East Coast Roll Call #??? 20-21 Covid closures and hard core touring! Be Fit or Sit

[Jonathan S.]

Killington announced it won't open this weekend. So other than earning turns ala JS, that's a wrap on the season folks!

The Soopustah Glacier is all mine, mine!
[insert maniacal cackle here]
Actually, I'm kind of disappointed, since I always love reading those reports of everyone assembling at the top after on the final day after the lift has stopped spinning for the season.

^^4 on supe not to shabby either! nice work jonathan! you never fail to impress

That was just a drive-by on the way up to Mt Washington -- had to save some energy for the following day!
Here's my biggest Killington outing ever:
https://www.strava.com/activities/3544238656
I was prepared for only a single lap, after which I expected to be "asked" to leave, a request with which I would immediately comply.
Instead the "closure" was complete pandemic theater, as I ended up taking 40 laps over a period of two weeks:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UeQsf3Qk8BovXsh57
... all on the resort webcam, with a security guard parked at the base.

[jhyatt]

If anyone gets close enough to get a good look at Otto's favorite ski terrain today/tomorrow, please post. I'm planning to ski somewhere Saturday (it being a birthday tradition), and debating the rapidly-shrinking patches here at Sunday River vs paying my $39 and hoping Airplane is still in good shape. I'm wondering how badly stuff melted out this week with the temps we've had (even if today's 20-degree variation top to bottom holds, 20 degrees colder than 79 is still pretty dang warm).

Yesterday I was up Carter dome and it looked good from over there. In fact there was too much snow to continue our hike. Above 4k' lots of snow

[singlecross]

i got next

Where's the board or do I just put my quarter somewhere

I worked on a crew that had a game called "coin slot". Drop a coin in whenever you see the coin slot. By the end of the project, everybody was playing from delivery folks, subcontractors, architect, and even the homeowner dropped a few on their visits. Double points for anyone with a clipboard. Sharing here in order for the game to gain worldwide acceptance. I guess you can put your quarter in there

[From_the_NEK]

Yesterday I was up Carter dome and it looked good from over there. In fact there was too much snow to continue our hike. Above 4k' lots of snow

Looks steeper than I remember

[anotherVTskibum]

Yesterday I was up Carter dome and it looked good from over there. In fact there was too much snow to continue our hike. Above 4k' lots of snow

Excellent. I'll do my best to be at the gate before opening, hopefully that doesn't turn into sitting around for an hour like it did last time.

Thanks to both of you for the reports. My original fallback plan of local turns looks to be well into silly mode; what had been a nearly continuous run a week ago is now more grass than snow.

And, yes, I'll be aware of the airborne electricity risk. I spent something like 20-30 minutes sheltering in a Wyoming snow cave at ~10k feet a few years ago, hoping that a) the storm would pass quickly and b) a snow cave was adequate shelter. It ended up being a super cool experience that I have no desire to repeat (and would've been really terrifying if the cave hadn't been handy). I'd think about bringing a one iron, but my bag lacks extra attachment points.

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[Jonathan S.]

^ Yipes, that's some story there from WY!

NWS pegs the big step up in precip % (and the t-storm chance) tomorrow at around 1pm, so plenty of time to take a calculated risk of getting a bit wet (yet not zapped) in Airplane Gully.
Will be really windy on the hike to the top of Airplane, or the short walk to the top of the NE Snowfield, but once you're skiing those places are pretty calm (which of course explains they ended up with so much snow).

[anotherVTskibum]

^ Yipes, that's some story there from WY!

NWS pegs the big step up in precip % (and the t-storm chance) tomorrow at around 1pm, so plenty of time to take a calculated risk of getting a bit wet (yet not zapped) in Airplane Gully.
Will be really windy on the hike to the top of Airplane, or the short walk to the top of the NE Snowfield, but once you're skiing those places are pretty calm (which of course explains they ended up with so much snow).

Yeah, turns out trying to beat an approaching front for a few turns would've been a good time to bring a car, rather than a motorcycle, up the pass; I was never all that far from the parking lot, but needing to get off the plateau via motorcycle made hunkering down seem a better choice.

Airplane skied well today; the surface was more enjoyable than last weekend, with most of it having a little bit of corn over a firmer underlayer. There were some crispy spots, enough to make glad for sharp skis and really glad I brought my crampons and axe to climb out. It's probably in the neighborhood of 4m wide for a bit, particularly if you don't want to ski over the glide cracks that are evident on both edges.

Other than airplane, I didn't see anything that looked even close to still being in on the Great Gulf side, unless you count segments of Pipeline or plan to rappel. The snowfields are a bit diagonal for maximum vertical at this point but looked to be skiing well.



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[Jonathan S.]

^ Thanks for the TR. And judging by the Obs hourly rpts, looks like the wx held up yesterday, except for some brief r&*n around 11. Today though, ugh, hrly rpts are ugly!

Surprising that the snow conditions were somewhat firm. Left Gully on Wednesday was super soft, though not manky.
I'll be hiking up along the Cog tracks tomorrow for Airplane Gully. Temps are cooling down dramatically overnight, but fortunately Airplane gets the early morning sun, of which there will be a lot.

Also looks like in your pics that not many people were skiing Airplane yesterday?
(Snow surface looks relatively undisturbed, plus I just don't see many people.)

For future reference, relying on a motorcycle at this time of year can be risky.
Two years ago, for opening day, a ski buddy rode his motorcycle up from southern NH.
After I waited awhile to inch my way forward to the gate behind a long time of cars ... I discovered that my friend had been informed that the road was not open to motorcycles that day!
(Or at least initially that morning -- later on in the afternoon I saw a few motorcycles at the summit.)
Fortunately I was there to give him a ride up.

[anotherVTskibum]

Also looks like in your pics that not many people were skiing Airplane yesterday?
(Snow surface looks relatively undisturbed, plus I just don't see many people.)

For future reference, relying on a motorcycle at this time of year can be risky.

There was another group of four near opening bell, and sorta a slow trickle between then and when I got back to the truck, maybe 12-15 total?

I've intentionally ridden to the base of the auto road and then gotten a ride up before; it seems like not allowing motorcycles is pretty common at opening, plus if the wind comes up, riding with skis gets exciting. Still a little jealous of those that do pull it off right now, plus I wouldn't mind saving a few bucks on the toll.

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[Jonathan S.]

^ I can see how riding a motorcycle up the auto road is something that is great in concept yet the details of the reality might now work out so well!

Also see what you mean now about the snow conditions in Airplane Gully: skiing yesterday was great, but definitely some hints of firmness, totally unlike in Left Gully on Wednesday.
Plus once the shadows started creeping across (late start to the outing!), I could sense just a little bit of crispiness developing.

Some silly pics and equally silly captions yesterday:
https://www.strava.com/activities/5352832133
As for beta, still 1,100' vertical in Airplane Gully although will probably be only ~800' by Memorial Day weekend.

[Timberridge]

That looks like a lousy motorcycle ride with all that shit hanging off the back. And if that wasn't enough, he followed it up by a hike to ski shitty ribbons of snow? Egads.

[Jonathan S.]

That looks like a lousy motorcycle ride with all that shit hanging off the back. And if that wasn't enough, he followed it up by a hike to ski shitty ribbons of snow? Egads.

I can't speak to the quality of the motorcycle ride.
But after we carpooled up the road, a ~15 min casual hike brought us to a nearly 1,200' vertical couloir of perfect corn, and a ~1 min casual hike from the car brought us to a nearly ~600' vertical snowfield of perfect corn.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2397212237
https://www.facebook.com/NERandoRace...53824907992070

[cat in january]

I don’t think timber ridge even skis

[danmelon]

I don’t think timber ridge even skis

He's pushing a 13k post count in less than 10y though, so he's an expert.

[Vt-Freeheel]

Impressive rescue yesterday. Even with the copter lift the amount of time to be rescued was long.

mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org/sliding-fall-tuckerman-ravine

[m2711c]

Nice work by the crowd, carrying a long distance litter ain’t no piece of cake on the flats let alone on some steep shit like that.

[AmmergauerTele]

That ain't easy to carry that litter down from Tucks to Hermit, super steep and I'm sure probably all rock most of the way with the snow melting out. I remember assisting in one of those back in 1991.

Semper Paratus Coast Guard. Impressive aviating with the low ceilings - job well done!

[ex-powderbroker]

great interview by harvey with geoff from magic, check it out here:

https://nyskiblog.com/geoff-hatheway-of-magic/

[Peruvian]

Nice work by the crowd, carrying a long distance litter ain’t no piece of cake on the flats let alone on some steep shit like that.

I can’t quite tell from the photo, but the SAR I was on had a wheel on our Stokes that made such rescues much easier. It still can take a dozen (and more) to get a patient down to where the ATV can transport. Valiant effort.

[anotherVTskibum]

I can’t quite tell from the photo, but the SAR I was on had a wheel on our Stokes that made such rescues much easier. It still can take a dozen (and more) to get a patient down to where the ATV can transport. Valiant effort.

I don't know if it's true of all their litters, or if anything has changed since, but the litter we used after a friend got knocked unconscious around 2008 certainly didn't have a wheel. At the time, it was skiable from the bowl to Hojos, and we were bummed not to have a toboggan available (I think we had something like five patrollers in the group, almost everyone was a ski area employee of some type), but the snow ranger pointed out how rarely they'd actually be able to ski a sled down safely.

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[anotherVTskibum]

Also, it's definitely silly season if you want to put skis to snow in Maine. Thankfully, it's not a particularly long walk to the terrain park remnants.

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[Jonathan S.]

I can’t quite tell from the photo, but the SAR I was on had a wheel on our Stokes that made such rescues much easier. It still can take a dozen (and more) to get a patient down to where the ATV can transport. Valiant effort.

I don't know if it's true of all their litters, or if anything has changed since, but the litter we used after a friend got knocked unconscious around 2008 certainly didn't have a wheel. At the time, it was skiable from the bowl to Hojos, and we were bummed not to have a toboggan available (I think we had something like five patrollers in the group, almost everyone was a ski area employee of some type), but the snow ranger pointed out how rarely they'd actually be able to ski a sled down safely.

For confirmation I asked a friend who is on the Tucks ski patrol (although he happened to leave early in the morning that day before the recent incident):
"Toboggans/litters are in the base of the Bowl in the rescue cache (Connection Cache [edit: with the memorial plaque for Bill Kling) as well as the cache at Hermit Lake. There are also litters at the Dow Cache in Huntington Ravine as well as Harvard Cabin."

I remember reading about the wheeled litter being used to transport patients down from Hermit Lake in prior incidents.
From the Bowl to the Hermit Lake though, that wouldn't do any good.
My friend thought the wheeled litter is obsolete now, but if it were still around, it would be stored in the Hermit Lake area.

[Benny Profane]

I don’t think timber ridge skis mud and rocks

Fify

[spanky]

great interview by harvey with geoff from magic, check it out here:

https://nyskiblog.com/geoff-hatheway-of-magic/

Agreed. Great interview. I recognize a couple of maggots mentioned too!

[Aldo]

Thanks for the link.
Great article.
Much to be thankful for these days at Magic!