Monday Magic - 1/5/25

Jan 05, 2026

After a week of ice and no vis up high Gabe and I set out with low expectations from Pinkham Notch Camp. We made quick work of the skin up to Hojos, our first sights of the bowl proved more promising then expected; a smooth layer of snow covered many of the lines on Center Headwall. We had to go into the bowl to see if there is skiing to be had instead of our familiar ice skating.

Half an hour later we found ourselves booting up a sheet of glare ice in Right Gully, we soon realized the crux of the day would be how icy the start zones would be on the runs in the bowl. We set our sights on The Lip as the first run of the day and hoped as we reached the rollover the snow would turn from the treacherous rain crust to the soft snow we've heard reports of.

We skied tentatively down to the entrance to the lip, the snow was, well ice. As we reached the rollover I thought we may be booting back out of here and down Lions Head today. To my surprise just as we came to the rollover the snow switched to perfect windboard with a few inches of soft snow on top. Gabe and I skied swooping turns down The Lip, we looked at each other and new the day was on.

The rest of the tour was spent lapping the right gully booter, we skied more laps of Lip and adventured to Center Headwall, the highlight of the day. On Center headwall after a scary first few turns on glare ice the snow turned to perfectly light boot top powder. We did two more laps enjoying the great turns down Tuckerman's steeps and exited down a scratchy Sherb with smiles on our faces.

-Brigham Ellis and Gabe Weinrieb