Hit Tuckermans last weekend before officially calling the ski season quits.  This year we decided to go up on a Friday to avoid the crowds, and we were pleasantly surprised to see exactly two people up there when we arrived at the base of the ravine around 10am.  

Eamon post 2 hr hike to the ravine

After a quick snack of tangerines and a block of cheese, I hit the headwall.  There were two existing bootpacks from previous hikers - one up the right side of the headwall with very little exposure to rocks, and one up the Chute, which is on the left side of the headwall and splits two cliffs. My initial plan was to ski the left center of the headwall, so I decided on the Chute route.

 

Red line is the route up and the green is my intended path down.  Despite being the first one to hike the headwall that morning, the first half up was very mellow and the bootback was ok. Things started to get interesting when I approached the cliff on the left. The bootpack had been in the shadows of the cliff for the majority of the morning so the snow turned rock hard. It was then when I realized why no one else was hiking this early. The top half of the ravine turned out to be a sheet of ice, especially the left side which had less direct sun exposure. Unfortunately it was too steep to put on my skis or turn around - my only option was to continue up the ravine, honestly one of the scariest moments of my life.  One wrong step and I would have slid down the entire slope, and the rock exposure did not boost my confidence.  Hard to get a sense of the pitch from this pic.  This video gives you a better impression:

 

Not sure when this was taken, but it is directly below the cliff on the left.  Watch about :35 seconds into the video.

Anyways, after many careful and deliberate steps, some where my boots would penetrate the surface by only a couple inches, I made it to the top of the ravine.  Unfortunately my original plan to ski down the left-center of the headwall was out of the picture at this point so I carefully worked my way over to the right side.  Ten big turns on much softer, sun soaked snow later I returned to Eamon sunning himself on the lunch rocks.

Next stop: Maine for the Sugarloaf Reggae Fest.  We passed these guys on the way.  Curious little buggers.

Got in a great day of Spring skiing Saturday and had the chance to bust out the retro Peak 103.7 outfit. Amazingly almost every trail at Sugarloaf was open and the park was pretty baller.

One of the highlights of the weekend was Mighty Mystic's rendition of Night Nurse.  I captured a part of it but the quality is poor (turn the volume way down).

A solid way to wrap up an epic season.  Now it's officially time to put away the boards and take out the sticks. See you on the course.