As hard to believe as it was, April was winding down, and Dan, Joe and I wanted to get another day of turns in the books before the month came to a close. After getting shut down at our original destination due to an unexpected snow drift blocking the road, we headed over to Hoodoo where we knew there would be access. Driving into the snowpark, it looked like the eastside of Hayrick was holding good snow, so we decided to check things out….
It was a short skin out before switching to booting, and the slope was in pretty good shape, with only one snowmobile track on it. As we neared the top, the winds picked up considerably, but the views didn’t disappoint…
After a 30 minute excursion hiking over to the opposite side of the summit plateau (it’s a lot bigger up there than I was thinking), we worked our way back to the skis and were ready to drop in. Dropping down through the top section we had to negotiate a spicy little chute, which was pretty fun, and then the bowl opened up and we were able to rip…
The turns were soft corn in the bowl, and we worked our way to the right where the snow was even more smooth, milking it all the way to the bottom.
Of course we decided it was worth heading back up for another lap. We set an easy bootpack, and within 20 minutes had climbed back up to below the crux and out onto a rock ledge that afforded a nice view of Mt Washington to the south. It was also a good time to pull the beer out of the pack and put it on ice….
Lap number two was even better than lap one, and we made turns down to the bottom before making a hard traverse back out towards the car.
Having done a couple of laps on the east side, we figured it was time to head over to Hoodoo and check out the snow there. Surprisingly, there was only one or two other tracks on the hill. We soon found out why as we skinned up — the winds were stiff and the snow firm. Skinning up the gut of the main bowl proved challenging. Once we made the top, we found some shelter from the wind in the sled tubes by the patrol shack.
After hanging out on top and eating lunch, we skied down the east face in snow that was on the firm side of corn, and elected to put a couple of laps in on the west face of Hayrick.
The snow here was smooth and nice, and we made multiple “mini-golf” laps on the 200-300 foot slope. It was also sheltered from the biting winds we’d experienced at the top of Hoodoo.
To end the day, we climbed up into a small amphitheater bowl on the southside of the west face. Although it was a short climb, it was steep, and the scenery and the turns were pretty sweet!
We enjoyed the turns all the way back to the car, and were pretty stoked on the day. Sitting in the parking lot in the sun, enjoying a beer and some chips and salsa, all of us were looking forward to more days of spring corn to come.
