Big Mountain Simulator- 3/4/25

With some ambitious goals in bigger ranges and the Whites as his training ground, Spencer asked me to put together an itinerary for and join him on a ‘big day out.’ Said day tired him out, so he asked me to write up the blog post about it.

6AM
Spencer and I left Pinkham after Andrew, Hilary, and Caleb and just ahead of Andy ‘Big Daddy’ and Pete. We arrived at the base of Hillman’s Highway and found that the team ahead of us had already put in a booter.

Booted up Hillmans - hand shear tests showed a little upside down snow but no significant red flags

Skied Dodge’s Drop - the scariest snow of the day was at the wind-loaded top (and we were extra-cautious after the avy incident there yesterday) so we down-climbed through rocks around it into the line and skied cautiously, one at a time. Dropped into Hillman’s and went back up

Skied Duchess - found excellent and well-bonded snow all the way down, which made me wish I had brought wider and stiffer skis. We then traversed into Hillman’s and headed up

Skied Empress - Caleb texted us that they had just skied the line and Spencer and I were more than happy to follow their tracks. We then skied down to Hermit Lake Shelter and refilled our water

9:30AM
Skinned up to Tuckerman Ravine - at the base of the bowl we ran into Blake, Forest, and Lenka who told us that they had just skied Chute Variation and it was excellent, deep, and shockingly stable. We sent them over the Hillman’s zone and immediately followed their tracks up Left Gully to make our own assessments and access the lines in the bowl from above

Skied Chute Variation - deep, light, and well-bonded snow with a little bit of added spice thrown in by the crown lines from previous days’ slides. We then headed back up Left for another lap

Skied Chute - same conditions as above, excellent. We then booted up Right Gully. Part way up the ascent, Spencer made me sit down and eat some snacks—he had noticed my coordination and pace falling off and, accurately, thought I might be headed for a bonk

Skied Lip - firm and unpleasant sastrugi gave way at the roll-over to well-bonded and boot top-deep powder all the way down into the bowl. We headed back up Right for more

Skied Sluice - with Spencer, Jimmy (Harvard Cabin caretaker), and Emily (Hermit Lake caretaker) below me on a Rocky Talkie, telling me what obstacles to avoid that I couldn’t see from above, I dropped in and found some excellent turns down the spine on the skier’s right side of the line. We then headed back up Right and across the alpine garden to Huntington Ravine, just as the forecasted storm started to roll in

12:30PM
Skied Diagonal - with legs feeling the 9k of vert so far on the outing, a well-trafficked and bumpy run down Diagonal had us making some of our ugliest turns of the day. We then put on crampons, got out our tools, and started the climbing portion of the itinerary

Climbed Damnation Gully - moving well and both in high spirits, we enjoyed ‘plastic’ ice all the way to the top. At the rim of the bowl, the storm was starting to make itself known and tossed us around. We cached our skis and headed over to Yale Gully

Down-climbed Yale Gully - here, it was my turn to notice that the wheels were starting to come off with Spencer. A slower pace, less confidence, and declining coordination meant it was time for a snack and a check-in

Climbed North Gully - attributing the above to a lack of comfort with down-climbing snow slopes, we headed over to North (the most under-rated climb in Huntington) and started up. Within feet of starting the climb, it became apparent that Spencer was losing steam. We stopped, reset expectations about pace and objectives for the rest of the day, put on some layers, threw on goggles, and continued up with me keeping Spencer close. At the top, we found that high winds and precip had dropped visibility in the alpine garden to about 100 feet. Comfortable, with plenty of layers and lots of recognizable landmarks, we headed straight for our cached skis and then to the top of Central

Skied Central Gully - Spencer down-climbed the line while I skied just ahead of him, retracing our tracks from yesterday. For the first time in years, there is skiable snow all the way through the ice bulge at the bottom, making this line even more enjoyable. At the base we parted ways, he put on skis and made some pretty turns down the fan then radioed that he was safe and headed home

Climbed Pinnacle Gully - once I got the OK from Spencer, I put my sharps back on, found friendly ice all the way to the top of the line, and then dropped into Odell’s

Climbed Odell’s - after walking down the upper snowfield I got to blue ice, cached my skis and pack at the cross-over route to South, and made a quick descent and ascent of the line

Skied South Gully - I traversed over from Odell’s and booted up to the choke, transitioned for the last time that day, skied back to my car, and headed straight to Ledge Brewing for a taco

It is pretty incredible that New Hampshire offers all of this terrain for us to play and train in. As always, huge gratitude to the hard-working federal employees at the Mount Washington Avalanche Center and the grant-funded forecasters at the Mt. Washington Observatory for giving us essential data to make informed decisions in the backcountry.

Hillman’s: descent routes in red, ascent route in blue

Tuckerman: descent routes in red, ascent routes in blue (photo from last week)

Huntington: ski routes in red, climbing routes in blue (poor photo from 2019)

Spencer, assessing the snowpack at the top of Dodge’s Drop

Spencer, getting ready to drop into Duchess with Tucks in the background

Adam, headed for a bonk at the top of Left Gully. 

Spencer, exiting the hanging snowfield on Empress and contemplating his life choices

Spencer, regretting his life choices as he threads the needle between cliffs on Empress

Spencer, transitioning before dropping the blind roll-over into Chute

Spencer, putting in the boot pack on a very smooth Right Gully

Spencer, finding his limit on North in Huntington.

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  - Adam Bidwell