Sunday morning started out sunny in the valleys, not a cloud in the sky, in the upper teens to 20s F. <BR> <BR>At 9AM in the AMC Pinkham Notch Visitor Center parking lot, there was no wind - an unusual occurrence, which led me to hope the sun might warm things up enough to soften the old the snow surfaces. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3619.jpg" ALT="Tucks from Wildcat parking lot"> <BR> <BR>Once I started up the Sherburne, I found a trace to 1" of new, dry powder snow still apparent off the trail, left over from Friday night through Saturday. At higher elevations, there were 2"-3"+ of new snow in the woods. The open slopes of the Sherburne were pretty much blown or scraped down to the old frozen granular surface, with not many bare spots, but lots of very icy stretches. The cover is very thin, and won't last long, unless we get some significant snow; (and hopefully heavy, wet snow that will stick instead of blowing off). <BR> <BR>When the snow conditions are good on the Sherburne, most intermediates can handle it. However, this year, the long icy stretches will certainly take all the fun out of it, if not make it unskiable, for the average intermediate. If you can handle skiing the narrow line on one edge that may catch enough rays to soften up, and the old narrow relo section that allows bypassing some of the worst from the Cutler River Bridge crossover down to the next first aid cache, and occasionally ducking into the woods to avoid more ice, then you'll have fun (I did!). But I'm having second thoughts about some of the friends I invited next weekend. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3620.jpg" ALT="Hillmans Highway"> <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3621.jpg" ALT="The Bowl"> <BR> <BR>The Bowl was a mix of scoured old, hard surfaces (the same slick, icy surface that sent one skier to their death last Sunday on Mt Clay), and the new snow which had packed down into hard wind slab, with an occasional inch or three of powder hiding here or there. <BR> <BR>One descending skier said there was an inch or two of powder in Left Gully. A couple tele-heads left nice trax right of the Chute. The Snow Rangers were very wary of anything under the Lip, and warned everyone away. One big piece of ice had fallen down the Center headwall early this morning, and tumbled down to the runout, leaving a nice track. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3622.jpg" ALT="Tucks trax"> <BR> <BR>Word from the Snow Rangers was to avoid Right Gully. About Noon, high thin clouds began to obscure the sun, and a light breeze picked up in the Bowl. Although snow was melting on the steps of the deck at HoJos, the sun did not get a chance to soften up the windslab in Right Gully. <BR> <BR>I climbed up to the moat halfway up Lions Head Gully1, and only got a few turns of corn. Most of the way down was hard, dry windslab. Nice turns, but I hardly left a mark where my tracks were. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3623.jpg" ALT="Tucks from moat Lions Head Gully1"> <BR> <BR>With the clouds moving in, I decided to ski down before the Sherburne froze up solid. <BR> <BR>I cut to skiers left of the Little Headwall, and I almost fell in a snowpit that an avalanche awareness training class had dug! I was a little pissed that they had dug it five feet deep in the middle of a ski slope. I saw the group of people, and was skiing away from them, but the pit was blind from above, of course, and one guy was down in it. He was a little surprised when I came to an abrupt stop over his head. <BR> <BR>Although the Little Headwall was rated Low to Moderate, I hadn't planned on doing a Rutschblock test, but they had one ready for me! Below that, it was great, with 4"-8" of powder drifted in. Best twelve turns of the day.
Tucks, 3/14/04
- Thread starter Lftgly
- Start date
Frankontour
New member
Very thanks for the report Lftgly ! <BR> <BR>I'm very eager to do my 1st ski trip on the ravine, in the coming weeks ! <BR> <BR>Impressive for the block of ice, we see the track perfectly on your pic. wow !
Very icy. On the one hand, a nice warm & sunny day may make it more skiable; on the other, that same warm & sunny day will melt that thin layer of ice down to grass & mud. <BR> <BR>I give the Sherburne through next weekend for skiing down to Pinkham, unless we have more warm, rainy weather this week (in which case it'll be gone before next weekend), or we get wet, sticky snow (in which case it will extend the life of skiing back to the car).