Tuckerman’s Ravine Inferno Hike

I met up with a group of friends early in the morning to hike up to Tuckerman’s Ravine to watch some of the Inferno Skiers ski the Tuckerman’s bowl and Hillmans Highway.

I arrived in Pinkham Notch at 7:30 am, the lot was full and I had to park in the road. I saw some friends out in front of the Lodge. This is a popular hike so the trails will be full.

As I was getting my pack together, I noticed no one had snowshoes so I brought those back to my car. Microspikes were all that were needed for this hike.

Skys were clear and temps were in the high 20’s in the morning but it was forecasted to be up around 50 degrees this afternoon. It wasn’t long before our jackets came off.

We started up the trail. When we got to the bridge at the first water crossing a snow cat was making its way up so everyone had to watch this beast make its way up the trail. Behind this machine was a pack of skiers heading up to the bowl.

The next stop was at the Crystal Cascades. It was flowing pretty good. We paused for a few pictures then started our way back up the trail. From there the trail starts to climb.

This is where the group started to break apart a bit. Some hikers are faster than others but no one was hiking alone. 

The trail climbs pretty steady. We passed a few side trails headed over to Harvard Cabin and Huntington Ravine. Then we crossed a few more bridges along the trail. We continued the steady climb until we got close to the cabin where the trail levels off a bit.

When we got to the cabin there was a lot of people hanging out and enjoying the sunshine on the deck. Many members of our group were up there as well. We took a break for a while before heading up to the bowl itself.

After several of us were rested, we started up the trail to the Tuckerman’s Bowl. The trail starts out with a nice view of the bowl from below. Then we start to climb. The snow was very soft like mashed potato. That made things a little slippery with just spikes on.

This part the hike is the steepest, but it is not very long. We just took our time and went at our own pace. We climbed over some rock formations and in and out through the trees until the we got the bottom of the bowl. There were a lot of people hanging out and watching the skiers test their skills coming down the headwall.

It seemed like some of them were having a great time and others were questioning their decision to ski Tuckerman’s. We did not see anyone crash or wipe out so that was a good thing. It was starting to get a bit cold hanging out, after a few pictures a few of us started down the mountain.

I had carried my butt sled up with me so when we got to the first good downhill I decided to give it a try. Wow. It was perfect sledding. The snow was soft so I was able to steer the sled pretty easy and was able to stay in control.

I made sure to stop the sledding if I saw someone coming up or if I caught up to someone hiking down. At each stop I would wait for the others to catch up. My buddy Jack took a few runs as well.

Needless to say we made it down the mountain pretty quickly and were back at the bottom before we knew it. Others were still coming down but we were hungry and wanted to get something to eat.

It really was a perfect day. The weather was amazing and one of the best weather days I’ve seen in Tuckerman’s. At the end of the day my face was tired from smiling and laughing all day long.

It was fun to see everyone. For one reason or another I had not seen most of these people in a year or so. But fortunately for me, with this group it is easy to pick up where I left off.