Peaks of Sun

It is the beginning of the end of skiing on the northeast's highest peak. May is Mt. Washington's sunniest month. In May you might get seven days without any fog. Even during this brightest month, better than half the days have measurable precipitation. Over the past six days the fog has been unrelenting. That's one-hundred percent humidity, one-hundred percent of the time, and getting wetter. Half-a-foot of rain has fallen and the skiing in Tuckerman has fallen apart; runouts are without snow, runs are crevassed and undermined with moving water, huge chunks of hanging ice break free and cartwheel down the headwall.

Phil is driving us up the hill today. Some people call this slacking. So be it. We are trying to sort out  a puzzling weather situation, its meaning concealed in the morning Obs forecast for "peaks of sun". Not until George at the Auto Road tollhouse sent us off with a promise of sunny skies ahead did we get it. By 3500', we were on a sunny peak rising above a cloud-filled valley.

top of Airplane looking toward the Northern Peaks

Airplane and Mt. Clay

For years we've enjoyed the Great Gulf headwall for reliable, late-season skiing, but it's been only since the early '90s that its signature run has been called Airplane. Gully #3 was renamed one October night in 1990 when a Texas pilot slammed his Cessna into the Clay-Mt.Washington col, littering the gully with debris. Airplane Gully drops in from the Appalachian Trail alongside Spacewalk, Turkey Chute, Pipeline, Hallway, and Activator.

A long traverse away, another Airplane Gully runs into Oakes Gulf below Mt. Monroe where 2 Santa Clauses and their pilot met their end in a 1969 crash en route to a Vermont shopping center gig.  There's an exhibit of local mountain artifacts that moves informally through the A.M.C. high-country huts that features a six-foot propeller rumored to come from one wreck or the other.

Mid-day, back at the road, auto-borne pilgrims were showing up in droves to worship the glowing orb still hidden from the valley. We'd already skied a couple thousand vertical feet of perfect corn in Airplane. We rubbed elbows with the prolific authors of the popular back-country skiing blog "TFT": icelandic (this season-fifty days and 1/4 million vertical feet), jshefftz (who skied a sketchy Hallway that day), sfmornay, lftgly, castlerock (from Mad River), and more. There were quite a few local guys with real names whom we actually know.

buried powerline by Jacob's Ladder. summer photo

The Gulfside Trail and the underground power line lead back to car. After the summit generator was destroyed in a 2003 fire, the state appropriated $2.5 million to trench and backfill 3.5 miles of power and fiber optic cable down the west side to the base of the mountain.



                           
    photo by Bill Hemmel and AerialphotoNH.com

Phil on the power  line. call DIG-SAFE

  

Easements were negotiated with the Cog and by Fall, 2007, White Mt. Communications Co. of Randolph had finished up work burying the cable and there was a new travel surface for skiers, hikers and a few intrepid MTB riders. Can't say I miss the din of the old summit power plant in consort with train whistles, cars, motorcycles, and thousands of summer visitors. Backpackers will miss warming up under the the power plant exhaust vents.
video of the project

                                                    

Alpine Garden and the Wildcat range

After a forty minute hike and tailgate snack we found a slightly different scene at the East Snowfield. Over there the buzz resembled a private beach club. There were little kids everywhere playing on the shore. Moms chatted, restlessly watching their youngsters climb around the rocks. Played-out dogs cooled themselves in tidal pools of snow while Dads led their sons out through the shoals to deeper, smoother waters. They'd quickly slip beyond the horizon, still within the protective confines of the reef that is the Alpine Garden. Taking it all in, it was hard to find a place for my pack. There was stuff strewn all over the place, left high on the rocks by the ebbing tide: coolers, lawn chairs, cast-off clothing, tote bags, and water bottles.

Skier climbing against the tide. Top of the East

We took a quick dip and called it a day. A really good day.

link to video: Phil in Airplane