Summer Skiing in the Great Gulf

Summary
OwnerMITOC Gallery Administrator
Creation Date2005-06-06 10:28:13 UTC-0400
Description


It's summer. We're still sking.
Date: June 4, 2005
Location: Mt. Washington, NH
Participants: Chris Glazner, Greg Wallace

We'll post pictures once we get them developed


Trip Report
It's 85 in Boston. In fact, it's 85 in the Mt. Washington Valley. Most sane people would say, "let's go kayaking," or, in our case, "let's go hang out at Greg's lakehouse for the whole weekend." Not us. We're determined: The ski season isn't over yet.

We headed up to Camelot on Saturday, mostly to buy all the supplies for the new water system and to site the well and all that good backbreaking work. We also stopped by a boat shop that Greg used to look at to look into getting a new canoe for the club. Anyway, we were eaten alive by blackflies, discovered that the mice at Cameot obviously went to MIT, because the learned how to UNSCREW lids to peanut butter, and decided to head back to Greg's lakehouse near Squam to get an early start on Mt. Washington.

Normally, you might say, "damn, these guys are hardcore. They're hiking all the way over the summit just to get to the goods on the backside." Well, kinda. You see, last weekend a very bittersweet thing happened: The Mt. Washington Auto Road opened, bringing tons of overweight tourists to the summit visitors center where they can by food so overpriced a ski area would blush. The upside: we can drive pretty close to the goods.

The drive up Mt. Washington was fun, in a sort of sick, twisted way (Mocking the tape they give you is a hoot). We parked at the seven mile parking lot, and then took a shortcut to the Great Gulf trail, and hiked the mile or so in from there to "Airplane Gully", so named because a Cessna crashed in there about 15 years ago. Supposedly, you can still see broken glass and small pieces of aluminum, but we didn't see any. Greg and I were the third and fourth people to get there. We wasted no time, strapped on our skis, and were off down the 40+ degree slope.

Fun! The snow was great--perfect corn. I had issues with turning left that made for some interesting situations in this 20 ft. wide coulouir of snow. (Let's just say I've looked better). Greg kept skiing far past where most people turned around, just "to see how far he could go." I stopped when I had to start moving branches; he kept going. And going. Until he made it within 15 feet of the a small pool just before Spaulding Lake. The hike out was not fun. Not recommended!

The climb back up was long as hell. (1100 feet) Greg got stuck in the trees with his skis. Having ditched mine, I made it back up a ways, took a short run on the lower half, and then waited for him to appear on a rock outcropping. He shows up, and we climb back up the headwall to find a party up there. Maybe a dozen people; all bad ass skiers who seem to know each other well. Greg opts for one more run; I'm passing, as it was starting to get bumped up, and I get performance anxiety in front of large groups of people.

After Greg's run, we hike back to the car to get some lunch, and then over to the snowfields on Mt. Washington, which were in really good shape, considereding their exposure. There was a larger crowd here (the "hike" was only 100 yards from the road!), and had a lot more party-people there. The slope was a respectable 30 degrees, much more in my comfort zone. (I don't think we've been able to see the edge of Greg's comfort zone). It was hot, so I ended up just skiing in a short sleeve shirt and shorts. Skiing in shorts...quite liberating, actually.

The slopes were big, wide, and open. The snow wasn't as good as in Airplane Gully (hard patches here and there, and little discoloration from the Cog), but I also wasn't as concerned about wiping out. The boot back up (800 ft) wasn't bad at all. I went for several more runs there before we decided to call it a day. We then drove back down the road, and hit the Yankee Smokehouse in W. Ossipee for some BBQ (that even I approve of) before heading back to Boston.