NE Snowfield, Great Gulf/Airplane Gully, & the Auto Road - May 25, 2014

Scott, Watson and I closed out the season with our first Slackfest outing on Sunday, May 25, 2014.  We pulled up to the Auto Road entrance at 8:15 a.m. in the #3 position.  Pretty quickly there was a line of at least 10 cars behind us.  We were excited to capitalize on a decent weather window Sunday morning and early afternoon in an otherwise poor forecast for the long weekend.

Auto Road is a bit pricey - $36 for two, but much better than a lift ticket I suppose.  And the price includes a free audio CD that might have been interesting if we weren't so terrified of careening off the narrow, guard-rail less road.  Definitely the scariest part of the day.

- Driving up the Auto road, looking across Huntington towards Dodge's Drop and Hillman's -

We parked near the NE snowfield after initially taking a look out into Great Gulf from the Air Force parking lot.  Well, after taking a look into the fog - we couldn't actually see the Great Gulf.  After talking to a few folks, we decided to take a few runs on the snowfield first in an effort to actually see Airplane Gully before skiing it.

- Map of Great Gulf - 

- Looking across Great Gulf to Airplane Gully after the fog lifted - 

GOS Sandbox, plus a little exploration - May 3, 2014

Scott and I headed up to Mt. Washington on Saturday, May 3.  Long week at work meant I couldn't leave Charlestown until Saturday morning.  Threat of rain/visibility issues on Saturday afternoon motivated me to set the alarm on the early side.  Left the house at 4:45 a.m., picked Scott up in Portsmouth at 5:40, and pulled into the visitor center parking lot at 7:35 a.m.  Figured the late season trip coupled with a threat of rain would mean a guaranteed spot in the main lot.  I lost that wager and owe Scott a beer, we were the 2nd car parked in the first auxiliary lot. 

We headed up Hillman hoping to ski Dutchess, but it became apparent the line would require some careful turns and side-stepping through the choke in the middle - just not enough snow to get after it for the whole run.