Tuckerman Ravine - Fri. April 16

[sven]

We started hiking around 8 AM, finally got into the bowl around 10 AM... not a single cloud in the sky, and people kept filing in. We took a hike up left gully and I was close to the top before losing my footing and being forced to self arrest for a good 100 feet (damn), but still got a good run in. The snow was a strange and unsettling mix of firm and sloppy while hiking up, but skiing down, it just felt like ice. It seemed everyone else in the bowl was smart enough to avoid the left side, and I realized what i was missing out on when i took a run down the right side of the bowl (where the line of hikers was going strong all day). The snow on the right side was perfect, not a single bit of ice and very easily carvable -- although even at around 2:15 I heard people making turns on rock solid ice down left gully (id guess the chute was similar). All you needed was a long sleeve t-shirt, and we all got sunburnt to hell. Some crevasses were opening up but nothing too bad. The waterfall is definitely open, so id probably stay away from there. Cheers <BR> <BR>-Sven

 

[Patrick]

Happy you enjoyed your day... <BR> <BR>I've had the same experience the last time I went (April 27? 2001). The bowl and Hillman's were hard pack, the right side is the only part of the bowl that actually soften up in the afternoon. Climbing the beginning of Chute was pretty nerve racking, especially without crampons and an ice axe. I decided to bail out before I was too high, I wouldn't want to cascade down the Chute while going up, as someone did after I skiied out. <BR> <BR>About losing your footing, the good side of it is that you didn't get hurt and you still had your skis. A friend of him once lost one of his skis while hiking up, let me just say that he used many words, not just damn, to described his predicament (*&%*$&%*%%)