I think tuckerman.org has pics and web cam of Mt. Washington. I skiied Tuckerman's Ravine on the southeast side of Mt Washington when I was about 30. Long hike up with your ski shit on your back. You have to wait until April or May when the avy danger drops to "you'll probably die" from "you're dead for sure". Just before the crevaces open up to swallow your fellow skiers on the hike up. From the web:
"At most ski areas, anyone skiing like that probably would get his lift ticket yanked. But here, at Tuckerman Ravine, almost anything goes. Besides, you can't buy a lift ticket. To ski the ravine, you have to climb it.
3-mile hike
Tuckerman has been drawing hardcore skiers to its challenging terrain for more than 75 years.
Named for 19th century botanist Edward Tuckerman, the ravine is a large glacial cirque on the southeastern shoulder of 6,288-foot Mount Washington, the tallest mountain in the Northeast.
Spectators cheer from the Lunch Rocks while watching a skier take a spill on Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington recently. (AP)
Windblown snow collects in the ravine throughout the winter. By March, when skiing in the ravine usually begins, the snow may reach depths of 75 feet. Most years the season lasts well into summer.
The ravine is a 3-mile hike starting at the Appalachian Mountain Club's visitor center in Pinkham Notch.
Shaped like an cereal bowl cut in half, the ravine's dominant feature is the wide slope near the center called the headwall. It's flanked by about a half dozen narrow routes with names like Chute and Sluice.
Most who venture into the ravine strap skis or snowboards to their backpacks for the climb up. Many wear crampons and use ice axes for extra stability to cope with grades as steep as 55 degrees.
Many people who think they aren't afraid of heights learn otherwise after climbing up.
"We definitely get a good percentage of folks who tote their skis or boards up here and don't make any turns because once they get a look at the steep stuff, they just don't want any part of it," said Justin Preisendorfer, a snow ranger with the U.S. Forest Service, which manages Tuckerman skiing.
Treacherous terrain
While they climb, skiers must take note of the terrain they intend to ski.
"At a ski resort you don't have to worry about crevasses, you don't have to worry about falling ice, and in the East, you don't have to worry about sliding off a cliff," said Preisendorfer.
"But our biggest worry today is going to be other people. Skiers falling, coming cartwheeling down, people skiing out of control, hiking up and dropping a ski. These hazards multiply on the weekends."
More than 30 skiers and hikers have lost their lives in the ravine."
There are some good vids on line of guys cartwheeling down the hill in the classic "ragdoll" type fall. The mountains out west are definitely different. I went to Cannon mountain skiing with my oldest son on Sunday and the base elevation was around 2000'. At the peak it was 4186'. That's 2186' vertical. Mt. Washington has a base elevation roughly the same as Cannon. With a peak elevation of 6288' gives about 4288' of vertcal. Breckenridge CO has a base elevation of 9600' and a peak elevation of 12.998'. That's about 3398' vertical. The Rocky Mountains all rise fom a fairly high base elevation but the peak elevations are quite high, some over 14,000 ft....the 14ers. Colorado has at least (53) 14ers. Blanca is #4 on the list so it's up there. Sorry about the longwinded hijack. Greg, how did you come into your land. Inherited? Or was it from one of those ads in magazines where "you can buy XX acres for only $XXX dollars an acre"? Just curious.
