Avalanche Ravine: 1/3/25

Three weeks removed from my last all-day hike, I opted for a longtime favorite winter trek, out to Avalanche Ravine on the NW side of North Tripyramid. Out there I hoped to find some good off-trail snowshoeing in the Sandwich Range Wilderness backcountry. 

It turned out to be a fine early winter day, as seen in this view of an open field a mile up the Livermore Trail.

White Cascade on Slide Brook was still rockin' several days after the end-of-December rain.

The cover was thin for the first 2.6 miles on Livermore Trail, making for easy 'spiking.

As snow depth started increasing above 2000 ft., I followed the lead of one of the three hikers somewhere ahead of me and put my snowshoes on. It made for easier going even in just a few inches of crunchy snow.

All quiet in the Waterville Valley woods.

The junction with the north end of Mount Tripyramid Trail, 3.6 miles from the Livermore trailhead, was the launching point for my snowshoe bushwhack.

All three of the hikers ahead of me had turned off onto the trail leading up to the steep and imposing North Slide, though the solo hiker with a dog who I had chatted with briefly at the trailhead said she was going up Scaur Ridge Trail (after already climbing Tecumseh early in the morning!).

My route followed an old overgrown logging road on the north side of Avalanche Brook.

This old road leads to one of my favorite hardwood glades. The wind was roaring overhead, but it was not an issue in the protection of the trees.

The snowshoeing was not disappointing.

The road goes ever on...

Though snow cover was sparse at lower elevations, there was plenty above 2500 ft.

The inner sanctum of Avalanche Ravine.

One of my favorite old maple trees.

Sure seemed like winter out here.

A glimpse up to the top of the North Slide.

The lower part of the East Fork of the North Slide, with a frozen stream winding through.

I climbed a little way up along the East Fork. No sun here!

Then I headed eastward, up and across the south side of the ravine, aiming for an open strip on an old landslide. Along the way I had a glimpse of sunlit Scaur Ridge behind a gnarled old yellow birch.

Making tracks.

Sidehilling.

Arriving at one of the small remaining open strips on this old slide.

This was a fairly sizeable slide after it fell in 1885, about 750 ft. long with a vertical drop of 420 ft. and a slope angle of 29 degrees. It was one of several adjacent slides triggered by the August 1885 storm that unleashed the huge North Slide and its East Fork. The multitude of slides caused by that storm gave this nook its name: Ravine of Avalanches, or Avalanche Ravine. Alford A. Butler visited this ravine shortly after the slides fell, and described this one as "a broad, shallow triangular landslip." This slide was still largely open in 1956 and 1972 aerial photos, but today only a few small open strips remain. The revegetation on this slide is 99% red spruce.

The upper end of the open strip still provides a nice view of Mount Osceola and Mount Moosilauke beyond a shoulder of Scaur Ridge.

Tracks on the slide track. There was a deep, solid crusty base under a few inches of powder.

 

Looking up from the bottom of the open strip.

Here, for the first time, I found a single forlorn white pine on this slide.

The slide I visited is the second from the left in this 1910 photo by Edward H. Lorenz. Note how vast both the main North Slide and its East Fork were back then, 25 years after they fell.

(Photo courtesy of Town of Waterville Valley)

Following my tracks back down the slope. One of the perks of winter bushwhacking is no need for navigation on the return trip (unless it's extremely windy and your tracks are obscured).

Back at the base of the East Fork, the sun still illuminating the upper slopes of North Tripyramid.

Slanting light, late afternoon.

Love those hardwoods!

Homeward bound on Livermore Trail. I noted that the other three hikers had returned to Livermore Trail from the north end of Mount Tripyramid Trail.  So they either went up and down to the summit(s) via the North Slide (!) or retreated partway up the slide.