Anyone up for a late May ski down Tuckerman's Ravine?

I skied Tuckerman's once...and by skied I mean that I skied for about 20 yards, fell on my ass, and slid the rest of the way down into the bowl. I did it sometime in the spring, but I don't remember when exactly.
 
Tiltsta said:
I skied Tuckerman's once...and by skied I mean that I skied for about 20 yards, fell on my ass, and slid the rest of the way down into the bowl. I did it sometime in the spring, but I don't remember when exactly.
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That is strong, bro....STRONG.
 
I lost it after landing at the bottom of the headwall (I got a little bit of a jump of the wall). It was so steep and icy that I couldn't get my edges to bite, and I lost my balance and slid the rest of the hill on my butt. I only did it that one time. It was a stupid thing to even try it, but I was an invincible 19 year old kid. I would never do it now.
 
Oh, and for those who have never been, it is WAY steeper than it looks in photos. I found one web pic that gives a bit of perspective on the very top of the bowl below the headwall. This isn't even the steepest part. The camera is pretty much level in this picture, so, yeah, it is really insanely steep.

TucksHeadwallSmall.jpg
 
I skied Tuck's once too. It was the day after April Fool's Day, sometime in the late '90s (no helmet!). I skied it from the top and didn't fall, but it was the scariest 3 minutes of my life. Early spring is the best time to ski it. If you go then, you can ski all the way to the parking lot. If you go now, you're walking several miles to the parking lot.

The red line is the route I skied.

upload_2015-5-20_20-36-56.png
 
Tiltsta said:
Oh, and for those who have never been, it is WAY steeper than it looks in photos. I found one web pic that gives a bit of perspective on the very top of the bowl below the headwall. This isn't even the steepest part. The camera is pretty much level in this picture, so, yeah, it is really insanely steep.

TucksHeadwallSmall.jpg
Click to expand...
That's a great photo. What most people don't realize is that it's almost as scary going up as down. I leaned back slightly while climbing up, and almost went over backwards. We were climbing through the lunch rocks, so if I had fallen, I would have been seriously injured or killed.

Skiing from the top, it starts off fairly flat, then gets steeper and steeper until you're practically free falling.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
I would love to if I was close enough. Looks like fun!
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Once every couple of years someone bites the big one on it, but it doesn't seem to dissuade people from doing it.

People up here are fucking insane.

Some fool last year went skiing on some mountain that doesn't have any trails. Yep, you heard that right, he hiked up it and decided he was gonna back-woods ski the thing through the trees.
He was in rough shape when they found him 3 days later. Think he lost a couple of fingers, part of his lips, his nose, etc........he was quoted as saying it was the best run of his life.

:lol:

Fucking hard core.
 
Arapahoe Basin has added three inches in the last two days. If only I didn’t have a carpet repair guy coming tomorrow and a plumber on Friday!
 
One thing that is fun at Tuck's is watching other people ski it. There's no such thing as a non-spectacular wipeout there. Because it's so steep, every fall is a yard sale. And no one is going to stop and pick up your stuff for you. You have to hike back up and get it.
 
Flatspotter said:
That's a great photo. What most people don't realize is that it's almost as scary going up as down. I leaned back slightly while climbing up, and almost went over backwards. We were climbing through the lunch rocks, so if I had fallen, I would have been seriously injured or killed.

Skiing from the top, it starts off fairly flat, then gets steeper and steeper until you're practically free falling.
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Yeah, I remember when I was climbing up a woman in front of me dropped one of her gloves and it went all the way down the the bottom.
 
I have skied things similarly steep, at Crystal Mt. in Washington. "Brain Damage" and "Pinball" qualify. But I do not think they look as long as this. And I never chose to hike and ski those when there was not some soft snow. I am not interested in skiing terrain like that if it is all sun baked and then frozen. What direction does it face?

Fairly consistently steep does not scare me super badly, but don't ask me to jump down onto the steeps where I can't see the landing. I do not like blind jumps. And I never was that much of an air hound. I have always more liked to go fast, steep, and deep. And keep my skis on or in the snow except for some fun little jumps here and there.

I still say I would be up for trying it if the conditions were good. :grin:
 
sunvalleylaw said:
I have skied things similarly steep, at Crystal Mt. in Washington. "Brain Damage" and "Pinball" qualify. But I do not think they look as long as this. And I never chose to hike and ski those when there was not some soft snow. I am not interested in skiing terrain like that if it is all sun baked and then frozen. What direction does it face?

Fairly consistently steep does not scare me super badly, but don't ask me to jump down onto the steeps where I can't see the landing. I do not like blind jumps. And I never was that much of an air hound. I have always more liked to go fast, steep, and deep. And keep my skis on or in the snow except for some fun little jumps here and there.

I still say I would be up for trying it if the conditions were good. :grin:
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It faces roughly east/northeast
 
It's on my bucket list, for sure.
Problem is, there are about a dozen or so groomed ski mountains within an hour of me, so......it's easy to "chicken out".

:)

The Center Headwall is the steepest, but some of the outer trails are nothing but cliffs and jagged rocks/ravines. There are a few trails that are "No Fall Zones".
tuckermans_ravine.JPG



I know one guy who said he has lost 4 pairs of skis on the mtn over the years.
You wreck, pop a ski, and there it sits until summer when the snow all melts, while you slide down and hope not to end up in an ambulance or hearse.
 
Ok, looking at these vids, I would enjoy skiing this. I probably would ski a line through a chute and not jump the rocks. Unless I got a wild hair. I am 52 now. But I would maybe pop off a 10 - 15 footer if I could see the landing though. Looks like it gets sun and wind affected, and kinda chalky quite a bit. Interesting as it faces east. Does it get bad layers for avvy conditions when you get storms? Since it is East facing, with a bit of North, I would think the snow conditions would hold well. What elevation is it? Here at SV, the runs are from 9100 down to about 6k, and it stays cold. At Crystal, it was much lower, with the top at a max of about 7k, so temps varied more.



 
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