Mark Renson
New member
On the road at 3:30AM under the stars. Pushing up I-93, clouds reared their ominous heads and I saw some nice sights under grey skies of clouds licking the mountains from Kancamaugus Pass (elev 2,855 ft). Up Bear Notch road and to the lot at Pinkham Crotch. I met fellow patroller <BR>Paul and we lumbered under our packs up the Tuck's Trail. <BR> At the happy community of Hermit Lake, NH I took on an assigment of helping to install signage above treeline to warn hikers that the <BR>Tuck's Trail over The Lip was closed. Les, Garrett & I attached our precious cargo of bulky wooden signs to our packs and upward we went <BR>into the showery skies. Over the Lunch Rocks we went and up Right Gully carrying our ice axes and kicking steps with my leather boondockers. Snow was good 'n soft so crampons were not needed and <BR>the snow climbing was elegant. Right Gully is only about half skiable and nobody was there. Up the scree, the ledges, boulders and through <BR>the krumholz to the Alpine Gardens we went to perform our tasks. What was really cool (other than the damp hypothermic inducing weather) was <BR>when we stopped on the Alpine Garden Trail on top of the rim of the Bowl and we looked down on skiers at the top of the Headwall (well, the skiable portion, anyway; above the rocks is toast) as the clouds in the Bowl cleared. Real sweet as we watched skiers gracefully launch into the Headwall, floating for the longest time before landing and carving that first necessary aggressive turn. It drove home the beauty of the sport and was an angle that I had never witnessed <BR>before. Later on , we were told of a photo floating around taking by Brad Washburn during the 1930's from above Oakes Gulf and the Left <BR>Gully in an airplane showing skiers making their climbs and descents; a very unique angle indeed and I'm hoping a poster will be made of it. <BR> We descended via the same route and the plunge stepping into the snow was as elegant as the kick stepping up. Making steps and a positive <BR>stance was easy and fun. We traversed right and practiced ice axe arrest under the Sluice - gotta' do that .... take notes ! Get an ice <BR>axe, learn how to use it AND practice if you want to go climb in the snow ! <BR> I then shivered at the rocks and did not go down to retrieve my skis as I was chilly, miserable, lazy and it was getting late. <BR> As the day ended, we could tell that the weather was changing and that Sunday was gonna' be a bluebird one. <BR> We were not dissapointed ! Clear skies and warm temps - a big Tucks day ahead ! Hillman's is open for the upper 2/3 - 3/4. Left Gully has great coverage and loads of bumps, Chute is toasted, Sluice has possibilities, Lip is too crevassed and the Bowl has all sorts of <BR>skiing. I took 4 sweetheart runs on the steeps. I was uncommon in that I was making short aggressive swing turns as opposed to the big <BR>arcs that many were making in the Bowl and apparently is in vogue these days. Because of this and plus the fact that I weigh 210 pounds, I was kicking off lotsa' wet sloughs. I would pause just to listen to the loud hissing of the sliding sloughs that I created and then surf in them ..... surfin' da' loose rotten corn - that's what I'm there for. <BR> A lot of telemark skiers were skiing BIG-BIG-BIG !!! Wide arcing high speed turns on the steeps and down to the Floor. <BR> As evening fell, a bunch of us lumbered downhill to Pinkham, ending our weekend. As I cruised down Rte 16 south, I looked at the Rockpile in the rear view mirror and had to slam on the brakes and turn around in a pullover just so that I could look at it one more time before next weekends festivities. It looks like the East Snowfields might make it for next weekend as will Left Gully, Upper Hillman's and the Bowl will <BR>be rocking. Hey, taking a great hike and skiing some short sweet steeps and hanging out on the rocks really ain't a bad way to spend a <BR>day. <BR> I took the Seacoast Route home (NH16, I-95, I-495) and I swore I saw a meteor fall into the Atlantic Ocean off of Hampton Beach.