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View Full Version : FINALLY I did it !!... but no snow remaining


Frankontour
08-17-2003, 10:48 PM
Finally today was the day !

With the bad forecast of yesterday, we chose to do a part of the drive yesterday... to arrive sooner today at Tucks. Of course, Intellicast was in the **** with their forecast, but if we've almost never seen the sun (and the views), at least it didn't really rained, except in the last 10 minutes of walking down to Pinkham Notch, below the tunnel trees anyway.

But we really enjoyed the mountain and were surprised of how much it was popular, during this poor weather day in summer, with surely near 1 thousand of hikers, not counting the crowd on the summit parking. As the winds were enough low, on the upper part, I've been able to reach the summit without too much problem.

Arrived on the upper Lunch Rocks, I saw that there was no snow remaining, near the waterfall. Oh and by the way, the white path seeable on the close cam of Mt Washington is effectively the waterfall of the Little Headwall. It was looking obvious and very white, from Hojo's. The Tuckerman Ravine trail, above the Lunch Rocks was quite hairy, cause it was very wet and sliding, added to the danger of the place.

I was with my father... who wanted to see the mountain for a while. He really enjoyed the mountain, but fell really sad to not see the summit, cause of the clouds and because the difficulty of the Tucks trail in the ravine, where he stopped. On the road this morning, the visibility was 0 above 2000', so we missed Mt Adams & the other big near the road #2. On the 16, we didn't see nothing, except the lower part of Wildcat as the clouds were a little bit higher there. So the very first real mountain he saw was this :

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus/messages/2508/2693.jpg

It was quite comic to tell him this was Dodge's Drop and was a ski trail ;)


Later, when we arrived at HoJo's, we had a great view on Tucks & Hillman's, but it just stayed few minutes, unfortunately, before the clouds came back in the ravine. At least, I got this one before + a few not so bad from near Connection cache.

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus/messages/2508/2694.jpg

Sadly, from the top, It wasn't possible to see the Great Gulf where I wanted to see the Airplane/Pipeline

And last pic, it was quite comic, just as I was going to hike down, I told me oh-oh... Above Tucks, it was almost sunny, but in Tucks, there was a huge white cloud... funny to see, but not to go down into that, with the fear of rain in the toughest part !

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus/messages/2508/2695.jpg

So it remained very cool, but next time I go there will be with SNOW !!!!!

kmrnskier
08-18-2003, 07:05 AM
Great pictures Frankontour!! Congrats on your first visit to :tucks: - hope you'll have plenty more!!

Mumster
08-18-2003, 07:52 AM
Congrats Franko - It must feel great to have finally :tucks: .

Did you ever figure out what the white spot was?

Jolly J
08-18-2003, 07:53 AM
Thanks for the pic's Frank. To see Great gulf you would have to hike down the other side a ways. I don't think much of it is viewable from the summit.

M@
08-18-2003, 08:28 AM
Frank: Nice tour. That is pretty interesting there were so many people on an iffy day. See you there again this winter. Did you see any duct tape?

Mum: Maybe he edited his post, but he explained the white spot is the waterfall on little headwall.

M@ :ducttape:

Mumster
08-18-2003, 08:42 AM
M@:
Mum: Maybe he edited his post, but he explained the white spot is the waterfall on little headwall. M@ :ducttape: Sorry. That makes sense ->

Stoogie :skistooge: is off the hook.

Frankontour
08-18-2003, 09:08 AM
kmrnskier : yes, I hope too !! For the pics, I have plenty more, but I just don't know where to put them online. Those 3 ones were on my FTO report for the snow, but I don't know where to put the other interesting ones.

Jolly : Yes, you may be right. According to a pic of Lftgly last spring, it looked like "Pipeline" was possible to see from near the top, but may be I'm wrong. Anyway, at summit it was not really foggy, but just below, it was, except in the direction of Boot Spur, on the ridge of the top of the Ravine. It was even a little bit blue there, as you can see on the 3rd pic. So it was impossible to see other things than the south side.

M@ : Yes, when we arrived at Pinkham notch at 8h15 yesterday morning, there was less than 10 places remaining in the entire parking lot. The overflow cars were directed to the Wildcat parking, later in the day.

As you said it to Mum, it wasn't Stoogie, but the waterfall of Little Headwall ;)

And a question : we can edit our posts ? I thought it was just for the moderators...

Frankontour
08-18-2003, 09:11 AM
Ok, M@, I've just seen how we can edit our posts.

BladeGirl
08-18-2003, 09:54 AM
Congrats, Frank! Glad you finally made it! Now for something completely different, come back next spring when it is all covered with :snowflakes: .
-BG

elwood
08-18-2003, 10:24 AM
Great pics Frank!

Glad to see you finally made it, even though the weather was not totally cooperative. I am sure it was quite impressive, nonetheless!

Frankontour
08-18-2003, 11:47 AM
Thanks BG and Elwood !

If you want to see the other interesting pics, I put some ones on my Yahoo Album here :

http://cf.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankontour502/lst?.dir=/Tucks+-+8-17-2003&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//cf.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/

I would prefer a lot to see them white, but...

Of course, I found it impressive, but I thought that the Center Gully and Chute were quite steeper, especially without snow. It looks to be as steep or possibly a little bit less steep than the Pins Rouges, but 2-3x higher of course, so there is no real comparison possible, it's simply crazy !! The icefall is a monster, though, it's almost impossible to think it's possible to ski the lower part there in winter.

ski&ride
08-18-2003, 04:35 PM
Those are great pictures, Frank! I especially like the view of the ravine from above. I am planning a camping trip / hike up Tuckerman Ravine Labor Day weekend. After seeing your photos, I am more anxious than ever to go! One question, was any part of the trail closed?

Frankontour
08-18-2003, 05:00 PM
I hope nobody have problems to see inside my yahoo account... sometimes, even if I enter as a guest, the system don't let me enter unless I give my password............

Thanks Ski&Ride. The view is effectively incredible, when you're climbing to the top and you see behind you the ravine and the big ridge above Tucks, to Boott Spur.

I didn't see a trail closed, but I would have wondered a lot where to pass, if it started to rain, as the Tuckerman Ravine trail is very dangerous in the ravine. It's sometimes less than 3 feet wide and just beside, it's 300-500+ feet high on the icefall zone. I didn't take the other trails in the mountain, but if I come back in summer, I will certainly try Boott Spur trail or Lion's Head trail, to change a little bit and have another incredible view on Tucks ;) According to the topo map, the Boott Spur trail looks to be less dangerous than the one in Tucks, but it's tough to say looking only a map !

ski&ride
08-18-2003, 05:17 PM
Thanks. I will have to watch the weather reports closely, because I don't want to be climbing up the bowl during a big thunderstorm. I know things can change quickly up there, so you never know. Just like all that cloud coverage that filled the bowl after you summitted. I'll have my rain gear ready...

I climbed up Lions Head in June, I recommend you try it next time. The view of the ravine is amazing from there as well. It has its steep parts also. I haven't done Boott Spur yet, but I do know that it's quite a long trail. It should be a great hike too. -Ski&Ride

Frankontour
08-18-2003, 06:53 PM
Thanks for the indications about Lion's Head. I guess from there we should have a very great view of Huntingdon ravine too ! About the Boott Spur one, I calculated with a topo map that it was just 0.6 miles longer than by Tucks.

I must say my father now regrets to not have hiked to the summit, so may be he'll ask me for another hike before next winter... we'll see... A safest way would be appreciated for that !

Effectively, the conditions can change very fastly, on this mountain. It can become very dangerous, but at least, it wasn't windy at all near the summit and it was possible to see that from far, with the move of the clouds ;)

I think that to have a rain gear with us in a trip on Mt Wash is a great idea, anytime !

I hope you'll have a great trip, this labor day weekend!!

RR
08-18-2003, 08:07 PM
Great shots Frankontour. I had to get home to see the Yahoo collection as there's a blocker program at work.