Once most of the ski resorts and ski lifts in New England have shut down for the season, many skiers and snowboarders will turn to the slopes of Mount Washington to find some final turns before giving in to summer. New England’s highest peak rises 6,288 feet and holds snow long after the rest of the region has packed it in. The record-setting high winds atop the summit scour a massive amount of snow from the surrounding highlands and deposit it in the mountain’s ravines, where the natural snowpack can average up to 55 feet in a typical winter.
The most famous spot to ski on Mt. Washington is Tuckerman Ravine, but there are plenty of other routes available on the mountain, including along the Mt. Washington Auto Road. By the time the road opens in mid-spring, Tuckerman Ravine is often past its prime, while the terrain north and east of the summit offers a wide range of skiing from moderate ravines to gnarly rock-walled chutes.
Vermont based skier Brooks Curran scored a handful of these lines off the Auto Road last spring, including Turkey Chute, Spacewalk, Airplane Gully, Pipeline Gully, The Hidden Hallway, and Activator.
Airplane Gully alone delivers about 1,000 vertical feet of high-quality spring skiing, with a sustained pitch of around 40 degrees before opening up into wide, swooping turns below. The gully gets its name from aircraft wreckage found in the area, and nearby lines like Spacewalk and Turkey Chute add to the terrain’s wild character. For those willing to seek it out, Mt. Washington delivers some of the most rewarding spring skiing anywhere on the East Coast.
