Right Gully - Tuckerman Ravine - 11/15/2025

Guest Blog by Hilary McCloy

I hiked in from the parking lot up about 500 vertical feet before starting to skin up.  It was cold with some light wind.  The wind picked up closer to Hermit Lake and the cloud/snow cloud over Tucks gradually dissipated.  My plan was to go up and just take a look at what had happened overnight with the wind and I was solo so was skiing more conservatively. 

The snow in chicken rock and right gully did not appear to be textured however the lower chute fan and choke did have more texture and concave vertically.   I watched a few skiers come down right gully and things looked fun.  I skinned up to the bottom of right and assessed the snow.  It was about a foot of soft unconsolidated snow that I could paw through easily with my hand down to the surface.  No sign of wind slab and no report of slab at the top from skier who had topped out. 

I hiked about 1/3 of the way up and turned to ski mostly because I was skiing alone and not because of any yellow or red flags.  I don't ski that often alone so that was what I felt comfortable with.  It skied really well in right and chicken rock - soft fun turns.  I then did another lap to about 3/4 of the way up right until it started to get shwacky and had a another fun run.  The 2nd lap did warm up significantly with some clumping and so I was happy to get out of there as the snow started to get wind affected and maybe not ski as dry and cold.  

I skied 1/2 way down to Hermit Lake and then hiked.  The sherb skied great to about the cutover that would kick you out between the 2 bridges.  Then I took my time to avoid rocks until the trail starts to turn and then hiked down.