<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Bill29”>obienick, it must have been in the early to mid ’70s.We rude the Tucker (I think) snowcat up the carriage road to the summit. Al Risch, his wife Allison and the captain of the Dartmouth ski team, all superb skiers, were our guides. We skied the east snow fields first. It was boilerplate and wind-packed powder.
When, after a run, we climbed up the footholds the first person made, one person fell, started to slide and knocked the next person in line down. They slid into and knocked the third person down. The fourth person in the way (me) stepped aside, wished them and the Red Sox good luck, and watched them slide to the bottom of the east snowfield and into the rock garden.
Luckily they suffered just few bumps and bruises. We made a few more runs there, then skied around he ridge to the top of Tuckerman Ravine where our guides un packed some lunch. We then went to the top of Hillman’s. The lip of the headwall was solid ice and was a no-go. Hillman’s had breakable crust so we sidestepped down to a patch of wind-packed powder, then skied down to near the bowl, checked out the ravine, then skied down the Sherbie to the parking lot.
It was a bit more dicy than we had expected, but Al, Allison and the Dartmouth guy kept up easy talk, gave us good advice and directions, made good decisions and got us down to the parking lot with no further problems. At the bottom, one of the group said to Al, “Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it.” Al looked him in the eye and said, “You’re lucky you’re alive.” Thereafter, whenever I’d see Al in the Time for Tuckerman booth at the Boston ski show, I’d always greet him with “You’re lucky you’re alive.” He always got a laugh out of it.
When I went back in May to do it again, it was a bluebird day, the snow was great and it was perfection.
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Now that’s the kind of story that makes snowjournal what it is, a good clean interesting read told by our respected octogenarian. ( you certainly can’t tell you were a professional newspaper writer lol)
Remember the old Bud commercial from the 90’s, love ya man
