TUCKERMAN RAVINE

by Alex Steel

Okay so, this was really my mum's idea, but anyway, here goes. Last Thursday my dad and I went on a 3 day trip to Mount Washington. The first day we just chilled out in our room and unpacked and got ready for the big trip the next day. The second day was one of the most amazing days of my life. We started to begin the ascent to the Bowl early in the morning. The ascent was by far the most boring part of the trip. A mixture of lugging a backpack with heavy mountaineering skis up steep slopes, skinning, and having to wait for dad every few minutes (he still tells me, "I was just taking my time."). Yeah, right. However, when we were only a few minutes away from the base of the ravine I saw the most spectacular sight ever. This huge, steep, shining, beautiful bowl that was absolutely empty. There was not a single sign that anyone had been there. Once at the base of the bowl we did see 5 mountaineers starting the ascent. My dad and I set our gear down on a rock and had a little bite to eat. We were famished. After our quick snack we unstrapped our ice axes from our packs as we saw that the ascent was almost completely vertical. Once we had our axes in hand and one of our poles strapped to our packs, we began the hardest part of our journey, the climb up the Tuckerman Ravine Headwall. It took us around one hour to reach the top of the headwall. We carried on climbing a little further so that we could find stable ground to put on our skis. The best part of the journey took around 2 minutes. The top of the headwall was ice and wicked rough snow. However, once we plunged over the headwall into the bowl, it was fantastic. In addition, dad, being dad, had to stop in the middle of the bowl to take a picture (around his hundredth so far). Once at the bottom of the bowl we skied the rest of the way down back to where we were staying at the Joe Dodge Lodge. It was the most fun I have ever had with my father and it was a really special day for the both of us. The next day dad's legs, as he says, "were not up for" another day of the Ravine. So instead we went and skied Wildcat. As usual though, soccer was to be played. So, the next morning we got up at 5:30 and did the 2 hour drive down to Epping for my first match in the tournament. At the end of the weekend my team, MPS, and I won all three of our matches (2-1, 2-1, 7-0) with me having a fantastic 4 assists making it an over all great middle part of my March break.