditions posted on the <BR>board in the summit observatory read 55 deg, one mph winds. He said the <BR>flags at the summit were hanging limp on their poles. Not to shabby for <BR>the place with "the worst weather on earth". <BR> <BR>I took one more run down the headwall before meeting Chris at the bottom of <BR>the bowl. We hiked down and were back at the car by 3:00. Had a great <BR>dinner in North Conway and visited IME to look at climbing gear before <BR>driving back to Albany. <BR> <BR>It feels like that might have been the end. I have plans to go back to the <BR>Whites June 12 but I'm afraid the snow might be gone, or nearly gone, by <BR>then. I'll have to settle for hiking, climbing, and/or caving. Please <BR>God, give me one more day to ski!