Summit'ng Mt Washington?

[JohnnyTwoTimes]

Looking fwd to Tuckerman's this year for the first time.
My question is, how much farther/difficult is it to summit Mt Washington, and then snowboard down from there?
I figure if I am going to make the hike, I might as well go to the top?
Thanks,
J2T

[notjustanotherboarder]

Bad idea, especially if its your first time. The problem is that you always want to hike up where you want to come down. That way you know what you're getting youself into. If you go above the lip, its very difficult to tell where you are as you approach the bowl. It you pick the wrong spot, you could easily end up catching 30 ft of air. I'm guessing that thats not your plan. Pain may be waiting for you!
http://timefortuckerman.com/ubb/wink.gif And you can't plan on following your tracks because 1) there may be other tracks and (2) you may not leave a track if there's crust.
And of course if you're planing on doing it during the winter months, you should be well prepared with shovel, probe and tranciever ( and the traning to use them)

[fwlb]

You do not describe your experience or your level of skill. I've been to TR four times in 8 years and have never made it to the top due to the conditions, not my own will. The last two times there I settled for shorter hikes up to "safer" spots to strap in; didn't make it over the lip even due to opting out due to Avalanche postings. It is definately thrilling and challenging. My skier friend fresh from "killing it out at Heavenly at Tahoe" last year, could barely deal with the fresh wind blown hard powder that had my face hurting from smiling and my thigh burning from a continous run back to the dorm at Ho-Jo. Whatever your plan is, be smart enough to be able to change it.
Fred

[targheehucker]

What up Johnny--
I have been to Tucks the past four years and last year was the first I was able to summit Washington and ski all the way down to the base of the bowl...mainly due to weather, time considerations in past years... It is a very long and very strenous hike to go all the way to the Summit. I am in moderately decent shape and my legs were almost to the point of muscle failure upon reaching the summit (not good shape to ski tucks headwall http://timefortuckerman.com/ubb/smile.gif
If you go in late spring you can get away with not hiking up what you plan to ski down so long as you see the line of people hiking up to the top of the bowl from the bottom either in the chute area or the headwall if there is still cover.
Like I said, I am in good shape and normally takes to get to the lunch rocks in 2-2.5 hours from pinkham. Remember the base of the bowl is halfway to the summit of washington so last year the summit took me six hours (8am - 2pm) I suggest hiking to the bowl then up right gully to alpine garden/lionshead trail so you can get a feel for the steepness of the bowl if its your first time.
Skiing over the lip and headwall is steep, REAL steep. I have skied left gully right gully, sluice and hillmans and the headwall is by far the steepest, BY FAR. But definitely an experience, good luck with it...

[enzo]

Love this site! Great photo's - brings back a ton of memories!

Haven't been to Tucks since '76 (tough, since I now live in Indiana!), but used to go at least 10 times a year for each of the previous 10 years. Doubt I'd survive the hike up now!

You CAN do the upper fields in a day, but only if you are in fantastic shape. The BEST way to do the place is to spend at least 3-6 days in the huts - you'll start to get acclimated to the elevation, and by getting up and starting the hike before the sun comes up, you'll have enough time to run the fields twice in the same day. Just make sure that you get down over the Lip before about 3 pm when the shadow comes across the Headwall.

Take a compass - a real good one - and take a bearing to the summit from the Lip. On the way down just follow the reverse of that heading, and you'll usually come out within 50 feet of where you want to be. With the advent of cheap handheld GPS locators, you can get within a yard.

Good luck, and have a ball!

PS - I'm amased at how little snow there seems to be there over the last few years - used to be that the only rocks you could see up into June were Lunch Rocks - everything else was totally covered.

[JohnnyTwoTimes]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm sure we'll run into each other up there. Figuratively of course. :-0