Ed Summersby's Tuckerman Report

Below is Ed Summersby's report from 4/30/08:

Here’s my report on snow conditions on Mt. Washington. By last Saturday Tuckerman Ravine had lost a huge amount of snow to the recent 10-day heart wave. The Sherborn was skiable to the bottom up until last Thursday, but by Saturday only half way, and that was marginal, badly cut up with moguls and bare spots. The waterfall under the Little Headwall had totally washed out any chance of skiing there. The Bowl had snow, but what snow! Heavy soft mush, at least for me, made for what I would call not enjoyable spring skiing. The most pronounced negative about the Bowl were the deep runnels (deep grooves maybe up to 3 or 4 feet deep) that ran from top to bottom of the headwall from the above the Lunch Rocks all around to the Left Gully. I gather these runnels were caused by the dramatic flow of meltwater running down the surface of the headwall during the heat wave. I have never seen anything like it, in my many years of skiing there.

The lip was barely passable, with big moguls and rocks showing, with a sizeable crevasse just below. I did see a few make it through, but not many. The Chute and even the Center Gullies seemed to somewhat well-travelled routes down from the summit snowfields (but didn’t attract me), but by far the greatest number of skiers (and boarders – a new phenomenon in Tuckerman for me) were in the Left Gully, which was well covered all the way up. Hillman’s Highway also was also OK, with the usual moguls. The Gulf of Slides ski trail was completely bare from just below the gullies in the Gulf, so that was not an option for climbing on skins.

It’s that heat wave that did in the skiing. Before that hit there was an unusually deep snowpack that by rights should have made for great skiing in all the gullies and chutes for some time to come. No doubt a return to more normal cooler weather will allow the snow to settle and firm up and provide plenty of spring skiing for those who want to pursue it, but I’m done for this year. Clearly cross country skiing has ended for this season.