pkorslund
04-16-2001, 10:39 AM
The weather was acceptable. It started clearing after noon and cleared out nicely by 3ish. Compared to my 5 previous trips, Saturday was by far the windiest.
There was excellent cover everywhere. I saw that routes had been made down chutes that weren't popularly named. For example, a nice route runs to the left of the Left Gully (Left Left Gully?). I almost got up to the top of the southeast slope and then went over the lip and headwall at the traditional spot - right of the cliffs and left of The Sluice. All of this was very hard snow - not ice, but still no pick-nick. Of course, the headwall is intensely steep under the best conditions anyway. I carefully navigated the headwall so that I would cut to just under the cliffs. This was the best - loose snow had drifted in from all that wind and no one had tracked it, so I kicked-turned my way down the steep, powdery run - sweet! Hiking up was dicey as the hard snow made for less than optimal boot holes - and of course it's very, very steep.
When we were done for the day, it was nice to ski to HoJos, knock down a Tuckerman Ale, chat a while with strangers who have just as much appreciation for Tucks as ourselves, and then head down the Sherburne Trail ... all the way to the parking lot - first time I was ever able to do that! Not a single bare spot the entire way - WOW!
Didn't see any hot-dogging like I usual do - oh well. I'd really like to hear from others who went Sunday. How was the weather? Any great hot-dogging or intense wipeouts?
Unless we go straight into summer, Tucks will have excellent cover for a while to come - maybe into July.
Pete
There was excellent cover everywhere. I saw that routes had been made down chutes that weren't popularly named. For example, a nice route runs to the left of the Left Gully (Left Left Gully?). I almost got up to the top of the southeast slope and then went over the lip and headwall at the traditional spot - right of the cliffs and left of The Sluice. All of this was very hard snow - not ice, but still no pick-nick. Of course, the headwall is intensely steep under the best conditions anyway. I carefully navigated the headwall so that I would cut to just under the cliffs. This was the best - loose snow had drifted in from all that wind and no one had tracked it, so I kicked-turned my way down the steep, powdery run - sweet! Hiking up was dicey as the hard snow made for less than optimal boot holes - and of course it's very, very steep.
When we were done for the day, it was nice to ski to HoJos, knock down a Tuckerman Ale, chat a while with strangers who have just as much appreciation for Tucks as ourselves, and then head down the Sherburne Trail ... all the way to the parking lot - first time I was ever able to do that! Not a single bare spot the entire way - WOW!
Didn't see any hot-dogging like I usual do - oh well. I'd really like to hear from others who went Sunday. How was the weather? Any great hot-dogging or intense wipeouts?
Unless we go straight into summer, Tucks will have excellent cover for a while to come - maybe into July.
Pete