Saturday morning was another beautiful, mostly sunny day, but colder on the Rock Pile than down in the valleys. On recon from Wildcat's parking lot, we could see to the top of the ravines, but the east Snowfields and the summit were still in a cloud above 5500'. It was 34 degrees in the Pinkham Notch parking lot at 8:15AM. We got there just in time, and watched the lot fill up not long after 8:30AM. Hiking up in the morning there was a breeze, and it was in the upper 20's. <BR> <BR>The summit had picked up 10"-12" of new snow this week, 3" of it in the previous 24 hours, and temps had been cold. It was a big change from a week ago. The Tuckerman Ravine hiking trail was coated in the morning with 1"-3" of new snow on top of rocks, mud, old snow & ice. By the afternoon, this was pretty slick hiking down just below Hojos; much of it was slush or melted away as we got further down. <BR> <BR>From the hiking trail, through the trees, the 3" of new snow made parts of the Sherburne Trail look white. This led me walk up one of the crossovers to check out the possibility of skiing back down the Sherburne Trail... but it hadn't been enough to cover even the grassy parts, and certainly not enough for the USFS to re-open the closed trail. <BR> <BR>Among the hundreds of skiers, riders, ice-climbers, and hikers on the way up were a wedding party. The bride was dressed in black, carried her own skis, wore a white veil ("polypropylene" she said), and a white lace garter over her black ski pants. At Hojos, with a breeze, it was sunny but chilly. I heard the Bride announce that the ceremony would be held there, instead of up in the Bowl. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1625.jpg" ALT="The Bowl from Hojos"> <BR> <BR>Many were rethinking their plans there, as the Av conditions posted were moderate in the Bowl due to wind loading of the new snow. It had either blown, off leaving the dirty old hard frozen granular (FGR) snow, which was not softening up in the sun; or clean white patches of new wind-pack powder. The Little Headwall required hiking up and down. AV danger was low on Hillmans, and we decided to take that route (for the second week in a row) for the shorter hike and longer run. We didn't stick around to find out which of the bridesmaids caught the bouquet. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1626.jpg" ALT="Hillmans from Hojos"> <BR> <BR>Last weekend's soft bumps had set up hard. As I started up Hillman's at 11:20, skiers and riders coming down said the top was beautiful (new powder), but the bottom was scratchy (blown off, barely edgeable FGR). The sun was starting to soften up the snow along the footpath up the right side (skier's left), where it was sheltered from the wind; but the wind had left little or no new powder in the middle and skier's right (except in the trees). Scattered clouds began to build in after Noon, limiting what the sun could do to improve the corn. Sure enough, the top 600' were 4"-10" of soft wind-pack powder on top of a firm base. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1627.jpg" ALT="Looking up top of Hillmans right fork"> <BR> <BR>I saw a only 2-3 hike and ski the left fork. Almost all were hiking up the right fork, to skier's left, a different route up than last weekend. Last weekend's footpath ascended the right fork by heading towards the left fork below the rock finger that divides the two, then straight up a line of snow that rejoined the right fork above; this kept the uphill traffic out of the Inferno race course in the narrow part of Hillmans. This was still a ski or hike option this week. <BR> <BR>The top went no further than last week (~5300'), but had picked up some substantial cover in the form of hard wind-pack powder drifts. Just below, these were softer powder, and broke up at each turn. Conditions were great! The only trick was being mindful that the new snow obscured the base underneath, which had been bumped up before it set. I took the variation to skier's right, down the right side of that rock finger, which had only one previous track down a nice line of 4"-10" deep powder. The new snow had still clung to the skier's right for a short distance below where the two forks join, especially in a few lines through the trees. From 4700' down, it was all hard, frozen bumps, barely edgeable. It was still possible to ski down to Hojos, though difficult, requiring waiting for hikers to clear the narrow line through birches at the bottom of Hillmans. The rope across the Sherburne was the end of the line.
