Hucking the Headwall

Post your 1st, second hand tales, video or whatever. Any headwall

After serving in World War 2, my dad learned to ski in Europe.  When he came back, he skied Tuckerman's. When ski boots were little more than stiff leather hiking boots.  I never asked him if he wiped out like that.

The headwall was melted out, but this was just below it. Not exactly hucking, but hopefully entertaining for the few around

Was one of those guys on tele with a black fanny pack - just say'in

It was May of 95, after my Montana run I was back home in New Jersey staying with my parents who were finally getting a divorce. I no longer had a girlfriend and I was trying to figure out who I was all over again. I did know that i was a skier and my friends and I began to plan our move out to Steamboat for the following season. A week or two after I got back we headed up to New Hampshire to go take a look at Tuckermans.

We had know idea wtf we were doing. Our ambitions dangerously outweighed our skill sets and experience but being typical arrogant 18 and 19 year olds we figured we could pretty much just wing it and figure it out as we went.

When we got up to the Ravine it was late in the afternoon and a front was blowing through with 60+ mph wind gusts, it was much warmer earlier that day and we heard that the skiing was good but the whole mountain was under grey skies and frozen harder than concrete. We didn't have permits or the proper gear, we found a spot to hide out with our tent. We didn't have any sleeping pads so we only had the tent between our sleeping bags and the frozen spring snow below us. We spent the night barely sleeping if we did at all and violently shivered in an attempt to keep from freezing to death. The next day we put on our gear and hiked up to the Ravine, the winds continued and it never really warmed up. Climbing without crampons was a deadly proposition and we soon figured that out just below the Hourglass as one of my friends lost his footing and slid out of control flying right by us, picking up speed and barely stopping before exposed boulders below. His ride was a couple hundred feet at least. We managed to somehow get our skis on and make a few desperate and tooth rattling "turns" on the boilerplate nieve.

I'm really glad that we didn't make it somehow up onto the upper face that day of the Headwall, if we had one of us if not all three of us would have likely gone on a serious slide for life.

this is me freezing my arse off inside our tent.


The rock hard frozen head wall.


One more of the tent.

That's a good story RA. Thanks for sharing that. It's great that you have pics from back then. There's a lot of fun stuff I did in the old days that, looking back, I wish I'd snapped a few photos.

Thanks Brownski, after all of the moving around I had done I'm actually surprised that I still have so many. I have 4 books of photos like these. Maybe we should start a "back in the day" thread? I'm not going to, I don't want people to think I'm trying to brag or show off. This story in this post I certainly don't see like that, it seems more like I'm sharing a personal lesson in humility but I don't always see how others read things very well.

cool story. thx for sharing.

RA - Are you guys sleeping on Hermit Lake?

No, once we got up to the lean to's people there told us that we weren't aloud to camp so we sort of backed up and hid out in the trees. I honestly have no idea where the heck we were, this is 21 years ago! I mostly remember being cold, very very cold. I hope to get back one day to really ski the Ravine as well as the Gulf.

One day I would love to do an east coast ski trip. Some places I would like to hit would be Plattekill, the Thunderbolt on Greylock, Birkshire East, MRG, Stowe, the Presidential Range, Mount Abraham, Marble Mountain, and some of that stuff in the Chic Chocs.

I like reading your stories as well AZ ---  in the words of Kid Rock, "it ain't braggin motherfucker if ya back it up"  

Figures you listen to Kid Rock

Who doesn't ?

Anyone with dignity lol.  Just picking on you.  Haha

raisingarizona wrote

Thanks Brownski, after all of the moving around I had done I'm actually surprised that I still have so many. I have 4 books of photos like these. Maybe we should start a "back in the day" thread? I'm not going to, I don't want people to think I'm trying to brag or show off. This story in this post I certainly don't see like that, it seems more like I'm sharing a personal lesson in humility but I don't always see how others read things very well.

I think everyone that has skied on Mount Washington has at least one story of humility that makes oneself shake their heads. I'm pretty conservative up there but I still have one or two head shakers...

My moment wasn't hucking the headwall in Left Gully, but climbing it.


https://vimeo.com/128328616

As I said in my TR at the time, this was the first time I truly felt my mortality while skiing, being in a 'you fall, you don't go home whole, if you go home at all' situation.  Tuckerman's is a place that will do that.  Next time I'll keep my climb to the left!

I skied there as part of a college group.  Day 1 was Hillman Highway.  Nice day of skiing.  Day 2 was similar skiing the right gully.  Day 3 was about a foot of new snow, flat light.  Skied the left gully and at one point couldn't climb any higher.  You couldn't get traction so each step slipped down to where you were before.

I've skied dozens of ski areas - in and out of bounds - heli-skied and taught at a major resort out west.  Tuckerman's is still the steepest I've ever skied.  Pretty gnarly when you have to carry your skis sideways because otherwise they touch the headwall.

Also, you want to make sure alcohol is out of your system.  Putting your skis on at chest level is weird.

It was cool walking up to the lean-tos with a full moon.