Extreme Ravine - Charlie (Waldo) does Mount Washington

2010-05-06 14:44:07

This weekend a group of friends and I, decided to head down to New Hampshire to hike up the Tuckerman Ravine of Mount Washington for some spring snowboarding. Following the recent late April storm, we were hoping to find some good snow to shred without undue risk. Although we did find what we were looking for, we also found much more; sometimes the things you don't plan to see are what make road trips the most memorable. Best of all, now and again you even learn stuff about stuff in the process.

The plan to go to Mount Washington had been in the works for quite some time. However, due to the effects of this year's El Niño cycle, which resulted in a much shallower than usual snowpack, we weren't sure if we would find the conditions we were hoping for. But just when we thought Ullr had completely turned his back on the north-east, we were blessed with a late season storm cycle that dumped up to 60cm of snow in 36 hours on Mount Washington. Some of you, at this point, may be thinking that 60cm of new snow in 36 hours is a clear red flag when it comes to avalanche danger, and rightly so. In fact the avalanche advisory for Tuckerman Ravine posted the danger level as “EXTREME” on Thursday, which is unusual this late in the season. In spite of this, Dana, Lindsay, Elodie, and I decided to make the trip to New Hampshire and see if we could find some terrain that would provide the right amount of fun with a tolerable amount of risk.

We left for New Hampshire on Friday evening. At this time, the avalanche danger in Tuckerman Ravine was posted as being “considerable”; an improvement over the previous day's “extreme” rating, but still more dangerous than what is generally acceptable. To make matters worse, the forecast was calling for warm weather which was expected to make the new layer of snow very cohesive and very heavy; it seemed as though April couldn't decide if it wanted to be a part of winter or summer. In spite of this, we decided to go anyway and take the chance that the snow pack would be stable enough for us to ride on Saturday.

We lazily made it to Pinkham Notch late Saturday morning. The avalanche danger was still posted at considerable for most of the Ravine (with the exception of the lower snowfields). To make matters worse, there had been recent natural avalanche activity (within the last 24 hours) in Left Gully which had run all the way to the Tuckerman Ravine trail in the bowl; another clear red flag. However, the volunteer ski patrol was there to offer advice, and their advice was to ask the Forest Service staff at Hermit Lake since they were updating the danger level hourly. So we loaded up our packs, and started up the Tuckerman Ravine trail to Hermit Lake 2200 feet (667 meters) above us. The current safe plan was to, from Hermit Lake, take the Boott Spur trail up the ridge to the summit of Boott Spur mountain and see if we could ride Hillman's Highway or Cathedral Gully from there.

On the way up, we crossed a few people who had already been riding that day so I decided to get their input on the conditions. As it turns out, Hillman's Highway was likely going to be our only option. In fact, I was told to stay away from Cathedral and the volunteer ski patrol guy at the bottom had already informed me that it was unwise to venture into the bowl (due in no small part to the recent natural avalanche activity). Armed with this new knowledge, we continued on to Hermit Lake with our sights set on Hillman's Highway, but we also revised our plan to stay away from Cathedral.

We got to the base of Hillman's Highway and Dana, Elodie, and I decided to boot pack right up the barrel of the gun (Lindsay didn't bring her snowboarding gear so she decided to head back to Pinkham). By this time this was a safe option and a much more direct route to our objective (the US Forest Service and Volunteer Ski Patrol also agreed). We left most of our extra clothes and gear at the base area – I learned last spring, a**holes don't hike this far so there were no concerns that it would be stolen – and started up the gully. It took about 45 minutes to an hour to reach the ridge line where we were exposed to pretty strong winds which chilled us significantly. For that reason, we opted to not take too long of a break at the top. We took a few photos and got our gear together to prepare for the ride down.

Although it felt cold at the top of the mountain, it was still warm enough to cause the snow to be wet and heavy. This obviously took Dana by surprise as he faceplanted to a stop no farther than 20 feet after dropping in; welcome to Tuckerman Ravine. Once we got used to the heavy, and soft, mashed potato like snow, it was much smoother sailing on the ride down. In spite of the on-going challenges in temperature control and the general fatigue, I think everyone was pretty excited to be snowboarding; I know I was.

The way down was significantly quicker than the way up since the top third of the John Sherburn ski trail was still open. This meant that we could ride part of the way down from the Hermit Lake area. However, at this point, our calves and quads were protesting quite vociferously about the excess exertion. Getting into our hiking boots for the trek out was a welcome change for weary snowboarding muscles.

The next day, we leisurely got our gear together to make the trip back to Canada. However, we decided that on the way home, we would take in a little bit of history so we stopped at Bretton Woods, the site of the Mount Washington Hotel. For those of you who slept through your high-school history classes, The Mount Washington Hotel is where the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed in July of 1944 which resulted in the establishment of the the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which today is part of the World Bank Group. This agreement also mandated that member countries adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate of its currency within a fixed value—plus or minus one percent—in terms of gold and the ability of the IMF to bridge temporary imbalances of payments. For better or for worse, the IMF and World Bank are important parts of today's global economy, so I thought it would be neat to actually go to the place where those institutions were effectively created. Who says mountaineers and snowboarders lack culture?

In spite of the crappy snow season leading up to it, this trip to Tuckerman Ravine turned out to be a great success. We were blessed with bluebird skies, enough snow to challenge our avalanche safety skills, and we even got some historical perspective by visiting Bretton Woods on the way home. Best of all, this was the first Mount Washington snowboarding experience for Dana, Lindsay, and Elodie who proudly wore their gnarly boots for the occasion (although though Lindsay didn't ride, I think she got a new perspective on Mount Washington nonetheless). Hopefully they're still game to wear those same gnarly boots on the May 2-4 long weekend when we hope to ride Tuckerman Ravine on the way back from surfing in Ogunquit. Although I'm pretty sure that this time around, the avalanche dangers won't be quite so extreme.

Categories: Snowboarding, Ride Journal | 0 Comments

Expedition: Alaska - Chapter 1

2010-04-29 23:43:57

While I was in Alaska for the World Freeride Festival (better known as Tailgate Alaska), I brought along a GoPro HD Hero camera to document the occasion. I wound up taking more than four hours of video footage while I was there — which might have been more were it not for dying batteries and filled up memory cards — so in the last few weeks I've been sorting through it and putting it together for your enjoyment. The following video is the first chapter of the Shred Labs: Expedition Alaska video series.

This first installment features footage from my first few days in Alaska; including the drive from Anchorage to Thompson Pass, and my first heli runs. The footage was shot immediately following my first heli drop where my group triggered two avalanches. That's a lot of firsts and a heck of a way to be introduced to Alaska.

In this chapter, I'm hoping to tell the story of a single heli run in the Chugach mountains in compressed time. The clip takes you from the pickup, to the drop off, to the ride down. You may even notice me struggling with my 155 Evo-R twin snowboard in the deep snow (it snowed two feet the day I arrived in Thompson Pass).

The riding crew consisted of John, Shawn, Ian, myself, and our guide Jerry. We ended up sharing a ship for two days and seemed to have developed a great rapport with one another (which is important when trying to stay alive in the backcountry).

This being my first attempt at an editing project of this magnitude, I hope the results are entertaining. So without further ado, Chapter one of Expedition Alaska. Hopefully chapter two won't be too far behind.

Categories: Snowboarding, Videos, Shred Labs, Tailgate Alaska | 1 Comments

Tailgate Alaska: Day 14 - World Wide Freeride

2010-04-10 00:51:27

Friday was a cold, bluebird morning which was as good a day as any for my last full day in Thompson Pass. Although my heli budget was completely exhausted, I was planning on making use of the Big Mountain Taxi service as much as I could since I had to return the Spark R&D bindings to Erik, and I was too lazy to put my Betas back on the plates (and frankly not interested on going back to riding plates after trying the Fuse bindings). I was determined to make the most of my last day of snowboarding in Alaska.

I started the day with a bump up Gully One again. The snow up top from the saddle has been good for days, and I really enjoy hitting the windlip about 2/3 of the way down the run. I decided to mix things up, however, by traversing east afterward and dropping into a gully that I had seen the day before which made for a fun natural halfpipe; it was perfect for pow slashes and small airs.

I waited a few hours for things to warm up and soften up before doing a second run down Gully One. This time I decided to throw caution in the wind and send it over the wind lip and tried a backside three. However, I but checked the landing which disappointed me a little bit (but only a little). I really have to hand it to guys like Travis Rice and Mark Landvik who bring freestyle to the backcountry because it's really intimidating to approach lips blind and be able to commit to doing your trick. No matter how many times I hit that same windlip since I got here, the landing looked different everytime and I only got to see it once I was airborn.

Just when it seemed that my riding in Alaska was done for the season, some people commissioned Big Mountain Taxi to take them to Odessey. Doug asked me if I wanted to go with them, since they would have to do two trips anyway, I agreed and I was stoked to get at least one more run before calling it a trip.

We got bumped nearly to the top of Odessey and hiked up to the peak. From the bottom we could see that Odessey had a lot of exposure; the face looked like it had chocolates chips all over it. But when we got to the top, we also discovered that it was very much wind scoured. Not wanting to navigate exposure on boiler plate snow, we decided to head over to Goodwills instead which was just east of Odessey. In hindsight, Odessey probably would have been rideable, however, it might not have been much fun. Besides, I did find a wide open, untracked face to slash a few pow turns which exponentially increased my stoke. After all, I was snowboarding, and that's better than the alternative: working. Even the two mile hike back to camp didn't dampen my spirits.

When I got back to camp, it was already after 6PM, so I decided to start packing up my gear. I was a little saddened when I put my climbing harness into its storage sack, took the batteries out of my avalanche beacon, and packed all that stuff in my snowboard bag. My Tailgate Alaska adventure is now winding down. I feel blessed to have taken part of it. I've met many great, and real, people from all over the world (Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, and of course the USA), and I got to snowboard in some of the best terrain on the planet. This festival truly is a world wide freeriding event and part of me is sad that it's over. However, part of me is also happy to be heading back home, I'm finding that I miss my friends and loved ones. Dave Geiss said to me that every time he comes to Alaska to get some heli time, his favourite flight is the one out of Anchorage because it means that he made it through alive and well. I'm beginning to see where he's coming from. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not planning on returning to Alaska in the future. As soon as this Tailgate is over, the planning for Tailgate Alaska 2011 will begin.

Categories: Snowboarding, Ride Journal, Tailgate Alaska | 4 Comments

Tailgate Alaska: Day 13 - With my own two feet

2010-04-08 22:51:57

Thursday was another bluebird day on Thompson Pass Alaska. Although I had exhausted my heli budget, I was determined to get some snowboarding in. Plus I still had the Fuse bindings that I borrowed from the Spark R&D guys the day before. I had already tested them going downhill, but I figured today would be a good day to test them going uphill as well.

I took my time getting ready since I was not in a hurry to line up for a heli. First thing I had to do was to switch over to my bigger pack so I'd have room for my skins and touring poles. I was psyched about finally getting to use my split board in Alaska. However, since I didn't have a touring partner, I wanted to keep hazards to a minimum. I chose Gully One to skin up since it's seen heavy snowmobile traffic so if something was going to go, it would have gone already. I also chose Gully One because I wanted to air over a huge windlip that had formed about ¾ of the way down.

I setup my split in touring mode just beyond the Tailgate lot on the south side of the road at the base of Gully One. While I was getting set up, Doug came by on a sled and asked me if I wanted a bump up the mountain. Normally I might have said yes, but this time I actually wanted to test out the Spark R&D bindings in ascent mode. I thanked hime and continued to attach my skins for the trek up.

I started up the main face and it was easy going until I got to the first really steep pitch. I had to start doing switchbacks because it was an awkward climb even with the climbing bars up (I was actually surprised I remembered how to do switchback turns). It might have been easier to take a mellower slope but it was a longer trek distance wise. Besides, I wanted to take the most direct path to my objective.

According to the Big Mountain Taxi guys, it took me a little over an hour to reach my objective, the first roll after the windlip; about half way up to the saddle of Gully One. I could have gone higher, but I was a) not feeling that ambitious, and b) on my own and didn't want to get into too much hazard where no one could see me. Once I got to the roll, I did the switchover to riding mode which was quite quick with the Fuse bindings – they slide off the pucks a lot more easily than the plates that I have – put my down jacket back on, strapped into my board, and dropped the first cornice I could find into some fresh pow below (all hazard avoidance went straight out the window apparently).

The ride down took probably 1/20th of the time it took to skin up, but that ride down was so much fun. It really does give you a sense of satisfaction when you earn your turns. I did hit the wind lip like I wanted to, however, I pulled back a little bit because on the way down I remembered that I had an ice axe strapped to my pack and the consequences of not sticking it could have been painful.

When I got back to the Tailgate lot, I ran into Mike Basich who was just getting back from sledding, and was playing with his dog. He showed me his custom transformer truck which has a lifting ramp where he can park his sled, and underneath is a living area for himself. The truck is still not complete, he still needs to build an extension to his ramp so he can lower it to the ground to be able to load up his sled without the need of a snowbank, but it's still a very cool looking machine, and a pretty beastie truck. We also talked briefly about Area-241, a plot of land that Mike owns near Tahoe where he does all the testing for his 241 line of outerwear; something that I'll probably want to look into further.

Even though it doesn't seem like I did a lot, day thirteen certainly felt like a full day. I'm pretty much as exhausted now, if not more, than I have been at any other time during my sojourn in Alaska. This is a good kind of tired though, and since Friday will be my last full day in Alaska, I'm considering doing something even more ambitious; like possibly skin up the ridge to Berlin Wall. Then again, I'll have to see how much my body protests in the morning. Either way, I'm holding on to those Fuse bindings for another day, so I'll have to use them at least once.

Categories: Snowboarding, Ride Journal, Tailgate Alaska | 7 Comments