july 26, 2009, presidentials, nh, a few highlights
7/26/09
US elsewhere
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i dunno how PC this thread is here, but since the skiing here is now non existent (at least the surf has been quite good), i thought i'd share some fun footage from a few thousand miles to the east in between reading of all of the great mountains of trip reports that i've been scanning over on this site.
i understand that many of you readers may have popped yer bc cherry on old george once, twice, or many times. some have only skied or heard of tucks, and some have played in many of the other drainages, gulfs, ravines, and snowfields in, on, and around all of the dead presidents of the range. we don't call our steep rock lined 40-55+degree runs, "couloirs" out here. they are referred to as gullies. not only does mt washington hold the record for the highest wind speed recorded on the face of the earth at 231 mph (i know, who doesn't know that?), it is also the location of the 1st avalanche forecasting center ever utilized in the united states (yes, even before the wasatch).
below is just a couple of clips and some photos of (not skiing tucks) this winter. due to our ferocious winds, we get a lot of great wind transported snow that blows into the ravines often times to the depths of over 60-70 feet deep providing us with turns into july each year, sometimes much longer runs than others of course. the wind also gives us some fabulous soft tamped (love that word) down wind buff that skis really well in the higher steeper places throughout the cold dark months of winter. deep powder skiing is more common than most would imagine as well. the corn? well, that's a given.
here's a place that is a go-to spot for me and has been for years, and with 13 gullies and a wide open snowfield offering 1000 vert runs at around a 40 degree pitch, it's a nice alternative to tucks. from ridge to car is about 3200 vert, so that makes a nice exit at tours end. gotta love perfect hero wind buff. per usual, not another soul seen all day long. my buddy fred is the split boarder and i'm on my icelantic nomads 140-105-130.
turn up the volume:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEjNtCh314o
and sometimes that special place provides some well anchored narrower gullies that drop the same 1000 vert and makes for some epic deep pow days. we got about 20 inches overnight into this day and just the 2 of us got at it before the wind did. funny how no one else thought to go up there for pow skiing, well, that's the east for ya. my fave atomic rt-86 are porpoise-ing nicely here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb7zMIFNS-Y&feature=email
and, just some fun pics of another couple of days in march from 2 days of multi ravine tours and perfect untracked wholesome goodness (in the form of corn). maybe one or two of the shots are from tucks.
http://timefortuckerman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11288
thanx for reading and letting me share some stuff a bit different from all of the great stuff you folks got goin out in volcano land.
cheers
rog
i understand that many of you readers may have popped yer bc cherry on old george once, twice, or many times. some have only skied or heard of tucks, and some have played in many of the other drainages, gulfs, ravines, and snowfields in, on, and around all of the dead presidents of the range. we don't call our steep rock lined 40-55+degree runs, "couloirs" out here. they are referred to as gullies. not only does mt washington hold the record for the highest wind speed recorded on the face of the earth at 231 mph (i know, who doesn't know that?), it is also the location of the 1st avalanche forecasting center ever utilized in the united states (yes, even before the wasatch).
below is just a couple of clips and some photos of (not skiing tucks) this winter. due to our ferocious winds, we get a lot of great wind transported snow that blows into the ravines often times to the depths of over 60-70 feet deep providing us with turns into july each year, sometimes much longer runs than others of course. the wind also gives us some fabulous soft tamped (love that word) down wind buff that skis really well in the higher steeper places throughout the cold dark months of winter. deep powder skiing is more common than most would imagine as well. the corn? well, that's a given.
here's a place that is a go-to spot for me and has been for years, and with 13 gullies and a wide open snowfield offering 1000 vert runs at around a 40 degree pitch, it's a nice alternative to tucks. from ridge to car is about 3200 vert, so that makes a nice exit at tours end. gotta love perfect hero wind buff. per usual, not another soul seen all day long. my buddy fred is the split boarder and i'm on my icelantic nomads 140-105-130.
turn up the volume:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEjNtCh314o
and sometimes that special place provides some well anchored narrower gullies that drop the same 1000 vert and makes for some epic deep pow days. we got about 20 inches overnight into this day and just the 2 of us got at it before the wind did. funny how no one else thought to go up there for pow skiing, well, that's the east for ya. my fave atomic rt-86 are porpoise-ing nicely here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb7zMIFNS-Y&feature=email
and, just some fun pics of another couple of days in march from 2 days of multi ravine tours and perfect untracked wholesome goodness (in the form of corn). maybe one or two of the shots are from tucks.
http://timefortuckerman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11288
thanx for reading and letting me share some stuff a bit different from all of the great stuff you folks got goin out in volcano land.
cheers
rog
thanx for all the cool vids - i like the one of you skiing the diagonal in huntingtons. i really want to check that ravine out some time.
i definetly got a lot of good memories on that hill starting from a very early age - the views of the endless decidous forests (magnificantly green in the summer, golden and red in the fall, and ghastly sticklike and somewhat individually defined in the winter) sprawling over the rolling hills below and beyond to the rocky coast of the atlantic, the sucicdal bears and moose that always seem to run out in front of the car on that road to pinkham notch; northern lights, epic storms, the cool subalpine fern/fir forests, and of course the locals of north conway. good times... they say that more mountaineering related fatalites have occured on the hill than any other hill in the u.s. - apparently includeing alsaka.
btw - if/when you make it out the the pnw - check out the town of glacier wa - many of the locals there are from nh, you'll fit right in.
i definetly got a lot of good memories on that hill starting from a very early age - the views of the endless decidous forests (magnificantly green in the summer, golden and red in the fall, and ghastly sticklike and somewhat individually defined in the winter) sprawling over the rolling hills below and beyond to the rocky coast of the atlantic, the sucicdal bears and moose that always seem to run out in front of the car on that road to pinkham notch; northern lights, epic storms, the cool subalpine fern/fir forests, and of course the locals of north conway. good times... they say that more mountaineering related fatalites have occured on the hill than any other hill in the u.s. - apparently includeing alsaka.
btw - if/when you make it out the the pnw - check out the town of glacier wa - many of the locals there are from nh, you'll fit right in.
Fun videos - love the shot of you hiking up that trestle... or is that an east coast escalator for back country skiers?
author=Rusty Knees link=topic=13887.msg58060#msg58060 date=1248741868]
Fun videos - love the shot of you hiking up that trestle... or is that an east coast escalator for back country skiers?
that is a pretty cool shot. the cog railway still takes passengers via steam engine up the west side of mt washington to the summit. it also offers very easy, as in, over 3000 vert in about an hour or less, on foot, to access to one of the most beautiful gulfs in the range, the great gulf with 45-50 degree gullies dropping over 1500 vert down to spaulding lake. the great gulf offers wonderful skiing well into june. that railway also has a new work road dozed in tight along side the tracks for easier work access and makes a great (safe) exit in boot deep for that same 3000 vert at a laddy da 20-30 degree pitch.
here's a sample of airplane gully on may 19th. 45 degrees for 1200 vert of perfect smooh untracked corn. i asked my touring partners if they wanted to go 1st knowing full well that they'd say, "rog, you go 1st". ok, works for me. we put like 4 laps into this thing before moving on. this was a good warm up/check out the snow, run. this vid only shows the upper half of the run.
http://eventmonk.com/backcountry/05192009/rog_airplane.MPG
rog
author=danhelmstadter link=topic=13887.msg58054#msg58054 date=1248728280]
thanx for all the cool vids - i like the one of you skiing the diagonal in huntingtons. i really want to check that ravine out some time.
i definetly got a lot of good memories on that hill starting from a very early age - the views of the endless decidous forests (magnificantly green in the summer, golden and red in the fall, and ghastly sticklike and somewhat individually defined in the winter) sprawling over the rolling hills below and beyond to the rocky coast of the atlantic, the sucicdal bears and moose that always seem to run out in front of the car on that road to pinkham notch; northern lights, epic storms, the cool subalpine fern/fir forests, and of course the locals of north conway. good times... they say that more mountaineering related fatalites have occured on the hill than any other hill in the u.s. - apparently includeing alsaka.
btw - if/when you make it out the the pnw - check out the town of glacier wa - many of the locals there are from nh, you'll fit right in.
thank you for your kind words, beautiful descriptions, and tip on glacier wa. my last bc ski experience in the pnw was in and around mt garibaldi accessed from squamish as a 22 year old leather bootin, skiiny skiin living out of a toyota truck fresh out from maine for the month of may 1995. great snowpack that year! i would love to come out and ski some of the classics as well as some of the more esoteric, slightly overlooked spaces out there, meaning, "this and that", skiing with less emphasis on grabbing this peak or skiing that route.
this ones for you. one of my fave spots for lapping and just chillin out farming and cultivating what the indians refer to as perfect "maze". east snowfields, june 05', back in my tele days. i locked the heel down 4 years ago and haven't looked back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6korU8FgnM
i now only tele on my lace up nnn gear and waxless 60mm skinnies. this day, lesley and i skied mt washington all morning on east facing aspects, drove down to jackson, grabbed some foster's oil cans and lapped the heck out of this wsw facing, closed for the season, ski hill all afternoon on the xc skis. there is just nothing like a tele turn on the light gear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgQu-UqT3c8
rog
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