Coming for the first time soon

[hillman]

I'm trying to round up some of my freinds for a trip to tuckermans ravine, and would like to add a trip to the summit(it will be a first for everyone). I've lurked on here for awhile, and look forward to seeing some of you there. I was wondering how long it takes to summit from the parking lot, and if you can ski from there to the headwall, or is it hiking in the spring. I just skied Mt marcy yesterday, and the snow was ok, but getting a bit manky. Is it still going to be skiable come early april?

[M@]

Nice handle!

Sorry I can't help with the questions though. I've never summited from tuckerman. I'm pretty sure you can ski from pretty close to the summit to the ravine, through the snow fields. Not very steep, but down hill at least.

If I had to guess, an average hiker with a day pack could go from pinkham to the summit it under four hours. If you go on a weekend though, your plan could be to hike up to tux and evaluate the situation from there. You might find it's a good idea to just hang out in the freak show that is the ravine in the spring. Talk to folks there about summiting etc.

If you go early enough, the trip DOWN from the summit can be done in under an hour easy. (If sherburn is open etc...)

M@

[RR]

...I was wondering how long it takes to summit from the parking lot, and if you can ski from there to the headwall, or is it hiking in the spring. I just skied Mt marcy yesterday, and the snow was ok, but getting a bit manky. Is it still going to be skiable come early april?
Funny, I've not checked on that, it's a long day via the regular trails though. If you've done the Mary run then this will be cake. Sure there's a lot of vert, but it's mostly convenient for skiing.

Skinning up the Sherburne is pretty quick...skinning up the Little Headwall is dicey, 'specially in deep snow. Hiking between the Ravine and Hojo's via the TRT is the usual deal. If it's a decent day you will see a lot of hikers summiting via the Ravine, mostly they will take Right Gully...it's the fastest route to the summit.

As for skiing off the summit of Mt Washington: They don't call it the Rockpile for nothing. It takes a lot of snow to fill in the rock fields of the summit cone. Right now the East Snowfield looks pretty good, but after you tag the summit you'll be hiking back down at least 50-150 vertical feet to get decent spaces of snow between the exposed rocks. After that you mike make it to the base in 10 minutes (if you throw caution to the winds and get lucky) or 30-40 minutes if you are sensible but fast and have good conditions on the Cutler snow bridge (45 yards below the Cache) so you can limit the booting to the usual 100 yards near the Cache.