My two turns on Tuckermans

On Easter Sunday 2011, Nate and I decided that we would head up north and hit Mount Washington at least one more time before the season ended. We got to hojos and we didn't talk about where we were going next. We just ate some food, drank some water, made sure the dogs were accounted for... which they weren't before we got there... dang Oakley must have thought that I was behind Nate and went back to look for me. I ended up having to find her a good ways down the trail from hojos, but I found her so that was all that mattered. I asked Nate if he was ready to keep going and he said, "Yup" and led the way and there we went off to Tuckerman's Ravine. I was a bit clueless and actually was not aware that I was actually in Tuckerman's until we came down the bowl. Nate gave me a high five and said, "I knew you could ride Tucks"... "Really? That was Tuckerman's?" Sometimes being clueless is better than knowing!! :)

So, there we were. We came up onto the bowl, took our stuff off and got ready to hike up with our helmets on and our gear ready so that we didn't have to dig through our bags on the steep part.

This is the bowl from where we got our gear ready:

I guess the rocks in the middle of the screen are called Lunch Rocks. My goal was to make it above those, but then I saw a bunch of people with sleds coming down from those rocks and decided that I could top that. I then decided that the small rock below the big rock section above Lunch Rocks was my goal. So off we went...  

and up we went. I litterly took 20 steps, rested, 20 steps, rested... It's my approach when hiking up the intense stuff. Luckily, it was extremely warm out so it wasn't just straight up ice. I was able to kick in and I wasn't ever really worried about sliding back down. Also, there were a lot of people who had been hiking already so there was a lot of boot packs and it was a lot like climbing up a ladder.

The next picture was of me approaching my goal. When I got there, I realized there was NO where to put your stuff on. I looked back at Nate and was like, 'uh...!' and he was like, 'keep going up until you can find a place to stop to put your stuff on. The next rock should have a place.' So, I kept climbing.

And then we stopped. If you look at the first picture, we made it to the big rock group in the middle about 1/3 of the way from the lip... which is lame that I didn't try to keep going to the top... but since I did falling leaf 80% of the way, I'm going to accept my lameness and move on! :)

And from my little vantage point on the side of a steep mountain, this is what I saw... a STEEP A$$ section that I was going to have to figure out how to get down.

I made Nate lead the way and ventured a falling leaf style on the heal side most of the way down.

And then I connected my two turns:

That was it! I rode tuckermans!!!! Nate did too... but he was camera man as I was holding on to the mountain with everything I had!! :)

Then we got to do the fun part and ride down Sherburne trail. We first had to cross the creek!! :)

This is Nate ripping it on the Sherby. It seems sooo mellow after being in the bowl!!!

I survived!! No embarrassing youtube videos of me coming face first down past 100s of people. No tears! No whining. Just climbing a ladder and falling like a leaf!! Maybe next time I'll have the gonads to turn during the steep part!! :)