Lots of weather discussion on the way up - we hoped to spend both days exploring the west side and/or Oakes Gulf and save Tuckerman and/or the Gulf of Slides for a later spring day. But Saturday was going to be cold with a strong NW wind, and we thought skinning up the Cog wouldn't be very pleasant under those conditions (very exposed). So we headed to the Gulf of Slides.
On Sunday, the prediction was for clouds, a chance of rain or sleet, and an even strong wind, but coming from the S or SW. We thought if we just went up the Ammo trail, rather than the Cog, and stayed below the treeline in Ammo Ravine, we might be protected from the wind, get in a few turns and check out the area for the first time before heading home in advance of the precipitation. Both plans worked out nicely.
Not much avalanche discussion - Mt. Washington got 9+ inches on Tuesday the 2nd, but strong NW winds since then, scouring the west side and loading Tuckerman and the GOS. Extrapolating from the Tuckerman report, we felt it was likely that any windslab instabilities in the Gulf of Slides would be minimal (especially on the more Eastern facing #1 and #2 rather than the SE facing fingers) given the amount of time that had passed since the snow fall.
Anyway - great trip on the whole, although two days of backcountry hiking sure is tiring (Scott and I fell asleep by 8:20 p.m. on Saturday). Saturday morning was cold, but by the time we got up on the slides, it was quite pleasant and the wind had died down. We took runs on #2 and #4 (I think that is correct, but I'm not quite sure). We had "first tracks" skinning up - surprising considering how crowded the parking lot was (we got one of the last spots at 8:15 a.m. when we arrived). But another 30-40 people headed up into the Gulf over the course of the day, leading to a rather icy decent down the Gulf of Slides trail. Its actually somewhat of a miracle that Scott was able to enjoy the goods, he lost the latch on his split board on the skin up, and got lucky when someone else found it and returned it to him!
On Sunday, the approach to the Ammo Ravine along the Ammo Ravine Trail was very quick (only one error when we started ascending the ravine on the trail rather than cutting out into the base, but boot skiing back down was actually kind of fun). Once in the ravine, we headed to Ammo North (which appeared to have more tree coverage and be less exposed to the wind). We did two runs, and in the trees, we actually found some great snow even though everything else was pretty scoured. All in all, we found this area was great and has a lot of promise for another day when we can get above the tree line. Pretty dramatic landscape, to say the least.
One outstanding question from a grizzled veteran that we ran into in the Ammo Ravine - anyone know what the difference between a Ravine and Gulf?
Enjoy the pictures and video (limited Ammo Ravine video, the battery ran out)!
Looking down Gully #2 in the Gulf of Slides.
Jon looking confident in the Gulf of Slides.
Scott and Jon hiking up one of the fingers (gully #4) in the Gulf of Slides.
Scott on the Ammo Ravine trail.
Looking at the Ammo Ravine North, we stayed in the gully in the left hand side of the picture.
Right side of the Ravine (Central Gully), the trees on the lookers right looked pretty awesome, looking forward to a return date later this spring or next year.
Scott, climbing up the Ammo Ravine.
Looking down the tree run we did a couple of laps on in Ammo Ravine.
Cool trains at the base of the Cog.
Enjoy the Video!
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