Mountain Wandering: Avalanche Ravine Bushwhack: 3/12/25

I hoped that a day of 55 degrees and sun followed by an overnight freeze would set up some firm snow for bushwhacking. With more thaw in the forecast, this was the day to reprise a favorite bushwhack up through Avalanche Ravine on the NW side of Mount Tripyramid, with descent via the Scaur Ridge Trail route. Visits to three open slide patches in the ravine, plus the snowfields on the north side of Scaur Ridge, provided a variety of views that included thirty 4000-footers.

During the same August storm in 1885 that triggered the huge and famous North Slide of Tripyramid, eight smaller slides fell in the ravine, and it became known as Avalanche Ravine, or the Ravine of Avalanches. Most of the 1885 slides are largely revegetated, but the remaining open patches still offer good views. This photo, taken by Edward Lorenz in 1910, shows the North Slide on the right and the additional slides in the Ravine of Avalanches on the left. My first objective in the ravine was the lowest open patch on the left side. (Photo courtesy Town of Waterville Valley)

The same view as seen from Mount Osceola in 2021. The small slide strip on the left would be part of my route up the headwall.

The groomed first 2.2 miles of Livermore Trail was rock-hard and slick in the morning, making for quick walking with Hillsounds. Normally I would wear snowshoes on this section, but the spikes were barely denting the snow. One lonely skier was the only person I saw all day.

Beyond the groomed section, Livermore Trail had a choppy but firm snowshoe track.

Slide Brook was still pretty well locked in at White Cascade.

The sun-baked snow at Avalanche Camp was solid, allowing for a fun wander around this logging camp clearing.

A bed frame poking out of the snow.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

At the junction with the north end of Mount Tripyramid Trail (3.6 miles from parking), I followed an old logging road on a familiar bushwhack route along the north side of Avalanche Brook, paralleling the trail on the south side.

The snowshoeing was excellent in one of my all-time favorite hardwood glades.

I continued up the old road farther into Avalanche Ravine. The snowpack was mostly supportive, though it occasionally yielded for a surprise knee-deep plunge.

The North Slide was often visible through the trees.

Arriving at the "inner sanctum" glade opposite the bottom of the North Slide.

Sweet snowshoeing on a sunny March day.

In here Avalanche Brook was solidly buried, a good sign for my planned route up the throat of the ravine along the brookbed.

Looking up the East Fork of the North Slide. Ascending partway up this was my Plan B if the ravine whack didn't pan out.

From a previous late winter trip partway up the ravine, I knew the start was a little tight. But the snow in this shaded cut was firm and grippy, making it fairly easy to maneuver around awkward spots.

This part of the ravine was an open highway.

Much of the way I was able to snowshoe right up the center of the V-cut.

There were only a few blowdowns to maneuver through or around.

Looking back.

I believe the cut on the left is the fully revegetated track of one of the eight slides that fell into Avalanche Ravine in the same August 1885 storm that unleashed Tripyramid's giant North Slide.

For some distance a local resident had used the brookbed for an efficient travel route.

This section required a steep sidehill detour.

Well beyond the North Slide I passed a remnant open patch of one of the other 1885 slides up on the right. In the interest of time I didn't make the short climb up to it.

A few short, steep pitches were quite strenuous.

At 3150 ft. I made a short, steep climb to the only open slide patch remaining on the north (left)side of the ravine. The sun was strong on this south-facing slope.

This spot offers a great spreading view of Mount Tecumseh and the Waterville Valley ski trails.

Zoomed.

North Tripyramid looms 1000 ft. above.

Back to the brookbed for a steeper pitch.

From the brookbed I struggled steeply up through scrubby woods in the only area I encountered that had soft, unsupportive snow. I was happy to reach the bottom of the lower of two open parts of the main 1885 slide on the headwall of the ravine.

This was my fifth visit (second on snowshoes) to this old scrubby slide, which offers a nice sense of remoteness tucked away at the head of the ravine. A fascinating article, "The Tripyramid Slides of 1885," was written by Alford A. Butler for the March 1886 issue of "Appalachia." Butler paid four visits to the Ravine of Avalanches and wrote about the North Slide and the eight smaller slides in great detail. This article can be read on Google Books.

It offers a fine view of the Osceolas.

The snow was firm on the slide, except around the edges of the scrubby spruces, and much of it was the styrofoam-like snow called neve. Snowshoe crampons get a good bite on this snow. Avalanche danger was rated low at all elevations by the Mount Washington Avalanche Center this day.

Weaving through the scrub.

This open part of the old slide has a slope of 31 degrees, a bit less steep than the North Slide's 33 degrees.

Plenty of snowpack up here.

Higher up, Mount Moosilauke and the Kinsmans come into view.

Zoomed.

Drift at the top of the open slide, at 3430 ft.

From here I climbed through open woods on the headwall to reach the upper open strip of the old slide.

There it is!

This is a narrow swath with a lower angle of 27 degrees.

Views are more expansive up here, with a number of summits visible on either side of nearby Scaur Peak.

Franconia Range on the left, Mount Garfield on the right.

Hancock and Carrigain. South Twin, West Bond and Bondcliff are to the left of North Hancock.

Twisted drift.

A short bushwhack through open fir woods brought me to the Pine Bend Brook Trail at 3600 ft.

The track on the trail was crusty and dirty, but good enough for snowshoeing. No time for the steep climb to North Tripyramid's summit.

That favorite narrow section along Scaur Ridge.

I dropped down to the snowfields just north of the Scaur Ridge Trail junction, which offer excellent northern views with late winter snowpack.

Mount Carrigain with Mount Willey peering over its shoulder.

Nice!

The Presidentials and the Carters, with Green's Cliff in front.

Mount Tremont, Owl Cliff and Bartlett Haystack, with the Baldface Range and Doubleheads in the distance.

Kearsarge North peeks over Bear Mountain, with North Moat to the right. Church Pond and Church Pond Bog are seen down in the Albany Intervale.

A fun place to wander!

On to the less-traveled Scaur Ridge Trail, with five mostly easy miles to go.

A beautiful stretch of trail.

Some old ski tracks heading down into Scaur Ravine, a tributary of Avalanche Ravine.

Looking down Scaur Ravine.

After a stretch through conifers where the track was firm, I dropped into the hardwoods. Here the sun had been beating on the snow all day, creating some mushy conditions.