Quick report
Route and pictures here: https://www.strava.com/activities/9017739457 Started skinning @~3,000’ and then after a brief early portage (plus skinning across the bare bridges) continued skinning all the way to above Left Gully via Hillman, which was so full of deep heavy fresh snow that skinning such a pitch was actually quite easy, even with “half-height” skimo race bindings heel elevators. Extensive rollerballs but they all appeared to have sunk into the mush before they could gain much in size. All of the descending skiers I had talked to when they were hiking down on the hiking trail had bemoaned the sticky heavy snow in Left Gully. And the two skiers I saw descending the connector trail from Hillman were so despondent that they had switched to post holing instead. Seeing this observation now: https://www.mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org/observations/#/view/74023c99-3d94-4856-81d0-af3ae32f6246 … perhaps I was underestimating the slide potential, but the rollerballs I saw in Hillman if anything reassured me that nothing else was moving. After topping out of Hillman, with low expectations for eventually skiing back down, I checked out Oakes first and was rewarded with over 600’ of nice powder – nice even on skis with 77mm waist width – in Airplane Bowl before the trees closed in and the snow finally got too heavy. Reversed direction and eventually entered Hillman at ~5pm. Skied quite nicely until I reached the split. Then I degenerated into traverses linked by hop turns, or rather arduous leaps of faith that my tips and tails would clear the mush. Fortunately down by around where Dodge’s comes in the snow improved, or at least the lesser pitch made the snow more manageable. The connector trail to the Sherb was strenuous snowplowing, although hardly unusual, which made the post holing by the skiers even more puzzling. Sherb was delightful although I was following the skied-in track and by now at 5:30 the cooling temps had probably removed any prior stickiness. Only ~1,300’ of downhiking after that on the TRT and much of it is easy boot glissading on the snow. As for how all this will ski tomorrow (Saturday), I have no idea, but I will report back on Sunday. I suspect that skier traffic will vastly improve the mush I skied in middle Hillman, but warming temps could make other terrain worse.