First day of spring skiing in Oakes Gulf

Skiing in Oakes Gulf...always a good time. Oakes is special because it has some steep runs, but you can get around the area by skinning rather than bootpacking. This was basically the first day of real spring condition on the Rockpile, so the corn was unfortunately rather immature.

After slogging up the Ammo Ravine trail and getting some sun at the Lakes hut, skinning up around to the summit of Monroe, Washington in the background.

Skiing in March

On Pi day, Greg, Coz, Raphael, and I skied Cardigan.

The trappings of a classic NH powder day: rain clouds, granite and water ice.

Schwack to nowhere on Lafayette

Greg and I went for a little misadventure up the north branch of Walker Brook. This was before there was much snow..but, when you haven't been to the mountains for a few weeks, you need to do something.

Ah, January in NH...connecting snowpatches up the creekbed.

 Since the creekbed mostly wasn't easily passable, we spent most of our time along the forest next to the watercourse.

 We ate lunch in a little clearing. These peaceful little openings in the forest pop up as we schwack around in NH, and provide a nice spot to get some sunlight (if it's sunny) and get a glimpse of the peaks around. Not sure why they exists in some certain spots...maybe a hundred years ago, there was a little logging camp here? 

 We got a glimpse of our theoretical destination, an hourglass shaped gully on Lafayette. We were obviously wrong to think it would have snow.

We made pretty good time following little rivulets in the woods above the creek itself, until we came to a point where it descended through a sort of canyon with steep walls. We did some exxxtreme, no-fall skinning across a steep slope and flailed down onto the creekbed.

...but once in the creek, we found many downed logs in our path. Since we were running a bit low on time and we clearly weren't going to ski the upper mountain regardless, we didn't go much beyond this point. 

 Greg on the crux of the exit-schwack.

 Where we popped out. Absurd.

Jackson 3: Edelweiss, etc

Here are some images from our left few days in Jackson.

On 12/30, we drove up the Pass, dropped off into Trail Creek, and skinned up Edelweiss. It was very, very cold in the shadow of the Pass Ridge.

After the awesome powder on 25 Short, the sastrugi on the main face of Edelweiss was a real shocker.

 I could have framed Rosie silhouetted in the sun, but it was super cold and when it's below zero, you don't ask people to stand around while you set up for a photo.

Very snow, such wow

S. New England going off

This has been a wild winter. Powder skiing on a local hit we never would have expected to have snow like this. Historic snowpack--if you're ever going to ski some of this stuff, do it now. Alex and I made it out of town on the morning of the fourth major storm in a short succession to take many short laps on a small mountain.

First ones into the parking lot (which, amazingly, the town plows out even during storms). I am standing on top of an 8 foot high snowbank as Alex step into his skis in a little ground blizzard.

Not meant to be a crotch shot...just a photo of over-the-knee snow depths. 

 Doesn't look like much, but this little cut in the woods was good for thousands of feet of skiing. You play the cards you're dealt; go where the snow falls.

 Although it could have, of course, used a few more thousand feet of vert, this is about as good as tree skiing gets.

Jackson 2: 25 Short

Another highlight of the recent Jackson trip was skiing 25 Short again. Although we didn't get the phenomenal views of last time (photos here...1, or 2, or 3), the rotten snow we had last time was a distant memory. This was among the best 2500 feet of skiing I've experienced.

Mark skinning up.

The snow is really working in our favor here.

 After a couple hours of climbing, we were up against our time limits, and near the top anyway, so we ripped skins and skied. Thanks to Mark for the next three photos.

Excellent light powder.  

 As Mark reminded us, this snow was about 5% water and 95% air, so this is as close as you can come to flying without wings.

 BOOM--documented face shot for Rosie.

Rosie skiing. Thanks for the video, Mark.

 Mark smiling the smile of a man with 1500 feet of powder still below him.

Mark's video of Pat:

 Shit eatin' grin!

 Rosie, either wrestling an alligator or skiing thigh deep pow.

 Pow.

 Mark skiing it out.