Quick report
As should be obvious, these observations are of limited utility for current trip planning since although I’m submitting this the day after my two-day RMC hut trip, NWS is now forecasting up to seven inches of rain. Nevertheless, my observations might be of interest to see how a rather meager 24” of snow at the RMC plot combined with a relatively deep (for any point in the ski season) 12” of snow at the Mt W summit translates into snowpack throughout the Northern Presidentials. Both route maps and pictures are posted here: https://www.strava.com/activities/8974568765 https://www.strava.com/activities/8978996556 Typical tour plans for my RMC trips are posted here: https://goo.gl/photos/ZZ9PcXMYqY1kFF2p9 .. but haven't been updated in many years (although be sure click the little "i" to view the captions), and some of the pics date back to 2005 (with my first trip there in 2001). Friday mid-day, I started skinning on the King Ravine Trail @ ~2,700’ but lots of On-and-Off with far more Off than On. However, once I intercepted the Hincks Trail, the snow coverage was excellent, with only a few portages of only a few strides each, and with excellent skinning quality since I was on the soft fresh snow (i.e., unlike many prior trips with even better coverage but from old slick snow). I then skinned most of the way to Castle Ravine, and even when I wasn’t skinning, the snow interspersed among the rockier unskinnable sections was nicely supportive for hiking (i.e., not the usual posthole nervousness into deep gaps between boulders). Unfortunately, although the Sisters looked okay from a distance (see 3rd picture in first Strava activity), with South Sister looking quite good even closer up, getting into there looked far too tedious. The angling snowfield toward Jefferson was excellent for continuing to skin, but throwing in a ski lap there would have allowed for stretches of only a hundred or so vertical of skiing without a portage. Fortunately, The Beach extended all the way up to the ridgeline, with excellent snow – both quantity and quality – all the way down to the steep convex rollover into Stealth Gully. Although I had not observed any signs of instability, the rollover was still sufficiently intimidating that I played it extra safe by entering via the trees on far skier’s right. Despite the promising start, Stealth Gully quickly closed in tightly (see 6th picture in first Strava activity). I continued to descend far lower that made any sense for skiing quality so that I could position myself efficiently for exiting Jefferson Ravine via Zig Zag Gully. Although the skiing by now in the late afternoon in Stealth Gully was becoming a bit firm, I was able to boot up Zig Zag Gully easily without boot crampons. After topping out of Jefferson Ravine, I was able to skin all the way to Thunderstorm Junction without even a single portage. From there I was able to ski all the way until I intercepted Gray Knob Trail, with a snowy (but not posthole-y) downhike of only a little over 300’ vertical after which I skied right up to hut. Saturday morning I reversed the travel sequence of the prior sentence then dropped into King Ravine via The Seven. Coverage in the first gully was excellent. Snow quality was neither soft spring snow nor refrozen spring snow, but instead felt more like that kind of “chalky” winter snow when the avy bulletin rating has dropped to Low but not scoured or crusty – so quite good, but rather unexpected. After traversing left above the ice fall, the next gully was nicely softened spring snow. The base of King Ravine was quite brushy, and none of the other lines looked especially compelling, especially with rain the afternoon forecast, so I skied down the King Ravine Trail up to the boulder field then packed away my ski gear for the long hike down to Route 2.