A Winter Ascent of Henderson Ridge - 3/10/26

By: Spencer Ralston

With warm temperatures and a stream of cars pouring in from Boston, Andrew and I hatched a plan to avoid the crowds.

We started skinning around 6 a.m. from the very warm Pinkham parking lot. We skinned up a very bony Huntington Ravine Trail and into the base of The Fan. Using ski crampons, we worked our way up Henderson Ridge (5.3, 600 ft).

We transitioned into rock climbing shoes and began our ascent. Enjoying the warm rock and moderate climbing, we eventually topped out on the ridge. We put our ski boots back on and scrambled our way to the top of the ravine.

After walking the Auto Road, we were shocked by how much snow had melted. We walked the entire way from Huntington Ravine to Great Gulf—no skiing or skinning on the Auto Road or the trail down to Great Gulf.

From the walk over, we lined up Pipeline. We dropped in and had amazing soft turns all the way to the choke/ice bulge. Andrew hucked it and scored more turns down into the base of Great Gulf. I downclimbed and enjoyed the turns as well.

We transitioned again and started the mega boot up to the summit snowfields.

After the loooooonnng slog, we finally reached the snowfields and dropped in for some corn turns. Andrew—totally did not yard sale on the snowfields… did not happen. We skied over, and I dropped the Lip while Andrew enjoyed a lap on Center Headwall.

After avoiding the crowds all day, we bumped into the conga line and some friends in the Bowl. After going back and forth, we tried to ski out toward the Empress/Duchess snowfields. We barely made it… barely.

The Sherburne Ski Trail is sad. Core-shot corners, moguls, and dirt spots really slow down the exit. All in all… not bad for a Tuesday.