bluebird pow day 3/14 mt washington

[icelanticskier]

i've said it before and i'll say it again, there's always good skiing somewhere on the ec and mt washington can certainly serve it up when all hope is weakening. boy, what a few inches of new snow and a little wind can do to help the sliding surfaces.
took a little walk up to the gulf of slides today with my mentor mr. labonte, (i'm his tormentor)
beatiful day, sunny, no wind, no other people all day except for no other than mr. mt washington himself.
mr. labonte started with a tour of the snowfields and skied some glorious powder up to over a foot deep. we then traversed into and skied some more smoove untracked lusiousness into gulley #1 where we met up with the one and only mr. mt washington. used his booter to access gulley #2 for an amazing exit out and all the way to the car. last run-3000 vert not bad. i haven't seen so few people up there on a sunny good snow day in years,what a treat.
it's gonna be one helluva spring
pictures to come soon
rog

 

[icelanticskier]

here's some pics from today

 

[Harvey]

I knew the pics would be killer. Way to get it!

 

[riverc0il]

Beautiful. Can't wait to get over there, really looking forward to some spring corn on Big George this year.

 

[robrox]

Tough work....but somebody gets to do it

Way to get it done!

 

[icelanticskier]

ya, lucked out on that one. the forecast was for cloudy w/ a chance of showers all day. started skinnin and the sun came out. monday/tuesday looks good so i'm goin up both days. gonna try to ski somethin that i've looked at for years but, it's never quite had the right amount of cover, it does now, long ass run.
rog

 

[Tony Crocker]

So are many of these ski area rain/ice events snow in the Mt. Washington alpine? If so you should be in for a long spring season up there.

 

[icelanticskier]

tony, this time of year and from here on out, many of the mixed bag or rain/ice events in valley or under 4000ft locals tend to be snow at and above treeline in the presidentials. funny thing about this year is that many locations around northern new england are on pace for record snowfall this winter and mount washington is at well below average snowfall this winter so far, something like 50 inches below just average. so, wind and snow preservation has been quite favorable for bulding base depths on many aspects. the cover is just amazing up there, i'd say blows last year away by far and last year i had excellent skiing up there till june 10th. this year we could be shootin off fireworks up there w/ top to bottom ravine runs on july 4th and beyond. if we get a snowy april/may up high it's gonna be a short "summer sports" season for me which is always fine. can't wait to go up there looking around tomorrow and tuesday. i may even pull my first trilogy, ski, surf, mt. bike in one day here soon, stock option this year.
rog

 

[Tony Crocker]

I've had e-mail discussions elsewhere on how accurate the snow reporting on Mt. Washington is. With the extreme winds it must be difficult to measure and is likely understated somewhat. At Mammoth wind deposition plays a part in making the upper mountain base deeper than it would be otherwise, and this is probably most of the story in the leeward drainages of Mt. Washington.

The "below average year-to-date" doesn't surprise me either. Mt. Washington weather seems localized and independent of the the rest of the Northeast. During that May 1997 with the 97 inches, Killington had a big 3 inches.

 

[icelanticskier]

ah, may, 1997, UNBELIEVABLE! the year that in the first week of june you could strap on yer skis on mt adams summit and med radius it to the great gully. rip that another 1000 or so vert right over the waterfall to the snowfield below. epic to say the least. i can also remember sking belly deep pow in GOS that may as well. thanx for bringing that up as my smile widened quite a bit.
rog

 

[Patrick]

NICE!!!

I was just a few miles away at Black skiing beautiful corn on the 14th.

1997, another year to remember.

 

[ChrisC]

I am a little mixed about May 1997 -- living in Beantown at the time.

Simply, I do not like to hike Mt. Washington in whiteout conditions. It can be pretty bad up there.

So lots of cancelled spring trips that May.

 

[icelanticskier]

snow was even deeper up there today, bluebird, untracked and many a face shot were had, again only 3 of us up there all day. it would be like having cardiff and days all to yourself with no powderbirds or tons of locals running to get the goods, plenty of pow out here, tomorrow will be a threepeat. more info on today later.
rog

 

[icelanticskier]

tuesday was yet another pow day as the 7 inches of new up high filled in mondays tracks to create yet another clean canvas. good july turns will be a stock option this year. love these ec bluebird pow days! can't wait to ski it again tues/wed. c'mon greenland block!
rog

 

[icelanticskier]

exotic place and blue sky untracked