Valentine’s week trip 2021 — Part 1: New Hampshire backcountry skiing
Having been first indoctrinated into the divine pleasure that is backcountry skiing on the heights of Mt Rainier and Mt Baker in Seattle, I was skeptical of what the North East had to offer on this front when we moved there. Smaller mountains, less precipitation and powder, and my firsthand experience of the bullet proof icy slopes fully deserving of the “ice coast” reputation in March 2020, there seemed no reason to be excited about it.
The continual ravaging of COVID-19 pandemic in the winter of 2021, however, provided ample reasons to cancel all the plans we had to travel thousands of miles west, and instead venture into the backcountry closer to home. To my deepest surprise, I couldn’t be more excited after what we experienced in the past week. So much so that I thought it worth starting a journal to capture the beauty and learnings of this and many future trips that I will surely be taking, proudly, on the ice coast.
Our itinerary this week was a mix of resort skiing in Maine and backcountry in New Hampshire:
2/14 Mt Washington Cog railway — backcountry
2/15 Sugarloaf resort — half inbounds half side country
2/16 Sunday River resort — inbounds
2/17 Black Mountain Ski Trail — backcountry
2/18–19 Sunday River resort — inbounds
2/20 Mt Washington Tuckerman Ravine — backcountry
This post will focus on our backcountry experiences in NH.
2/20 Tuckerman Ravine, Mt Washington
Reading about the long history (since the 1930s) and magnificence of skiing in the legendary “Tucks” in David Goodman’s east coast backcountry “bible” is awe-inspiring by itself (e.g. one of the gullies that the skiing pioneers made their marks on the ravine wall had a maximum steepness of 90 degrees and sustained pitch of a 60). We arrived at the bottom of the ravine bowl for the first time today and was immediately awe-struck. While we anticipated the sheer scale and beauty of the ravine walls, the trail that descends from the ravine base was more than a pleasant surprise. Goodman’s guidebook called it “a destination in its own right” and it did not overstate.
Notes on the conditions: while the rest of the country got dumped on for the week of massive snowfall (including Texas…), NH and ME somehow only got trickles. The previous night saw about less than 1 inch of new snow and only 2 inches a few days ago. On the plus side, avalanche danger is rather low, and we were blessed with a beautiful blue sky for most of the way.
We took the Tuckerman Ravine Trail for the approach, starting at 9:15 at 1939ft. It was about 2.4 miles from the trailhead to the Hermit Lake cabin at 3779ft, and took us 1.5 hrs to get there. This part of the trail is a steady incline meandering around the woods and sheltered from wind. While it wasn’t too crowded as we feared, there were other groups almost constantly visible throughout the approach. My fearless partner just marched on with a brisk pace.
At the Hermit Lake cabin, we saw some rangers and a few other touring groups resting, and some groups transitioning into downhill gear. Seeing this I briefly wondered why they had stopped there but continued to push on. It became abundantly clear soon: the terrain transitioned to alpine setting quickly after the cabin, the trail narrowed and steepened, and we no longer see ski tracks on the snow — only boot prints forward. Not after long, we realized we had to put crampons on skis to get enough traction for the steep ascent.
This portion of the trail was another 0.6 miles to 4261ft at the base of the Tuckerman Ravine Bowl, but way more technical and strenuous, and took us another 45 minutes (reached the base around 11:30am). Especially towards the end, the weather almost changed immediately — strong gushing wind mixed with snow, sudden drop in temperature. We forgot to bring a thermometer, but the temperature change with wind-chill felt it was at least 30 degrees F decrease. The approach got so steep while narrow we had to side step up with our skis even with crampons. As pure of an alpine mountaineering experience one can get. We were getting a taste of the legend.
The extreme weathers at Mt Washington is notorious. “The combination of high wind and low temperatures has such a cooling effect that the worst conditions on Mt. Washington are approximately equal to the worst reported from Antarctica, despite the much greater cold in the latter region.” — outdoors.org
The Mt Washington avalanche center’s forecasts mentioned the wind speed got up to 157 mph on the summit on 1/24, just a few weeks ago — they even refer to the snow layer formed by this wind event the “157 layer” 😂
Thankfully, the wind we experienced did not get up to that level today.
When we got to the bottom of the ravine bowl, it was clear we were the only people there. While we admired the legendary walls of the ravine with awe, we easily agreed to not continue climbing onto the ravine wall given the weather conditions. At the juncture, a pair of other skiers with snow fully frosted over hats and beards showed up with skis on their backs. Experienced with the area, they gave us some helpful pointers and pointed out my original plan of descending through the Sherburne based on map reading seemed to have some open water and suggested to descend using the ascend path — a sage advice, it turned out.
Although the few maps I checked all showed the the Sherburne trail (designated downhill skiing trail from the ravine) starting from the base of the bowl, what the maps don’t show is the first part of it is often too precarious to be used. Heeding the fellow strangers’ advice, we skied down the path we ascended back to the Hermit Lake cabin and joined the Sherburne trail from there. And goodness what a joy it was!
Originally cut in the 1930s, the Sherburne trail twists and turns for more than 2 miles all the way down to the parking lot. It was never super steep (a solid blue) but also never boring or too flat. Although we didn’t have the luxury of powder, the trail surface remained much softer than many of the trails we skied in resorts that week. It was also our first time skiing moguls in the backcountry (a combination of having enough foot traffic being the top east coast backcountry destination to form moguls, but not as much as resorts that they didn’t turn icy), and also the most fun I’ve had on them.
While we only spent the half the day at Tucks and weren’t able to ski the actual ravine walls due to the crazy winds, the trail to and from the base of it was exhilarating and fulfilling in itself. Although I can’t wait to go back and ski the walls when the conditions allows!
2/17 Black Mountain Ski Trail
On Wednesday, we chose to do a rather relaxing tour at Black Mountain in Jackson, NH. It was about 3 miles round trip with a 1200 ft vertical gain/drop. The tour took us about 2 hours roundtrip, before sneaking off to the Maine coast in the afternoon to indulge in some college nostalgia and (more importantly) the. best. gelato. period.
The Black Mountain ski trail is initially cut by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, which was founded as part of FDR’s new deal. One thing I realized on this trip is that unlike the west coast where ski trails can often naturally form in between trees, the trees and shrubs on east coast mountains are so dense due to the elevation and climate, that it’s impossible for backcountry skier to just go up a mountain and make your own ski line. Luckily thanks to efforts by the likes of CCC and subsequent volunteering efforts in maintaining them, what we do get on the east coast is these trails that are less wild than the west, but 100% “vintage”. Touring on them, I’m always filled with wonder and admiration for the dedication and skills of the pioneers from a different time with equipment much shabbier and the sport much more difficult.
Being a much less known and popular trail, I loved the tranquility of just making our way through the woods with no one else around. The shadows of trees cast on the rolling contours of the snow mesmerized me. We were the only people on the trail for the entire tour.
2/14 Cog railway trail, Mt Washington
“The Cog”, opened in 1869, provides railway access all the way to the summit of Mt Washington (6,288 ft) in the summer times. In the winter, the railway only services to Waumbek Station (at 4000 ft). The trackside service trail, however, is open to hikers and skiers and an easy way to get up the mountain from the west side. To ski there, as we learned after being there for the first time, it’s a good idea to park at the lower parking lot (free for hiker/skiers), especially after we realized you can ski all the way down to the lower lot as part of the descent.
We only had a short afternoon to spend, so we climbed up to Jacob’s Ladder (at 4,646ft, about 2,000 ft up from base station, so almost exactly half the way up to summit) and it took us about 2 hr 40 minutes roundtrip.
Although it was mostly straight-forward to navigate, as we climbed up passed Waumbek station, visibility got increasingly worse, and we soon realized the trail that was on both sides of the rail at lower elevations had, without us noticing, suddenly moved to only the hiker’s left side of the trail. The right side of the trail, which we were on the path on from the beginning, got a lot narrower and steeper. We had to push on for a while until we can find a spot to cross over to the good side. Something to pay attention to next time we tour the trail.
While the trail itself is almost a straight line up the mountain, the railway bridge added some unique charm and beauty to the scenery.
