Practice makes perfect. If either Dodge (my friend, ski partner and guide, 16 years old) or I (17) had known where to drop in, the approach would have taken 40 minutes max. But it was our first time skiing the little known bowl, and the entrance was far from obvious. We traversed back and forth among the stunted trees, trying to find an open entrance to the top of the bowl. Eventually we gave up and boot-packed part way back up what we had tentatively made our way down. According to the map the open fields should be right below us, but it didn't feel right that the entrance would be a bushwhack though the thick, tenacious trees we were encountering.
After hiking twenty or thirty feet back up, we traversed again and came upon some ski tracks. After following them, we realized we had been much too far to the right. We followed the tracks down and across for a little while before striking a different path. We should have kept following the tracks, because once again we ended up too far right. After skiing left again we ended up at the bottom of a face above the main bowl. We hiked up the steep face and overlooked the beautiful valley. The temperature was in the forties, and dark clouds which had hovered throughout the morning had cleared away, giving us sun and puffy white clouds. Of all the days we could have chosen, this was one of the best.
As we sat and snacked on our snow ledge we got ready to put on our skis. A solo snowboarder who had snowshoed up in between classes hiked up and stopped next to us. He asked us to wait at the bottom, to make sure he got down safe (always bring a buddy guys, come on.) The face was steep, and as Dodge descended to ski cut it, the soft, sun-warmed surface layer started to sluff off.
The danger was low, but the loose snow avalanches threatened to knock me off my feet as Dodge instructed me to avoid the terrain traps below me. It would have been unpleasant to get strained though the trees below us by even the minimal amount of heavy, wet snow sliding down. The experience was a little intimidating: I'm not as experienced as Dodge is with avalanche danger.
Below a short thicket of trees the bowl opened up. It was a beautiful east coast bowl, with only a few rocks poking up through the snow.
We got several good turns down through the soft snow, and found the trail out in the edge of the woods at the bottom. It was a narrow cut trail, with period rocks and waterfalls.
The route out took thirty minutes, give or take, getting us out in good time despite our late start and explorations at the top of the bowl.
In the parking lot we looked back up, surveying what we had just skied. Of everything I've done in the past two years of learning about backcountry, this was probably my favorite: Open enough to be a nice change from the narrow, tree covered eastern skiing I was used to, but still challenging enough to be a chance for improvement.
About The Author
stash member Johanna
From New Hampshire, 17 years old. I'm an aspiring outdoorswoman, and I'm always looking for opportunities to do what scares me and get better at the things I'm passionate about. I love to ski. I also hike, mountain bike, road bike, and rock climb.