albee
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- Jan 14, 2005
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If you pick up good old Gene Danell's AMC White Mountain Guidebook, there are ample and explicit warnings about the difficulty of this trail. Well, I have to say that today the trail lived up to expectations and then some. I started out solo at 10:15 AM with an open mind as to whether the conditions would be safe enough to make it all the way up the ravine. I was also considering summiting Washington if it wasn't too windy above treeline.
Anyway, after a long and uneventful hike up the Tuckerman's Ravine trail and the unimposing lead-up to Huntington's Ravine, I got to the boulders at the foot of the ravine, looked up, and said "wow"! There was snow whipping off the top of the ravine, evidence of small avalanches on many of the different routes, and four tiny human figures moving steadily upward about halfway up the slope of the central gully.
I decided that I was up for the challenge today, and that if I could catch up to the other groups then my chances of getting all the way up would significantly increase. As I suited up, I was a bit concerned because I had passed 5 people that were descending on the lower part of the Huntington's trail and they all had different reasons why they didn't think it was safe to go all the way up. Some said too much ice and some said too much wind... I took a wait-and-see approach.
Well, after about 15 minutes I caught up to the leading group of 2 climbers that were finally putting on their crampons after bare-booting the easier lower section of the ravine. The other 2 guys in the group had descended due to having to get to work, but they said it looked do-able higher up. The group I ended up with were experienced ice-climbers and I took turns with one of them breaking trail. In this case breaking trail meant route-finding and making kick-holes. There were a few semi-technical patches of ice that were difficult to navigate.
After about an hour of struggling up the slope, all the while getting buffeted by wind and pelted with ice pellets and whipping snow, we made it over the top of the ravine and were hit by the full force of the wind coming across the Alpine Garden. The last 150 yards of the ravine had been the hardest, especially with the wind funnelling through the small opening at the top of the ravine and whipping past us at over 60 MPH!
The Alpine Garden was spectacular with rime ice everywhere, 50 MPH sustained winds, and no tracks in the snow to be seen anywhere. I'm sure all tracks get filled in quickly with that much stuff blowing around up there. At this point we saw someone, presumably from the Observatory, telemark skiing down the slope from the summit cone. They made long, beautiful turns on the rocky, windy slope, and stopped about halfway down to take some pictures and measurements.
We scooted over to the Lion's Head trail to descend and snapped a few pictures at the edge of Tuckerman's Ravine. From here we basically split up and I jogged down the trail all the way to Pinkham Notch. The whole trip, 7.7 miles, had taken me 4 hours and 45 minutes. It was quite an adventure for such a short distance and time frame.
In retrospect, I was glad that I had my ice axe and crampons. I should have brought goggles and a helmet. Sunglasses weren't enough with all that whipping snow and ice. Thankfully, nothing bigger than a marble conked me on the head. This trail, in these conditions, should only be attempted by someone who fully knows what they are doing. Had I not met the climbers that I did up there, I would have turned back at about 2/3rds of the way up. So thanks Dan and Greg!
Anyway, after a long and uneventful hike up the Tuckerman's Ravine trail and the unimposing lead-up to Huntington's Ravine, I got to the boulders at the foot of the ravine, looked up, and said "wow"! There was snow whipping off the top of the ravine, evidence of small avalanches on many of the different routes, and four tiny human figures moving steadily upward about halfway up the slope of the central gully.
I decided that I was up for the challenge today, and that if I could catch up to the other groups then my chances of getting all the way up would significantly increase. As I suited up, I was a bit concerned because I had passed 5 people that were descending on the lower part of the Huntington's trail and they all had different reasons why they didn't think it was safe to go all the way up. Some said too much ice and some said too much wind... I took a wait-and-see approach.
Well, after about 15 minutes I caught up to the leading group of 2 climbers that were finally putting on their crampons after bare-booting the easier lower section of the ravine. The other 2 guys in the group had descended due to having to get to work, but they said it looked do-able higher up. The group I ended up with were experienced ice-climbers and I took turns with one of them breaking trail. In this case breaking trail meant route-finding and making kick-holes. There were a few semi-technical patches of ice that were difficult to navigate.
After about an hour of struggling up the slope, all the while getting buffeted by wind and pelted with ice pellets and whipping snow, we made it over the top of the ravine and were hit by the full force of the wind coming across the Alpine Garden. The last 150 yards of the ravine had been the hardest, especially with the wind funnelling through the small opening at the top of the ravine and whipping past us at over 60 MPH!
The Alpine Garden was spectacular with rime ice everywhere, 50 MPH sustained winds, and no tracks in the snow to be seen anywhere. I'm sure all tracks get filled in quickly with that much stuff blowing around up there. At this point we saw someone, presumably from the Observatory, telemark skiing down the slope from the summit cone. They made long, beautiful turns on the rocky, windy slope, and stopped about halfway down to take some pictures and measurements.
We scooted over to the Lion's Head trail to descend and snapped a few pictures at the edge of Tuckerman's Ravine. From here we basically split up and I jogged down the trail all the way to Pinkham Notch. The whole trip, 7.7 miles, had taken me 4 hours and 45 minutes. It was quite an adventure for such a short distance and time frame.
In retrospect, I was glad that I had my ice axe and crampons. I should have brought goggles and a helmet. Sunglasses weren't enough with all that whipping snow and ice. Thankfully, nothing bigger than a marble conked me on the head. This trail, in these conditions, should only be attempted by someone who fully knows what they are doing. Had I not met the climbers that I did up there, I would have turned back at about 2/3rds of the way up. So thanks Dan and Greg!
