“Yes, there really is snow up there.” “No, I am not carrying my skis to train for next season.” “Yes, I really am going skiing today!” At one point while hiking down the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, I was so sick of answering questions that I told the next hikers I saw “yes, I really just skied” before they could ask. It was funny answering all the questions at first but it got old pretty quick.
Nearly a month after making my first ever turns in June, I returned to Tuckerman Ravine to make my first ever July turns. Recent reports online had very impressive amounts of snow remaining in the Ravine. Recent rains and high temperatures had washed much of the snow away but more than enough was left for July turns!
Chute sported a small patch of snow remaining below the choke but was hardly worth the effort for the four or five possible turns. Two other skiers decided to try the Chute snow patch and had great difficulty ascending the patch. At one point, one of the slides fell and took a slide but managed to recover before falling off the patch.
The preferred option with the most vertical was the long but narrow snow patch under the waterfall. The run paralleled the Tuckerman Ravine Trail for approximately 150 vertical feet. Up to twenty turns could be had if you really milked the run and even less if you opened things up a bit. Those twenty or so turns were heaven! Wow!
First run saw my skiing in less than stellar form as the snow was just starting to soften up and I was one month out of practice. The hike up the snow was a little nerve racking given what was at the bottom of the patch. A fall while hiking would have required immediate self arrest or else risk a slide off the patch onto a waiting pile of rocks. I quickly learned it was easier to hike up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail rather than try to kick steps into the glaciated snow patch.
Prior to beginning our first run, we climbed along side the patch bordering the Tuckerman Ravine Trail to scope out the undermining situation. We should have brought flash lights to better ascertain the situation under the snow arch. The undermining was fairly minimal and we determined skiing the center of the snow patch and avoiding the edges was safe. Some rocks were tossed onto the snow patch to guide us away from the spots we deemed most undermined. We had to maintain center of patch on a very narrow section at the mid-point of the run. Otherwise, the skiing would be straight forward and generally worry free. I took four runs on the snow patch before deciding to call it a day. Suffice to say that was a lot of effort for only five hundred vertical feet of turns!
The scene at the snow patch was quite amusing due to stunned on lookers that could hardly believe snow remained in the Ravine and that three nut jobs were trying to ski what remained! Hikers were snapping pictures, shouting in disbelief, and cheering our heroics. One on looker even took pictures while I was booting up at the top of the patch.
So ends the 2004-2005 Season! My season stretched across 234 days from November 11th through July 2nd. With 28 days lift serviced for $531.00 at an average lift ticket price of $18.96 and 10 days earning turns lowering the total per day cost to $13.97, this was my best season both in terms of quantity and quality. Fully one quarter of those days were of the powder variety. I am satisfied and ready to hang up the ski equipment for the Summer now that I have crossed the line from dedicated to obsessed.
