It may have been around 10 years since the last visit so when my Dad had the idea of a Tuckerman Ravine trip, I happily agreed to join. A friend of my Dad also joined so it was a party of three. We arrived in Pinkham Notch at around 7:15 and to our surprise, many of the parking lots were already full. We had to park in the third lot down and even that one was filling up quick.
On the trail, there were a lot of people skinning up the hiking trail which was kind of a new experience. I guess it is to be expected in 2023. It actually worked out pretty well with the skinners roughly going to same speed except when they encountered obstacles in the trail.
Sometimes the area above HoJo's is a big traffic jam, but it really wasn't too bad. We got up to the bowl and got situated on some rocks that were below lunch rocks. At one point as were getting ready, a couple chunks of ice came crashing down into lunch rocks, but fortunately it only affected the upper half of the rocks where no one was. It must have been a little scary for a few people. A large chunk came rolling down to about 30 yards from us, but it had been going slowly for a while so it wasn't too worrisome.
View from our spot:
The atmosphere was great as usual and a few of the early birds were coming down. A couple rad ski bruhs (as the Storm Skiing Journal would say) were sending it off a 20 foot cliff on the steepest section of the Headwall. The Headwall looked a little sketchy. At least one possible crevasse seemed to exist so I think it probably only had a few more days before it is done. Per the trail map, what I refer to as the Headwall is also called The Lip.
When we were ready, we started hiking up Chute. There were some really deep natural ditches going down Chute, so hardly anyone skied down it. Instead, people were skiing down Center Wall or the The Lip of the Headwall. We got to the top and hung out for a little while and then did our run. For some reason people were stopping a lot on the way down, but once I got through the congestion I had made some nice turns the rest of the way down. Success!
View from the top of Chute:
We had the rest of lunch and my Dad and friend were content to leave it at one run. Incredibly, someone did a backflip off of the 20 foot cliff. They wiped out a little bit, but not bad considering the jump and the crowd approved. I decided to head up Lobster Claw for run number two. It wasn't too busy and I wasn't sure I had done it before.
Hiking up:
Top of Lobster Claw:
View of the upper bowl area from the top of Lobster Claw:
Lobster Claw wasn't quite as steep, but it was consistent and the snow was soft and smooth. I was able to ski all the way down without having to stop and wait for anyone. Even though it was a little shorter and less steep, I definitely enjoyed Lobster Claw more than Center Wall thanks to the great conditions.
When I got the bottom, another person was right above the Headwall cliff a few people had jumped. He was a snowboarder and seemed unconfident. It looked like he wanted to get out. He then slipped down further right to the rocky lip at the edge of the cliff. He took a long time to assess and he really seemed to wish he could climb out, but it would have been extremely difficult with the snowboard and not falling off the cliff anyways. Everyone shouted "noooo" to try to disuade him. The scene played out for at least 10-15 minutes. I hoped he would wait for someone to come rope him out. My heart lurched when instead of dropping to viewer's left where the other people had jumped, he continued to viewer's right where he could get a little lower, but was right over one of the two waterfalls. He was out of room to maneuver and to everyone's horror, he was soon in the air with very little speed where he fell 20 feet, starting a little bit to the side of the waterfall, but essentially falling straight down, swallowed right into the hole/crevasse the waterfall was going into at a high speed. Everyone became hushed. I was in a bit of a shock. I thought he most likely would be suffering an agonizing death in cold water perhaps 50 feet below the surface. After a very long two or three minutes, incredibly the tip of his snowboard emerged from the hole! What a huge relief! There was still uncertainty as to whether or not he was stuck, but after about 5 minutes he managed to pull himself out. Fortunately he had an ice ax. It was hard to avert my eyes, but it is something I never hope to see again and it definitely affected me for a while afterwards.
Ten minutes after the scene, we started our descent. Unfortunately Little Headwall was mostly melted out so we had to walk down to HoJo's. This was the worst traffic jam of the day. A couple people tried to go down Little Headwall anyways, but had to hike back up. From HoJo's, we were able to ski at least two-thirds of the way down the Sherbourne. From there is was a 20 minute walk down to the parking lot. All in all I was really glad to come back to Tuckermans after a while, but witnessing the near death experience definitely changed the tone of the rest of the day. Right after the incident, another guy on skis came down to the same place, but the crowd tried hard to convince him to not do it and he finally backed out.
Trail map:
https://skimap.org/data/3270/3270/1586129353.jpeg
