This is an old post I wrote hung over. That's why it sounds like it was written by a 5 year old.
On April 16th, I picked up all my stuff and headed straight to Steph’s condo near Okemo. Oh yes…fun times would be had. Between rocking the t-shirt in 70 degree weather and teaching Steph how to change her oil, I got in about 15 hours of unbeatable skiing in. This was all in preparation for Tuckerman’s Ravine on the 19th, one of the busiest days of the season.
We skied Okemo on Thursday and Killington on Friday. Since American Skiing Company’s gone out of business, every ASC mountain is far nicer. Ticket gouging still goes on, but the people are friendlier, the lodges are cleaner, and the lines are far shorter. Mount Snow, another ASC mountain, was great this year, too, despite the crowds of flatlanders.
After a few hours at Coopers Cabin and a $5 footlong, I packed up all my gear and headed to North Conway. If you've never been to Coopers Cabin, you're missing some crazy deals. Ever wonder where the ski bums go when they turn 40? They head to Coopers with a bottle of Jack, some buds, and a lot of smiles.
I haven’t been to Tuckerman’s in about 3 years. The last time I was there was for my Avy Level 1 class. We spent 3 hours that day in +120 mph wind gusts digging snow pits. Sounds like a painful thing to do, but it’s a lot of fun.
I rolled off the couch around 5:30 am and woke up the rest of the guys. We didn’t get out until about 6:15 because Amanda really liked the beer she had the previous night. Its good we got out when we did. After a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts, the clouds cleared to bluebird skies. It was crowded! To make things more difficult, Tuckerman’s had record snowfalls late in this season, which made parking a hassle. Awesomeness prevailed. I grabbed the last spot in the second parking lot after some words with some NH dbag.
The hike to the top of the lower headwall took about 3 hours. Put on the headphones, ignore the blaring heat, and go. About 3/4 of the way up, my Scarpa’s started tearing both my heels apart. I ended up with blisters on each heel. Duct tape fixes everything.
On the first run, Cody, Ed, John, and I shot the down the Center Headwall, also known as Center Gully. It’s the steepest part of the ravine, hitting angles in the mid-high 50s. Ed went first and stopped at the top of the rock area near Center Gully North. Pumped from the hike, he dropped a small 5 footer, dodged a serious crevasse, and rode it out to the bottom. Cody and John ripped straight down the Center Headwall when Ed stopped to check out his drop. Tucks is far harder on a snowboard than skis. When wet snow creates runnels, deep channels from wet slides, your board goes everywhere. Its far more difficult to ride bumpy steeps when you only have one edge making contact.
I went last because I hate stopping, love steeps, and making split second decisions. Thin cover signs are my magnet.
I shot straight down Center Gully North and flew past Ed’s initial 5′ drop. That was a mistake. The top of the Gully was heavy, wet snow that liked to slide and reveal rocks and grass. I successfully navigated that stuff, but had the plan to cross under the bottom of the ice fall. There weren’t any wet slides coming off the ice falls which meant the runnels weren’t as bad and I could charge down the rest of the pitch. Unfortunately, this also meant you had to be careful of crevasses if you crossed over too early.
The ice falls are known for making crevasses. At the end of the summer, the ice falls turn into a series of rock cliffs. When you have rock cliffs above a snow field, the snow field pulls away from the rocks as the weather warms up. This causes the crevasses. Have no fear. We checked it out on the hike up and the crevasse was only a foot wide. You would really need to try to get yourself stuck to run into problems.
Nonetheless, I made a sharp turn to cut out of the impending runnels halfway down Center Gully and launched the crevasse. Rockin’ my Lib Tech’s, my legs turned to mush. My skis are over 100 mm wide at the tip and tail. They’re some of the widest, lightest, and most stable park skis you can find. In wet snow runout, that doesn’t matter. I stylishly bounced all over the place. I must’ve made only three super-G sized turns from the ice falls to the base. When I got to the bottom, I fell over with my stupid grin of happiness.
We rested for about 2 hours before making our second run of the day. I needed to charge up on some quality food before doing a non-stop run from the top to bottom again. By quality, I mean my signature triple decker peanut butter sandwich and half a sausage, egg, and cheese bagel from Dunkin Donuts.
We made our second run on the Lip. Amanda joined us after sleeping in the snow during our first run. The runnels on the Lip were epic. Imagine a 4 foot wide, 3 foot deep channel that’s 600 feet long on a 45 degree pitch. Now imagine 15 of those 10 feet apart. That’s the Lip.
40 minutes and one crevasse jump later, we made it to the top. Just like the last run, we took a 30 minute break to take in the views. Undescribable doesn’t quite cover it. There were literally no clouds in the sky and visibility was a few hundred miles. That should be enough to understand why I never want to live in a big city. Well, maybe Mendoza or Santiago.
The second run was a much bigger issue. By 3 pm, the Lip had a 30 foot wide entrance into runnelland to which you had to shoot to skier’s right, back under the ice falls. Long story short, that’s what we did. However, even the ice falls were getting runnelled. The number of skiers under the ice falls meant snow was sliding everywhere. I’m not gonna lie. I’d seen at least 15 rag dolls that day and didn’t want to be 16. I unloaded some GS turns down to the ravine, grabbed my stuff, and we bounced.
Unfortunately, the top of the Sherburne Trail was falling apart and ski patrol was directing traffic. I won’t be rude, but a very high majority of Tuckerman skiers are not very good. We ended up in a traffic jam of novices. One guy almost fell down to the waterfall while trying to traverse.
Around 5 pm, we got to the base, unloaded our stuff, and changed. Thank god. Sherburne was a 30 minute ride to the bottom over bumps, mud, and dirt.
The highlight of the day: Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery. For 4 people @ $15 each, you can get the family meal of doom. Chicken, beef brisket, pulled pork, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread, black beans. I’ve never been anywhere where the chicken fell off the bone. The best part was that they would bring you as much of anything as you wanted. 4 rounds of mashed potatoes later, I was done!
3 hours later, I got home and reacquainted myself with my couch. It was a beautiful moment.
Here's a pic of a hot chick's ass for reading this far.
On April 16th, I picked up all my stuff and headed straight to Steph’s condo near Okemo. Oh yes…fun times would be had. Between rocking the t-shirt in 70 degree weather and teaching Steph how to change her oil, I got in about 15 hours of unbeatable skiing in. This was all in preparation for Tuckerman’s Ravine on the 19th, one of the busiest days of the season.
We skied Okemo on Thursday and Killington on Friday. Since American Skiing Company’s gone out of business, every ASC mountain is far nicer. Ticket gouging still goes on, but the people are friendlier, the lodges are cleaner, and the lines are far shorter. Mount Snow, another ASC mountain, was great this year, too, despite the crowds of flatlanders.
After a few hours at Coopers Cabin and a $5 footlong, I packed up all my gear and headed to North Conway. If you've never been to Coopers Cabin, you're missing some crazy deals. Ever wonder where the ski bums go when they turn 40? They head to Coopers with a bottle of Jack, some buds, and a lot of smiles.
I haven’t been to Tuckerman’s in about 3 years. The last time I was there was for my Avy Level 1 class. We spent 3 hours that day in +120 mph wind gusts digging snow pits. Sounds like a painful thing to do, but it’s a lot of fun.
I rolled off the couch around 5:30 am and woke up the rest of the guys. We didn’t get out until about 6:15 because Amanda really liked the beer she had the previous night. Its good we got out when we did. After a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts, the clouds cleared to bluebird skies. It was crowded! To make things more difficult, Tuckerman’s had record snowfalls late in this season, which made parking a hassle. Awesomeness prevailed. I grabbed the last spot in the second parking lot after some words with some NH dbag.
The hike to the top of the lower headwall took about 3 hours. Put on the headphones, ignore the blaring heat, and go. About 3/4 of the way up, my Scarpa’s started tearing both my heels apart. I ended up with blisters on each heel. Duct tape fixes everything.
On the first run, Cody, Ed, John, and I shot the down the Center Headwall, also known as Center Gully. It’s the steepest part of the ravine, hitting angles in the mid-high 50s. Ed went first and stopped at the top of the rock area near Center Gully North. Pumped from the hike, he dropped a small 5 footer, dodged a serious crevasse, and rode it out to the bottom. Cody and John ripped straight down the Center Headwall when Ed stopped to check out his drop. Tucks is far harder on a snowboard than skis. When wet snow creates runnels, deep channels from wet slides, your board goes everywhere. Its far more difficult to ride bumpy steeps when you only have one edge making contact.
I went last because I hate stopping, love steeps, and making split second decisions. Thin cover signs are my magnet.
I shot straight down Center Gully North and flew past Ed’s initial 5′ drop. That was a mistake. The top of the Gully was heavy, wet snow that liked to slide and reveal rocks and grass. I successfully navigated that stuff, but had the plan to cross under the bottom of the ice fall. There weren’t any wet slides coming off the ice falls which meant the runnels weren’t as bad and I could charge down the rest of the pitch. Unfortunately, this also meant you had to be careful of crevasses if you crossed over too early.
The ice falls are known for making crevasses. At the end of the summer, the ice falls turn into a series of rock cliffs. When you have rock cliffs above a snow field, the snow field pulls away from the rocks as the weather warms up. This causes the crevasses. Have no fear. We checked it out on the hike up and the crevasse was only a foot wide. You would really need to try to get yourself stuck to run into problems.
Nonetheless, I made a sharp turn to cut out of the impending runnels halfway down Center Gully and launched the crevasse. Rockin’ my Lib Tech’s, my legs turned to mush. My skis are over 100 mm wide at the tip and tail. They’re some of the widest, lightest, and most stable park skis you can find. In wet snow runout, that doesn’t matter. I stylishly bounced all over the place. I must’ve made only three super-G sized turns from the ice falls to the base. When I got to the bottom, I fell over with my stupid grin of happiness.
We rested for about 2 hours before making our second run of the day. I needed to charge up on some quality food before doing a non-stop run from the top to bottom again. By quality, I mean my signature triple decker peanut butter sandwich and half a sausage, egg, and cheese bagel from Dunkin Donuts.
We made our second run on the Lip. Amanda joined us after sleeping in the snow during our first run. The runnels on the Lip were epic. Imagine a 4 foot wide, 3 foot deep channel that’s 600 feet long on a 45 degree pitch. Now imagine 15 of those 10 feet apart. That’s the Lip.
40 minutes and one crevasse jump later, we made it to the top. Just like the last run, we took a 30 minute break to take in the views. Undescribable doesn’t quite cover it. There were literally no clouds in the sky and visibility was a few hundred miles. That should be enough to understand why I never want to live in a big city. Well, maybe Mendoza or Santiago.
The second run was a much bigger issue. By 3 pm, the Lip had a 30 foot wide entrance into runnelland to which you had to shoot to skier’s right, back under the ice falls. Long story short, that’s what we did. However, even the ice falls were getting runnelled. The number of skiers under the ice falls meant snow was sliding everywhere. I’m not gonna lie. I’d seen at least 15 rag dolls that day and didn’t want to be 16. I unloaded some GS turns down to the ravine, grabbed my stuff, and we bounced.
Unfortunately, the top of the Sherburne Trail was falling apart and ski patrol was directing traffic. I won’t be rude, but a very high majority of Tuckerman skiers are not very good. We ended up in a traffic jam of novices. One guy almost fell down to the waterfall while trying to traverse.
Around 5 pm, we got to the base, unloaded our stuff, and changed. Thank god. Sherburne was a 30 minute ride to the bottom over bumps, mud, and dirt.
The highlight of the day: Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery. For 4 people @ $15 each, you can get the family meal of doom. Chicken, beef brisket, pulled pork, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread, black beans. I’ve never been anywhere where the chicken fell off the bone. The best part was that they would bring you as much of anything as you wanted. 4 rounds of mashed potatoes later, I was done!
3 hours later, I got home and reacquainted myself with my couch. It was a beautiful moment.
Here's a pic of a hot chick's ass for reading this far.
