February: North and South Twin from the slide on Flat Top Mountain. This three-pronged slide fell into the Garfield Stream valley during Hurricane Carol in 1954.
March: A view of the Osceolas from a slide on the headwall of Tripyramid's Avalanche Ravine. This was one of several slides - including Tripyramid's renowned North Slide - that fell during a massive rainstorm in August 1885.
April: A view of Mt. Passaconaway and the headwall of the glacial cirque known as The Bowl, seen from a slide on the SE ridge of Mt. Whiteface. This slide may have fallen during the September 1938 hurricane or Hurricane Carol in 1954. It's very steep with a slope of 37 degrees.
May: Looking across Tunnel Brook Notch to two of the nine slides on the steep eastern face of Mt. Clough. The slide on the left is the largest of the nine, dating back to the November 1927 rainstorm. At its widest it is 260 feet across.
June: Looking out to the peaks of The Kilkenny from a slide high on the side of Cascade Ravine on Mt. Adams.This slide came down during the November 1927 rainstorm.
July: Another view towards The Kilkenny, this one from a slide on the west wall of Castle Ravine. This slide fell around 1970. Mt. Bowman is seen in the foreground on the left.
August: The view out towards Vermont from the upper end of a slide on the headwall of Moosilauke's Slide Ravine. Part of Mud Pond is visible at the south end of Tunnel Brook Notch. This slide most likely came down during the September 1938 hurricane.
September: My retirement commenced on September 1st, so this month will display three slides. This photo was taken at the base of the huge 2011 slide in Moosilauke's Tunnel Ravine, which fell during Tropical Storm Irene. The headwall of Tunnel Ravine can be seen above.
On a gorgeous fall day I returned to a favorite - the 2011 slide on the NE side of West Sleeper. This was my 10th (!) visit to this big Tropical Storm Irene slide, on which I have been observing the ongoing process of revegetation.
October: I had been putting this one off for a long time, but finally tackled it on a gorgeous day in late October: the hidden but giant gravelly slide on the west side of Whaleback Mountain, plunging into the Clear Brook ravine. The view from the top of the slide takes in Big Coolidge Mountain up close and Mt. Moosilauke in the distance. This trip had a heart-pounding conclusion as I was closely followed by a black bear, in the dark, along the lower half-mile of the old Osseo Trail.
Another late October bushwhack brought me up to the lower end of the great slides on the west face of Mt. Flume. Somewhere near this spot I lost my iphone and all the photos from the day. Luckily I salvaged a few pictures with an old point-and-shoot camera I had stashed in my pack.
November: I soon returned to the Flume Brook valley and bushwhacked to a talus slope on the flank of Mt. Liberty for an intimate view of the Flume Slides, which fell in 1883 and 1908. I now owned a new iphone 17 with a good zoom capability.
December: Inspired by a recent photo posted by the accomplished bushwhacker known as timbercamp, I bushwhacked to an obscure ledge on a shoulder of Black Mountain for an unparalleled view of the Norrthwest Slides on Scar Ridge. These slides are apparently at least a century and a half old, as they appeared in an Appalachia piece by geologist Warren Upham in February 1878. On a surveying trip in 1871, Upham lost a hammer, which tumbled hundreds of feet down to the bottom of the slide.
Thanks for reading and best wishes for the New Year!
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