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skix

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Earlier this week a skier fell into crevasse in Tuckerman Ravine

Good article but I was all set to hear a story about you flying down Tuckerman and ending up in a tomahawk. You have a story like that? Reading this one gave me a flashback to 30 years ago doing the Buckner Cave waterfall passage. Haven't thought about that in many years but it was a cakewalk compared to what happened to that guy at Tuckerman.
 

CalG

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I met my wife while living in Bethlehem NH "In the Shadow of Mount Washington".

Winter snow comes with the deal. Be careful out there!
 
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Doug Briggs

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Good article but I was all set to hear a story about you flying down Tuckerman and ending up in a tomahawk. You have a story like that? Reading this one gave me a flashback to 30 years ago doing the Buckner Cave waterfall passage. Haven't thought about that in many years but it was a cakewalk compared to what happened to that guy at Tuckerman.

I've seen a couple of tomahawks, but I don't have any spectacular falls on Mt Washington to discuss. I have skied Raymonds Cataract where a skier died about a week ago. It required some careful downclimbing, albeit with skis on. We continued to ski down the Cutler River almost all the way down. A really fun excursion.

I have watched a friend slide down the Sluice when it was moguled. That empties onto Lunch Rocks. We had hiked up Huntington, up and over to the Sluice. We had wanted to summit but the winds were well over 60 mph so we just stayed in the lee of the ridge. He dropped into the Sluice, made two turns and then fell and slid. Unknown to us, he was trying to relocate his dislocated shoulder so that he could then proceed to self-arrest. He never got the shoulder back in and came to a stop just meters from Lunch Rocks.

My nearest disaster on Mt Washington was when I was young (well underage) and took a bottle of Beam up on an overnight trip. I drank half of it and skied down the next morning, somehow. How I made it I'll never know.

This was one of my last visits to Tuckerman. Skiing Lobster Claw when I was a telemarker.

Lobster Claw - Tuckerman Ravine - Tele.jpg
 
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LiquidFeet

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From that link that @Erik Timmerman just posted titled:
What It’s Like to Fall 60 Feet Into a Crevasse and Claw Your Way Out

It is important for readers to understand that these areas of undermined and melted snow create such a hazard to rescuers that our rescue team may not choose to go to someone’s aid inside these holes. Hangfire, falling ice, other skiers triggering sluff into the hole or edge collapse would influence that decision. In most cases, like the one in this article, the victim’s have chosen to expose themselves to these risks by attempting to jump over, ski above these holes or simply to enter this terrain to recreate, possibly without a full understanding of the potential consequences. USFS Snow Rangers, Ski Patrol, AMC Caretakers or bystanders may be able to drop you a diaper harness or the rope ladder from the Lunch Rocks cache but if you find yourself unable to climb out or reach the harness, you may die alone in the hole. Most rational people understand that the choice to to take these risks lies with the victim alone. The decision to risk the life of a rescuer to aid a person who made that risky choice could lead to the loss of two lives. That’s not a choice that rescuers should have to make.
 

RJS

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There's probably a better place to ask this, but since we have folks posting here with experience skiing Mount Washington I would love to ask a question. How enjoyable is the skiing from the actual summit of Mount Washington (the Snowfields)? I know that places like Tuckerman Ravine are steeper, more technical, and probably hold a lot more snow given the extreme winds on Mount Washington, but looking at pictures of the mountain, it looks like it would be so much fun to start from the top and ski the Snowfields before dropping into Tuckerman Ravine or somewhere else. Is the skiing less challenging so most people don't bother, or is weather a big issue? Just curious.
 
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Doug Briggs

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@RJS ,

It really depends on the day. The Ravine is relatively protected while the summit is extremely exposed. Until the Auto Road opens, you'd have to hike to the snowfields, likely by Tuckerman Ravine, Lionshead or Huntington Ravine.

The Snowfields are a splendid ski on their own. It isn't as flat as you might think although it does mellow out above the Ravine. The following images are from May 24, 2018. We drove up the auto road, hiked down to the snowfields (200 m or so distance, not much vertical descent) and booted up. From there we skied down, maybe 150 - 200 m vertical of skiing and hiked back up for a couple of laps. Then back to the car. It wasn't possible to ski from the snowfields to The Lip.

The snow was very soft and a bit precarious near the rocks where you could either find a hollow spot or uncover a rock. In a trip down over the Lip, he diciest part can be making sure you are not skiing into a randkluft. Misjudging your entry can be hazardous and/or fatal. This is one good reason to climb up through Tuckerman Ravine.

Randkluft or rimaye are the German and French terms for what is commonly known in North America as a “moat”. While there is a long history of using the term crevasse to describe the deep holes and cracks in the snowpack in Tuckerman Ravine, the editor is correct in identifying that the term “crevasse” as applicable only to slots within a glacier, which is a permanent, year round river of ice in higher elevation mountain ranges.
excerpted from comments to the story in the OP

20180524_144842.jpg

My brother hiking back up. You can see the consistency of the snow in the bottom of this shot.

20180524_144847.jpg


20180524_160707.jpg

A field of snow that we detoured into showing our tracks. As you can see, it isn't flat by any means.
 

tch

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Having hiked to the summit several times in both winter and summer, I'm with Doug in saying the snowfields would be highly variable for skiing. The area is heavily bouldered and the wind so strong that it tends to blow the snow away. So the danger of hitting something or falling prey to a randkluft (thanks for that word, Doug!) is present pretty much all winter, regardless of how deep the snowpack is lower down.
 
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JonathanShefftz

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Having hiked to the summit several times in both winter and summer, I'm with Doug in saying the snowfields would be highly variable for skiing. The area is heavily bouldered and the wind so strong that it tends to blow the snow away. So the danger of hitting something or falling prey to a randkluft (thanks for that word, Doug!) is present pretty much all winter, regardless of how deep the snowpack is lower down.

Although the first sentence in the above quote applies in general to above-treeline terrain in the Presidentials (as opposed to the numerous at-treeline glacial cirques, including the justifiably famed Tuckerman Ravine), a notable exception is the popular (relatively speaking) Northeast Snowfield.

At only ~32 degrees in its center, it is also a good choice for terrain selection with avalanche concerns.
(The well-publicized summit snowfields avalanche a few years ago was only a different snowfield that is a few degrees steeper.)
That is one of the reasons we skied it yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/NERandoRaceSeries/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2887944034580158

But as Doug previously noted, the above-treeline terrain is far more exposed to the weather.
Even yesterday (i.e., the penultimate day of April) we had to cross through terrain with negative 9F windchill to reach that snowfield.

Fortunately undermining is not a concern on the above-treeline terrain, so holes / moats / crevasses do not form.
(And no, nobody uses the term "randkluft" out here, except in that weird interview.)
However, as was previously noted in this thread, the above-treeline terrain is definitely not flat, and the emerging boulders in the spring are definitely a major concern: both in the middle of the ski lines:
https://www.mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org/skier-injured-in-east-snowfields/
... and in the runouts ... or rather, the lack of runouts.
(You have to put on the brakes far earlier than might appear at first!)

Once the Auto Road opens to the summit (openings to treeline don't provide ski access), usually around mid or late May, if you get a good parking spot, the walk to the snow is far less than at a typical resort from the lodge to the lift. But even though you don't have to worry about avalanches, climbing gear, or undermining, watch out for rocks, or rather, be even more cautious around the rocks you can't see!
Also, if you're not there on an absolutely bluebird day, keep an eye on the weather, quite literally in terms of scanning the sky periodically, as the view can be obscured when you're at the bottom of the snow.
 

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