yardsale
New member
Saturday I hiked to the Red Rock Brook drainage formed by South Twin, Guyot, and Bond in the Pemi. to asses the feasibility of skiing the numerous rock slides there. I went in with NH Mt. Hiker who knows the area well, having taken numerous 20 mile day hikes in the area. It took me about two hours to get to the junction of RRB and the Franconia Brook trail. I cheated and mountain biked the first three miles, so figure three hours on skis. From there we ascended the SW ridge of South Twin to a well-defined logging road which roughly parallels the brook up the valley. When the road ended at the stream, we just hiked north up towards the ridge until we picked up another woods road to follow. The woods are sufficiently open to afford easy skiing up; put might require slow, controlled descent. With decent snow, access would be simplified by skiing up the streambed which becomes shallow and wide and thus will hold lots of snow.
After a short period of thick spruce (ugh) we broke onto the beautiful pond on the northern branch of the RRB. We were staring straight up at out objective. The good news is this slide is about 1000 vert of 36 degree slope measured middle to top, perhaps steepening to 38 degrees at the top, easing to 25 degrees for the lower half. Unfortunately the south east exposure at the head of the valley does not promise great snow conditions. Best case would be hardpack changing to spring corn. Worst case is Ice. We could easily see across the ravine to the slides facing north west descending off West Bond. These have similar angle but the exposure will permit good snow disposition from snow blowing off West Bond.
We returned by following another woods road on the south side of RRB looking up at nice 30 degree birch glades with northwest exposure. Not sure how much vert. but the first 300 feet looked sweet.
So here’s the deal. My hypothesis is that none of these lines have ever been skied; owing more to the difficulty in accessing them than any inherent difficulty in the ski lines themselves. We are talking at least two days, and perhaps three days if we do it my way with the heated tent. A base camp in the vicinity of the terminus of RRB would be about 6 easy miles from the trailhead. The dilemma is we could go in spring where we would have good chance of stable snow, but risk a dunking in a brook covered with weakening ice bridges. Alternatively we go mid winter with reliable access and reach the West Bond slides only to find the snow too unstable to ski. As much fun as it would be to have a “first descent” I’m not sure I want to risk an entire three day weekend, although being up there in the winter would be great just to tour around. Perhaps a three day trip to ski the east facing slide off Mt. Lincoln is a better idea. This has been skied many times. It probably gets wind loaded with good snow but isn’t very slide prone as it is 30 degrees or less.
For photos of the area, go to www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11980
Think snow.
Nick
After a short period of thick spruce (ugh) we broke onto the beautiful pond on the northern branch of the RRB. We were staring straight up at out objective. The good news is this slide is about 1000 vert of 36 degree slope measured middle to top, perhaps steepening to 38 degrees at the top, easing to 25 degrees for the lower half. Unfortunately the south east exposure at the head of the valley does not promise great snow conditions. Best case would be hardpack changing to spring corn. Worst case is Ice. We could easily see across the ravine to the slides facing north west descending off West Bond. These have similar angle but the exposure will permit good snow disposition from snow blowing off West Bond.
We returned by following another woods road on the south side of RRB looking up at nice 30 degree birch glades with northwest exposure. Not sure how much vert. but the first 300 feet looked sweet.
So here’s the deal. My hypothesis is that none of these lines have ever been skied; owing more to the difficulty in accessing them than any inherent difficulty in the ski lines themselves. We are talking at least two days, and perhaps three days if we do it my way with the heated tent. A base camp in the vicinity of the terminus of RRB would be about 6 easy miles from the trailhead. The dilemma is we could go in spring where we would have good chance of stable snow, but risk a dunking in a brook covered with weakening ice bridges. Alternatively we go mid winter with reliable access and reach the West Bond slides only to find the snow too unstable to ski. As much fun as it would be to have a “first descent” I’m not sure I want to risk an entire three day weekend, although being up there in the winter would be great just to tour around. Perhaps a three day trip to ski the east facing slide off Mt. Lincoln is a better idea. This has been skied many times. It probably gets wind loaded with good snow but isn’t very slide prone as it is 30 degrees or less.
For photos of the area, go to www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11980
Think snow.
Nick
