On March 23, 2012, North Tripyramid also happened to offer some of the best turns I've ever enjoyed in New England, and I've been skiing here since the Regan administration. Scott, Ryan (first time on skins!) and I met at our usual spot, the Concord Trailways in Concord, NH at 7 a.m. and headed north from there.
The slide starts narrow, but gets steeper and wider as you ascend. The steepest part is probably in the middle, and it was around this area that we put our skis on our back and had to deal with some ice covered rocks buried by the 18 inches of fresh snow. Tough go - maybe I'll get that ice axe after all. It was also around here that we dug a few snow pits and performed a few stability tests. We definitely were powder hungry, and felt great relief when the propagation saw test (my favorite, although a bit time consuming) checked out. We had chosen North Tripyramid over some other mountains because it was west facing, and extrapolating from the Mt. Washington Avy report, we felt comfortable the snow would be more stable than, for example, the south facing Arrow slide on Mt. Hancock. We also were happy when a telemarker (the only other person on skis we saw that day) came down without issue shortly after we made our "go" decision. "Nick," the telemark skier, encouraged us to follow his tracks into a hardwood glade when we came down, but the skiing was so good that we completely forgot about his suggestion until we were too far down to turn around. Next time, for sure.
Anyway, after about 3.5 hours of skinning and climbing, we stopped for lunch near the top of the slide. Scott once again had the best meal - Taco Salad. We didn't sit for long though as the intermittent sun was losing its battle to the clouds and the wind and snow were picking up.
Quite simply - the ride down ranks as one of the best I've ever had in my life. Nothing but pow, and enough room to really let it rip a bit (except for in the ice covered rock section, which you'll notice when I eat it about half way through the video).
As always, enjoy the pictures and video. I thought RHCP's "Snow" would be an appropriate soundtrack given the winter-wonderland we experienced - although Kiedis probably was singing about a different white, powdery substance. No matter.
Portrait of Ryan making use of an AT set up for the first time:
Self Portrait:
Ryan and Scott hiking through the snow:
Pretty shot. So nice to be outside on a snowy Saturday in the White Mountains.
Lift at the top of Snows Mountain. On the way back, we skinned Upper Snows instead of Lower Snows so we could ski straight back to the parking lot.
Victory Purple Gatorade. Nothing better.
Climbing action shot of Ryan and Scott.
Friendly groomer who gave us the Upper Snows tip rather than calling us in.
Video:
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