Tuckerman's Ravine

By: Kory Souza

Tuckerman's Ravine is a trail on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Jeff went on a kick for a week that he wanted to hike the trail and snowboard down. At first I didn't want to go but then I quickly became interested the more Jeff talked about it. So we picked the following Sunday to hike it. Chris Hunt and Jeff's friend Simon and Jeff and I decided to go to North Conway Saturday night and get up early and start hiking.

The hike to the base of the ravine is 2.7 miles! There was a some what groomed trail to the summit but we were still at a steep incline climbing. Once we arrived to the lodge at the base of the summit, I was exhausted. The lodge was just an empty building. You could go in it but it wasn't heated it was basically to get out of the wind. Now let me remind you not only is the hike in deep snow and up hill but we also had our backpacks on and our snowboards strapped to our backs.

We came apon some park rangers at the base of Tuckerman's that suggested a trail we take because the avalanche warnign was HIGH that day! We decided to go as far as we could and not to push it. We climbed the trail about half way and then decided to stop. We sat down and enjoyed the beautiful view of the White Mountains.

We had to snowboard down the exact trail we walked up on which was only about 3 feet wide. Once we were at a safe distance down the trail we stopped and caught our breath and goofed off a little. See the video's below!

All in all it was a life experience. It was one of the most scary, intense things I have ever done. I am glad I did it but I think I will prepare, fitness wise, a little more next time!