Happy Birthday Jimmy + Yale Gully -> Right Gully - 12/23/25

By Spencer Ralston

A big Happy Birthday to Mr. Jimmy Rips of the Hermit Lake Shelter. He is up on Mount Washington after Christmas, if you want to stop by the cabin to say hello. 

Now onto the blog...

Jimmy, Tyler, and I started out from the parking lot a touch after 6am. We skinned up and over to the Harvard Cabin turnoff toward Huntington Ravine. We continued up the fire road, crossing a handful of water bars—only one of which required a bit of problem-solving. We took our skis off, tossed them to the other side, then took a running start and jumped it ourselves. From there, we skinned up to the bowl and switched into crampon mode. Jimmy watched the sun come up and slipped back down the trail. Tyler and myself saw how fun Yale Gully looked (WI2-3 Easy Snow, 1,000ft) and decided that would be our objective. 

Enjoying the alpine terrain we crossed over a few ice steps, enjoyed firm and supportive snow and only one small mixed step. The sun was on our backs and the wind had died down to a light breeze. We topped out and made the slog over to Right Gully. Only stopping to note that the East Snowfields looked icy. 

We dropped into Right Gully. Tyler skied a thin layer of dust on the crust on the upper slopes, seeing this I decided to boot down the top section and ski the better looking snow. Seventy-five percent of the gully was soft and enjoyable snow. We skied down into Chicken Rock/ Lower Sluice, which was firm but edge-able. We side slipped down to Hermit Lake and I skied down a very icy and sub-par Sherburn Ski Trail. 

As always... I made it to work on time. My streak continues so far.