burt ravine

Trip Report- Burt Ravine (3/28/18)

Backcountry Skiing, Trip Reports , , ,

Yesterday I got to ski a new-to-me ravine on Mount Washington, Burt Ravine, the one just to the left of the Cog Railway when viewed from the west. We skinned up the Cog and reached the top of Airplane Gully in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
The view from Jacob’s Ladder, elevation 4,760 feet, into Ammonoosuc Ravine with the southern Presidential’s beyond

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
The top of Airplane Gully, elevation 5,470 feet, with The Great Gulf below and the Northern Presidential’s beyond

Jordan, who had climbed up from the east side of Washington via Pinnacle Gully and was meeting us on the ridge, dropped into nearby Turkey Shoot while Benny and Nick sent Airplane Gully. Conditions were stiff but edge-able wind-board. Brit and I made our way over to the top of Burt Ravine and dropped in.

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
Two skiers on the skyline skinning up alongside The Cog

I would find out later through Facebook that this was likely Marty of Alpine Endeavors, who sent me a pic of us from his vantage…

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
You can see our tracks and if you look closely find us!

Burt skied pretty well with a variety of snow conditions as you can see in the video below. Once we got to 3,800 feet I found a skin track leaving the drainage that appeared to be heading back to the Cog. Consulting the topo made it look like it might contour back to the Cog around Waumbek Tank, and be quite a fair bit easier than the 1.2 mile low-angle thrash to pick up the Jewell Trail and exit. We decided to commit to it. It climbed about 150 feet with a few switch backs then crossed a really enticing new slide path.

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
Looking up the new slide

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
Looking down the new slide path

The upended trees and dirt made this new path look quite fresh and the rumor is it formed during the Fall 2017 weather system that brought massive flooding to the Mount Washington Valley.

The skin track seemed to stop on the other side of the path so I continued following our contour and intersected with the Cog about 300 feet above Waumbek Tank. It only took us about 30 minutes of bushwhacking to get back out of Burt and from what I hear that is much better than trying to negotiate the lower drainage.

Backcountry Skiing Mount Washington
Burt Ravine GPS Track (accidentally paused tracking where the line is straight on the descent)

We exited down a still pretty firm Cog run and called it a day. Mileage was just over 5 miles in 4.5 hours with 3,264 elevation gain/loss. It looks like the Higher Summits Forecast isn’t to appealing for the next few days. Let’s hope the weekend brings some decent Spring skiing weather for the last avalanche course of the season!

See you in the mountains,

Northeast Alpine Start