On a sunny day with persistent wildfire smoke haze, I joined Waterville Valley sage Daniel Newton for a leisurely bushwhack up Avalanche Ravine (aka Ravine of Avalanches) on the NW side of Mount Tripyramid. I'd navigated this route several times before, most recently on snowshoes in March. Though Daniel has climbed Tripyramid's North Slide many times, sometimes to ski down it, he had not been all the way up the ravine before. I wanted to show him the remnants of several other slides that fell in the same August 1885 storm that triggered the North Slide.
We set a good pace up the mellow, familiar Livermore Trail.
Daniel takes in the scene at White Cascade on Slide Brook.
Lush growth at the site of Avalanche Camp. Might be a few ticks out there.
Long hardwood corridor on Livermore Trail.
A few Jack-in-the-Pulpits are hidden amidst the trailside vegetation.
At the junction with the north end of Mount Tripyramid Trail we headed off-trail along the north side of Avalanche Brook, following a very old logging road.
We relished the luxuriant greens in one of our favorite sugar maple glades.
Sweet Wilderness.
Partway into Avalanche Ravine we came to the "inner sanctum glade."
Not much flow in Avalanche Brook at this spot.
A small mountain meadow at the base of the East Fork of the North Slide.
Looking up the East Fork.
Patterns in a pool.
Mossy bed on Avalanche Brook.
We brook-whacked slowly up the ravine, stepping carefully to protect both us and the streambed moss and plants.
A long section of the ravine was a lovely open mossy corridor.
Looking back.
Surveying the scene from a rock seat.
Verdant.
A green ramp.
Well up into the ravine we made a detour up onto the south slope to visit an open patch on one of the 1885 slides.
Climbing up the revegetated lower track of the slide.
This was a fairly large triangular slide when it came surging down in 1885. Today only a few open patches persist amidst the scrubby spruces.
Exploring.
Looking up at the ridge.
I was pleased to find a diminutive white pine at the edge of this open patch - only the second white pine I've seen on the remnants of this slide.
A peek at the top of Mount Osceola in the distance.
We dropped down to the brook and found a little rougher going.
Farther up the ravine we climbed steeply on the north side of the ravine to access the next slide patch.
This patch can be seen as a white spot right in the middle of the ravine in this winter view from Mount Tecumseh. Daniel has seen it many times while skiing on the mountain. We agreed to call it "The White Eye." He was excited to be approaching this seldom-visited spot.
There is a single white pine at the lower edge of this patch.
Daniel takes in the view from the top of the gravelly patch.
The top of North Tripyramid looms 1000 ft.above.
This spot is notable for its beautifully framed view of Mount Tecumseh, softened by the wildfire smoke haze.
Zoomed.
We lounged in the sun here for an hour.
A colony of Bunchberry had taken up residence at the edge of the patch.
Steep sidehilling as we continued up the ravine.
Up here the brookbed is a narrow slot, scoured by the slide 140 years ago.
A picturesque side drainage.
Climbing the revegetated lower track of the big slide that fell on the ravine headwall in 1885.
A moose apparently had the same idea.
Emerging on the remaining open strip on the headwall slide.
Taking it in.
Looking down.
The black flies were swarming us here.
Nice view of Mount Osceola and East Osceola.
Mount Moosilauke could be faintly seen to the left, and South Kinsman to the right.
Continuing up.
Steep climbing through the headwall woods.
Emerging on the upper open strip of the headwall slide.
Distant views open on either side of nearby Scaur Peak, including the Franconia Range on the left.
To the right of Scaur Peak are Garfield, Huntington, West Bond, South Twin, Hancock's long ridge, and Carrigain.
Whacking up through open, fern-filled boreal forest above the slide.
A rocky wall at 3700 ft. barred further progress. We cut left a short distance to Pine Bend Brook Trail.
We discussed continuing up to the summit of North Tripyramid, but it was late in the afternoon (4:45), the black flies were persistent, the views were hazy, we knew the trail above was steep and gnarly, and we had both been up there many times. So we headed down from here.
The wonderful narrow ridge joining North Tripyramid and Scaur Peak.
Creature-like yellow birch approaching the Scaur Ridge Trail junction.
I dropped into the glade below for a quick look at the hazy northern view focused on Green's Cliff and Mount Tremont. The distant hazy outline of Mount Washington was barely discernible.
The Scaur Ridge Trail is one of our favorites.
This trail is well-maintained by adopter Dennis Follensbee, Jr.
Yellow birch guardian.
A glimpse of the sunlit North Slide.
Pleasant walking along an old logging road.
Farewell to the Wilderness, for now.
Homeward bound on Livermore Trail.
This photo, taken by Edward Lorenz in 1910, shows the North Slide and its East Fork on the
right and the additional slides in the Ravine of Avalanches on the
left. We visited the remnants of the two prominent slides farther up the ravine, plus the "White Eye," barely visible between their bases. (Photo courtesy Town of Waterville Valley)
