The Mt Washington Blog

Return to Mount Washington

Posted on by jmc5040

This year my wife and I moved back east from Colorado. While I lived in Gunnison, I’d wake up early before work a few days a week and skin 2000 vertical feet before sunrise to ski, sometimes with a headlamp. This winter, back in Pennsylvania, I started skinning a small ski hill that is only 15 minutes from my house — Spring Mountain — to get my exercise and ski fix.

Mount Washington

Getting to Mount Washington was at the top of my list this spring. I hadn’t skied in the Whites since moving west and I was eager to get back. My plan was to arrive midday on Good Friday in hopes of getting a spot in one of the shelters near HoJo’s below the lower headwall of Tuckerman Ravine.

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Tagged: Backcountry, Mt Washington, NH11 Comments

Mount Washington Season Ender

Posted on by jjp24

As the days of spring grow longer and the valleys turn green, east coast skiers are left with two options: ski the man-made glacier on Superstar at Killington, or head to the high alpine terrain of the Presidential Range in New Hampshire.

Great Gulf

My plan was to backpack into the Great Gulf, a huge cirque cut by glaciers on the northeast side of Mount Washington. From there I’d set up a base camp which would allow me to access the snow-filled gullies spilling off the flank of the northeast’s highest peak.

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Tagged: Backcountry, Mt Washington, NH6 Comments

Mount Washington Season Finale

Posted on by ml242

During the ski season I’ve said it often: “You don’t know ’til you go.” But last week — after Memorial Day and before the first heat wave of the summer season — wasn’t one of those times.

Mount-Washington

Not exactly. You see, I’d been watching the weather closely and was really optimistic about the skiing on Mount Washington. The Memorial Day snowfall closed the auto road on Saturday and reduced skier traffic in the ravine to those willing to come up via the trail. But snow conditions were only one part of my calculation.

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Tagged: Backcountry, Mt Washington, NH8 Comments