East Country Backcountry Skiing

[Crconnor18]

Looking to get into some alpine touring/back country skiing this spring/end of winter. I’ve skied plenty of the east coast resorts and would like to bring more of the “adventure” aspect into it and have some fun with a few buds.

Whose skied Tuckermans? Looking to hike up mid-late March and ski down. Any words of wisdom?

Any other honeypots in the Ice-Coast for some alpine touring?

Anyone have any experience with alpine touring ski setups?

[black]

Check out backcountry skiing northeast on FB

Lots of good info there

I tried to get into a few years back but...... family and time. Now I look at horn pond and doing some back ctry skiing on its old ski hill

[xrocket21]

tucks

[wiggeywackyo]

Check out backcountry skiing northeast on FB

Lots of good info there

I tried to get into a few years back but...... family and time. Now I look at horn pond and doing some back ctry skiing on its old ski hill

In Woburn???

[black]

In Woburn???

yes woburn. was an old ski lift there in the 60s? you can still see some of the concrete pads and make out some of the runs. I see some ski tracks back there in the winter.
heck there was a ski lift in wilmington way back in the day. Kids these days sled down the runs to this day

[black]

google lost ski areas of the northeast and you can find a ton of old ski areas that people still hike up and ski down. recently Tenney mtn in NH? was close 7 yrs ago? and people still skied it. It opened back up 2 yrs ago?
Lots of others in MA , small hills good for a quick run

[Crconnor18]

In Woburn???

It’s Hahn Pahhnd & in Wubin for us locals. (Grew up & still live here)

You can still find the footings of the lifts up the back side paths

[Crconnor18]

I found some rental shops that do AT packages just inside Lincoln. May give some spots a try before I go fully into the gear buying. I don’t see not liking it though.

[JettaJayGLS]

Copy and paste from the ski thread:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Backcoun.../dp/1934028142
https://skithewhites.com/
https://www.rastavt.org/
https://granitebackcountryalliance.org/

For gear: pick your flavor of splitboard, every mfg makes one now. I am very partial to Karakoram bindings but other brands have made big improvements over the years, just avoid a "pin" setup (old Voile and Spark were pin design). I've finally settled on the Burton poles. All the skins work, the high traction G3 with Spark tail clips are my flavor. I picked up a set of Burton Tourist boots but have yet to use them, normal boots are fine but they will take a little bit of a beating. A pair of shell pants with full side zips are worth the investment. I picked up a set of Arcteryx on ebay for like $150 and I've had them for 9 years now and they're still perfect. Shells and technical layers are the jam, its all about regulating heat - insulated layers usually result in it being way too hot. I just keep a puff in my bag.

If you want to do it on a budget...find a used setup and run what ya brung for the rest. My friend Andrew Runs Ski The Whites and it looks like they rent splitboards - probably the best dude you could ever meet that will have a shitload of knowledge if you stop by.

Oh, and Tuckermans is NOT easy. The amount of people that get seriously injured or die there is too many. Even the most experienced. Its just a flat out dangerous spot and you should tread lightly. I've hiked in there a million times as Mount Washington has a TON to offer, but only actually skied tucks a handful of times due to weather or conditions. Its no joke.

[Crconnor18]

I would consider doing tucks as an end goal after getting my feet wet & aware of how to read the conditions and respect the mountain. I’ve seen a lot of fail videos and would rather be able to hike down than med fight

[jimmycapp]

[JettaJayGLS]

Its a very very technical ski that is hard to replicate elsewhere. Very rarely are you making good turns, more so just surviving.
The best conditions are in the spring, but the snowpack is also pretty scary too. You run the risk of falling behind it. It sounds farfetched, but it seemingly happens every year. Most of the time, its death and they never find you until the summer. Here is one person's survival story:

https://mountwashingtonavalanchecent...aterfall-hole/

I say this because I did Tucks before I ever started touring. I bootpacked up with my snowboard on my back. I was a really experienced snowboarder. I remember getting 3/4 of the way up the left gully boot pack and basically shitting my pants when I turned around. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe I'm just over cautious (I don't really think I am when it comes to snowboarding). I made it down. Having lunch we watched someone get air lifted out.

With a lot more experience under my belt in the east coast backcountry, I actually prefer lots of other parts of Mount Washington instead of the ravine. You gotta do Tucks, but the timing has got to be right.

A few good trails to cut your teeth on with touring are in the links above.
Some more fun, bigger, single run trails are:
-Sherburne Trail on Mt Washington. You can easily hike up to the base of the ravine too if you want to check it out.
-Tear Drop Trail by Stowe
-Lots of resorts with good uphill policies (Wachusett has a great one for pre-work laps, Black Mountain is another cool small one in NH)
-Tuckerbrook trail by back of Cannon
-Moosilauke carriage road

Those are all easy enough to just go out and do and not really get lost on. The Sherb is super fund if the snow is good. Tuckerbrook is in our backyard and a really really good, long run that is nice and steep at the top.