It starts on Sunday, January 15, 2012 when we look at the thermometer on the window at our rental place and see that it was zero degrees outside. This was zero degrees in the valley with the sun hitting the window for at least an hour or so. On this particular day, the summit was Mount Washington was expected have a high of negative 10 degrees. Make sure you read that correctly, a HIGH of NEGATIVE 10 degrees!! BPJ came up and stayed at the house Saturday night but Sam had to drive up in the morning so we had a good excuse to sit around and wait for the sun to come up and warm up the air a bit. Because we had 4 people, 4 sets of snow riding gear, and 3 dogs, we had to drive two cars. I rode with BPJ to the Pinkham Notch visitors center and we watched the temperature start at about 5 and go to negative 1 degree as we pulled into the parking lot. We got our stuff all ready, got the dogs ready, and quickly hit the trail. We made it to hojos before the bowl of Tuckermans and then had a decision to make: do we just go down or do we go up further. As we were standing at hojos discussing our options, the winds started to pick up. Cold got colder and we decided that it was not the best idea to go into the bowl. We decided that we would go down the John Sherburne ski trail, get lunch at the visitors center and then do another lap. The first ride down was fairly uneventful. I was pretty much riding with experts so I wasn't surprised when I didn't see BPJ or Sam the whole time. They did wait for Nate and I and then they all ditched me and headed into the trees. I waited for them to come down the run, but they never did. I started yelling Nate's name and he was below me. He didn't get a hug for that move!!
We made it down safely, then put the dogs in the car and got some lunch. We talked about what we were going to do and decided that we would try and at least go half way up. We were all really tired and lunch helped but the muscles were just not ready to make it all the way up. The second ride down was much better than the first. I felt like I knew what I was doing on the second run compared to the first run... That is until I caught the front edge of my board and slammed hard into the snow! I knocked the wind out of myself and it took me a bit to recover. I did and then made it down the mountain without falling too much! It was too cold to stop and sit in the snow so I tried to keep moving constantly!!
Here are pics from the day:
BPJ on the way up on the first lap just before we got to hojos.
Sam and Nate heading up Tuckerman trail and you can see the fence of Hermit Lake on the left.
Tuckerman Ravine looking much better but still not very snow covered!
The whole crew on the second lap. Nate, Bryan and Sam with Oakley and Piper and Scout in the distance.
Nate and Sam were a bit of overachievers and had to keep climbing so Bryan and I got our splitboards together. Bryan was giving Scout some love!
For some reason, I can't upload the first lap of our trip from my Garmin to Garmin connect so I don't know exactly how much we did, but it was about the same as what we did at our avalanche course, so that's what I guestimated. We did 1,912 at the avalanche course so that's what I'm saying the elevation gain is for the first lap. We made sure to go at least 1,000 feet on the second lap, and actually went 1,107 feet. Thus we climbed 3,019 feet on Sunday!! 3,019 feet in pretty cold temps pretty much rocks!! Now we have 72,645 feet left to go!! Getting so close to breaking 30k. I hope it happens this weekend!!!
I haven't really seen BPJ's dog, Piper, stop moving since I have met her. She is always on her feet and seems to be always moving. Here is how the dog sleeps!! Still standing... but her nose is resting so gently on my helmet.
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