Tuckerman's Ravine

People in New England claim that Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the birthplace of extreme skiing. Up until last year Mt. Washington had the record for strongest wind with wind blowing at 230mph! Tuckerman's Ravine, with it's steep headwall and narrow chutes is the place where the magic supposedly happened. So when I got a chance to go for my birthday I couldn't resist. We stayed the night at the Joe Dodge Lodge, ate some killer food and watched a sweet movie about Tuckerman's Ravine.
It snowed a little overnight cooling things off quite a bit. Here's the crew, Andrew, Jack Hatch, me and Fuji.
You have to hike about 2.5 miles up the mountain with your board strapped to your back. You gain a few thousand feet in elevation and you're hiking up a steep, icy road. The runoff made these rivers huge.
It got really hot really quick once we started hiking.
As soon as we reached the Howard Johnson Lodge (HOJO's) the wind was so incredibly strong it was amazing. It was blowing you over when a big gust would hit you or your board. You sweat so much climbing up you have to change or the wind will freeze you.
We wanted to head into the bowl but it was too windy and the avalanche danger was too high so Ski Patrol was turning people back.
So we just snowboarded back down the mountain. It was so icy and awful... and then abruptly turned melty and nasty. Gotta love spring skiing. We had a blast anyway.
When we reached the end of the line.
By the afternoon all the snow down the valley had melted and it was super nice.
New Hampshire and the White Mountains are beautiful! Can't wait to go again.