What is better than one bluebird day on Mount Washington? How about two straight bluebird days on Mount Washington?! After last Sunday’s epic day in Tuckerman Ravine, I figured my best days of the season were behind me as the snow cover began to recede. But Gulf of Slides had more than enough snow to delight under a canopy of blue. Warm temperatures and bluebird skies dominated the afternoon as we found ourselves thinking at times that it was actually too warm.
At 8 A.M., I met up with Jim and Sled at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. The sky was completely bluebird with temperatures on the rise. We discussed what to leave behind based on the warm temperature and the desire to travel as light as possible. Essentially, the more we decided to leave behind the better. Almost no extra layers besides our base layers were truly needed though Sled and I donned the wind shells for the descent.
The warm spell this week had melted more snow than expected on the Gulf of Slides Ski Trail. Consistent snow that was good enough for skinning was not to be had until nearly the first First Aid Cache. However, Sled and I opted to give skins a shot with varying degrees of success from about the 3/4 point of the ski trail. Jim had no desire to step over grass and rocks in between the snow patches and continued booting up to the second First Aid Cache under the gullies. There was not much snow on the ski trail at all! It will likely be unskinable from below the first cache after this weekend, so this may have been my final skin for the season. It was enjoyable despite the variety in the snow pack and need to walk our skis over rock and grass.
I am not familiar with the names of the gullies, but we took the first one after the First Aid Cache which was the most filled in and wide open of the choices. A nice boot ladder had already been kicked in lookers right which we used to ascend. The climb was pleasant given the warm temps, sunny skies, soft snow, and easy boot ladder. Upon reaching the top of the snow pack, a half dozen tele skiers were hiking over from Boott Spur and they dropped in with us. Views from the top were great with some clouds in the distance to the south and west but other wise clear skies and long views.
We dropped into some perfect corn immediately at the top of the gully, sah-weet!!! However, things quickly changed to an awkward mashed potato. Who ever got first tracks at 8-9am likely got perfect corn top to bottom, but we settled for sloppy seconds. Occasional 20 inch diameter snow balls would make things interesting, nearly sending me flying when I skied into one. Overall, it was a fantastic run and ended way to quickly! We all decided one run would be more than enough for the day and headed out on the ski trail picking up some cached gear at the First Aid Cache.
Skiing down the GoS Ski Trail was survival skiing at its best. Cover quickly went from suck to blow after the lower cache at which point more sensible skiers opted to walk. I would not be deterred. I managed to stay standing and not fall down despite my snow to grass to terrain combinations, so essentially it was a smashing success reducing the amount of hiking by a few hundred feet. Eventually, I called it quits when it wasn’t worth walking the skis between the 3 foot wide patches of snow.
Great day, great skiing, great company, great weather… yet another fabulous day on the rock pile. I thoroughly enjoyed my first trip to the Gulf of Slides and my second weekend in a row with warm bluebird weather on the Rock Pile. Pinch me.
