Powder Day in the New Hampshire Backcountry

My backcountry days are normally limited to late season on Mount Washington. But three days after more than a foot of fresh covered much of New Hampshire, it was a sure bet that even the most secret of stashes at the resorts would have been hammered into submission. It was time to take to the backcountry for a rare mid-season powder day via earned turns.

If a 5 minute hike keeps 95% of the skiers away, then a 95 minute hike keeps greater all but less than 1% of skiers away. Despite that fact, the skin track was already set and we were grateful. Temperatures remained cold but comfortable all day with almost no wind except near the summit. Sunny blue skies rained supreme with occasional cloud cover every few hours.

We quickly gained our destination to find nearly unlimited options of virgin snow. Wind buff unbreakable crust is what we expected. But much to our delight, we found boot deep powder with a sinkability factor of about one foot. More wind protected areas offered better powder conditions as the slight crust became a hook magnet causing several sitzmarks on our descents.

This was my first earned turn experience in exactly three months, so I was toast after only two runs. The decision was made to bushwhack out instead of skinning back up to skiable lines. After an arduous fifteen minutes of eating bark and pushing through low angle trees, we hooked back up with the trail back to the cars. A sensational day of earned turn backcountry in New England. I doubt any where else in New England offered better skiing today.

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