Sunday, March 16, 2014

Camel's Hump with Yeuhi and Alex

Yesterday, Alex, Yeuhi, and I skied Camel's Hump. It's been a fairly poor season in northern New England, and this last 15-20 inch dump was the most significant storm to hit the mountains so far. It brought average snowpack depths up to maybe 3/4 of normal, however, certain terrain features such as creeks and ledges, which may depend on several storms with winds loading in from multiple directions, are still way bony (as in the Little Headwall entrance, prev post). Anyway, Camel's Hump is a good bet for avy-safe tree skiing, so that's where we went.

It was about 45 degrees and bright sun when we left the car at 10:15. When we pulled up to the summit 2.5 hours later, things were much different. As on Washington earlier in the week, the upper mountain was in cold clouds all day, preserving the powder.




 Summit rock.



 Stepping into skis right next to the summit rock beneath a glorious VT sky.

The summit ledges we like to drop through were mostly verglassed rock, so we stuck close to the trail. Below, we dropped off into a drainage we had not skied before, and got some nice turns in really nicely spaced trees. We were tempted to go further, but as we were on the wrong side of the mountain and it was mid-late afternoon, we headed back up.

 Things going great in a familiar area.



 Then things got less familiar. Every time we ski this, it's a roll of the dice in terms of navigating through the craggy band of cliffs above the mountain's second bench. The first time, the streambed we were on dumped us onto a very awkward ice bulge next to an overhung cave. The next time, we really nailed it a skied a great, open slab. This time, we encountered some brushy, craggy difficulties and ended up in a streambed about one ski length wide. I believe all these lines are within 100 m of each other north to south, but in differing snow conditions, and without having been there many times, it's guesswork. Gotta just have a scrappy attitude up there.


 Looking down the streambed. Hmm, is this going to end in a fan onto the bench, or roll over onto a frozen waterfall?



 Very good snow, just prepare to inhale facefulls of the stuff from the tree branches you'll be plowing through on each turn.

 Where's Yeuhi?

Coming in hot.



The light at the end of the literal tunnel: 100 vertical feet of awesome, open pow.



 As it was getting late, we transitioned and skinned over the bench to avoid a long schlep back to the car at the bottom of the mountain.

Last descent, fading light.



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