I had the unique opportunity on April 11^th to participate in a 3 day expedition, an avalanche safety course, climbing Mount Washington, and skiing Tuckerman Ravine. The North Face company sponsored the trip along with Mark Synott, a TNF company athlete. He is a professional climbing guide and mountaineer instructor.  Mark and two of his associates were extremely informative preparing and instructing us for this avalanche training. On the first day part of the orientation consisted of Mark sharing many of his personnel experiences in precarious situations and proper decision tactics to avoid danger. One aspect discussed in great detail was, when approaching avalanche terrain, ask yourself what is the risk/reward factor that you’re willing to take. Avalanche territory has five levels of warnings. The first level “low” means that natural and human triggered avalanches are unlikely. However at this level something can still trigger a slide. Remarkably, only three weeks prior to us arriving at Tucks during a “low level” warning, a slide occurred on the headwall knocking three snowboarders off their feet and causing one of them to tumble to the base.

An interesting avalanche statistic in the northeast is that 80% of all avalanche deaths in the area are not caused by burial. They are from trauma of the fall. At this time of year, Tuckermans is in a snow cycle that is primarily a “low” rating due to the solar gain causing melt freeze scenarios on the slope. Again, this doesn’t take away any risks. I have witnessed in the past, three wet slides in one day, in the middle of April, on a sixty degree day.

The next day, we met in the parking lot of Pinkham Notch visitor’s center. It was a bluebird day with temps at the summit around freezing and typical winds over 50 mph. Sixteen of us, including the three guides strapped on our skis and skinned the Tuckerman Ravine trail. Less than two hours of grinding up a snow packed trail, led us to the infamous “HoJo’s” (Hermit Lake shelter). Here we would rest and eat before tackling the last thirty minute skin to the base of the ravine.

Another component of our day on the mountain was learning to use a beacon to search for a buried person. In this exercise a beacon was hidden in the snow and individually we had to search and find the beacon with the techniques we practiced earlier at HoJo’s. Practice was an understatement. This proved quite difficult, if you want to find the body in a timely manner. I’m glad I wasn’t searching for a real person.

It wasn’t till after 3:30pm when the most anticipated part of the day would take place. Most of us gathered our composure and started the climb up the headwall of Tuckerman Ravine. We followed an already established boot packed section along the right side of the headwall. While climbing in the corn like snow, each step had to be precise and stable before hoisting yourself to your next step. Any miss calculation or slip with your balance would certainly lead to you sliding or tumbling the entire way to the bottom of the bowl. Besides possibly getting hurt, all your time and efforts would be wasted.

After reaching the top of the headwall and climbing a short distance into the upper snowfields, an evaluation of the snow conditions was a concern. Because rain had soaked the mountain the day before we arrived, temps were slightly below freezing. With sunshine on the slope all day, the texture of the snow was quite interesting. Most of the bowl had been skied heavily over the weekend creating residue of rutty broken conditions which has now firmed up a bit. The top layer of the snow had a thin icy crust over the top with soft corn snow below. It would feel like skiing over a “Pot de crème”.

With the sun setting quickly creating a fast approaching shadow in our path, little hesitation to ski our line down the headwall awaited. In these conditions you made sure each turn was balanced. Anticipating the choppy conditions was crucial in this no fall zone. As always, this proved to be another intense run and well worth the efforts.

Once we all gathered back to the lunch rocks at the bottom of the ravine, we skied down the Sherburne Trail which led to the parking lot.

Skiing Tuckerman Ravine each year is always worth the efforts. The exhilaration and intense feeling is an accomplishment you carry for a life time.  However, experiencing this avalanche safety and awareness course adds another aspect to my journey and any other out of bounds skiing I will do in the future. This course only scratched the surface of knowledge in avalanche terrain skiing. I look forward to future training experiences.

This opportunity reinforces my belief that you can not take for granted the risks of out of bounds skiing.

Dave Segal

Action Sports