Tuckerman Ravine, NH — Skiing the Sherburne Trail

Today we are at Takramen Ravine. I was originally planning on skiing Wildcat, but because of high winds all the resorts in this area are closed. Skiing is the only option. Everything is closed right now. I wanted to do Takramen tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be a little bit better. It should be more sunny, but they said that the winds are going to be just as bad as today. There is about 100 miles winds at the top of Mount Washington. I think they said that above three line is about 55, so the bowl has a high danger of avalanche today. I'm gonna just do the Sherb. I'm gonna go up and maybe do a few loops. It's pretty windy, but it's pretty nice. So I teamed up with two guys who came for avalanche training and it's a very nice distraction. I don't think I would want to hike it up alone in this weather. It's a bit of a storm fest. I don't know if the skin's out of wet and frozen, but I'm sliding back quite a bit. We are only allowed to go to the Hermit Lake today. Everything above that is too dangerous, we were told. Getting closer. I'm behind you. I needed a windbreaker. The Lionhead Trail is the one he was talking about, where there's an avalanche. There's a zone where if you get hit by an avalanche, you fall off a cliff. This is the winter route. Do you want to go down? I'm going to take a picture from here. There is a stream down there that looks pretty nice, but I don't think the GoPro can catch it. The guide has us chuck our skis and walk across the rocks. On the way down, the deepest was maybe a foot deep, but there were rocks sticking up everywhere. We just clomped across it with the skis. Was it water or was it covered in snow? It was open water. I felt safer with the skis on than trying to walk across rocks. Have a look at us. Here is a sign that says welcome to the Hermit Lake shelter. If we took this right path, it would take us to the top of Mount Washington. We're almost at the Hermit Lake. These are the shelters you can actually camp in. It would be quite romantic to stay overnight in a weather like this. The beauty is there is a lot of a new powder. I can't tell if it's just from the snowfall or because the wind is bringing the snow from somewhere else. If the ski trail has this much snow, fingers crossed, it might be fun. I cannot see. I think it's time to put goggles on. Head down that little gap in the trees there, and it'll sort of swoop you to the left, and then right across the bridge, and then just stay left. We're here for the view. Where's that? Not much today. Where are you guys coming from? Jersey. I'll be in the back if you have any questions. You remember which way to go? Nope. I think it's this way. I don't know. Does this look to you like the lake or is it a little bit higher? I have no idea. Based on the map, this is the lake. Well, this is as far as we go today. I wanted to see the lake. I'm not quite sure if this is it, but I assume it is. If you want to see the Takara, enjoy. Now the sun comes out. Yes. We just finished the Sherup trail. It was not what I expected or wanted. The wind was so strong that it was very prohibiting going above the tree line. The avalanche danger, they said it was considerable to high, and they basically only allowed you to go up to the Hermit Lake, I think it's the name. On the way up, it was nice. I teamed up with a bunch of guys from Boston, and it's always a good distraction to have a bunch of people around, especially when the weather is not too good. You get out of your head and you have things to talk about. On the way down, that's when it became quite challenging. I took my new skis with me. I've never skied them before. It takes a moment to adjust to a new ski, especially when it's a new shape, softness, and length. This may not have been the best terrain to take it to. It was really, really blowing at the top, but made it safely. The weather was fun.