Typically, this final column would be about the remaining days of the ski season, where to find the latest skiing and best places to enjoy the festivities with sun and suds.

Two weeks ago, I was at Mt. Abram for the annual Legends Race. I. stopped by the office on my way to the car, I learned that the area would be closing for the season.

Within a few days, I received notices that Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Loon were shutting down, and shortly after, word came in that ski resorts around the nationwere closing due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Sunday River alone brings in 10,000 skiers to the mountain in a single day. So it makes sense when we are told not to gather with more than 10 in a group. Skiers aren’t likely to spread the virus while out on the mountain, but in base lodges, restaurants, bars and cafeterias, those skiers would be elbow to elbow and making it risky to catch the virus.

Considering the numbers alone, closing down makes a lot of sense, but it will be tough for many areas.. Ski resorts and associated businesses will take a big hit. The toughest impact will be on the employees who were counting on another few weeks of work.

It’s been many years since I was present on closing day at any ski area. As a ski patrolman, my season didn’t end until the lifts stopped turning. Now I put the skis away when I see the term “limited” turning up in the reports. It used to be the signal to get out the pack frame and turn my attention to Tuckerman Ravine. This year skiers will head for Mount Washington a month earlier than usual.

If you don’t mind hiking for your skiing, there is plenty of snow left on the trails even if the lifts have ceased For those who are part of the “Earn your turns” group, using climbing skins or skis with special tracked bottoms to climb may be seen as an opportunity. It’s a lot easier to climb if there are no skiers coming down. I know there are plenty of skiers who climb after the lifts close, but this is a chance to climb with most of the trails still well covered. Be sure to check with the ski area to make sure there are no restrictions.

Another event cancelled by the Coronavirus is the annual Inferno Race held each year to raise money for www.friendsoftuckerman.org. This would have been the 20th anniversary test, which includes an eight-mile run, 18 miles of biking, six miles of kayaking on the Saco River, a three-mile hike into Tuckerman Ravine and skiing one plus miles back to Pinkham. The website is a good place to start your search for the latest conditions on Mount Washington. The Appalachian Mountain Club is another, and once at their Pinkham Notch headquarters, you will find a report showing conditions all over the mountain. All the favorite runs are there, including: Hillman Highway, the Right and Left Gullies, the Chute, Headwall, Little Headwall, Sherburne Trail and more. Pay close attention to the ones listed with Avalanche Danger. The Pinkham phone number is 603-466-2721.

You won’t find me there, but I do have great memories of skiing Mount Washington and Tuckerman Ravine. When the Inferno Race was revived by the late Al Risch in 1969, I hiked into the Ravine to watch the fun. Unlike the last of the original Infernos in 1939, this race consisted of a GS course set down across the East Snowfields, over the Lip into the Ravine and a finish on the floor of the Ravine. That race was won by ski racing’s Bad Boy at the time — Duncan Cullman. You might remember my writing about Duncan a year ago when he turned up at the World Pro Tour Finals at Sunday River. He was the one who, knowing he was out of the running, skied around instead of over the final jump. This year’s Pro Tour Finals also scheduled for Sunday River have fallen victim to the pandemic.

Like any spring weekend, there was plenty of beer in the Ravine that day. Mostly it was bring your own as there is no concessions there, but a couple of guys had figured out a way to get a keg up there. I’m guessing they hauled it up on a sled, but the 15-gallon keg of beer would have weighed 120 pounds. They set the keg up in the snow and sold 10 ounce cups for a dollar. In those days, the beer in the cup would have cost about 10 cents, which was not a bad return.

Pictures from that day show the headwall completely covered with snow, not a bare spot or ledge in sight. That was a record snow year with over 500 inches on Mount Washington. Hiking the last few hundred yards into the Hermit Lake shelter, we passed tree stumps broken off by avalanches coming off Lion Head. The true impact of those stumps came to me hiking into the Ravine in September. With the snow gone, those stumps were well over our heads. We had been hiking over at least eight feet of snow.

Finally, I have a correction to make. In last weeks’ column, I incorrectly noted Dick May as not being a member of the 10th. He wasn’t mentioned in the book so I was going from my own memories of how he had to match up all those skis. I’m not surprised that he didn’t mention his part in the Italian campaign. He always looked for the humorous side of any topic. I remember well when he called me with Wildcat ski conditions. Hearing about what he felt might be exaggerations about snowfall from other areas, he said, “We throw away our broken yardsticks.” In the Mount Washington Valley, those are called “Mayisms.”

Dave Irons is a freelance writer and columnist who hails from Westbrook. He has been contributing to the Sun Journal for many years and is among the most respected ski writers in the Northeast. He also is a member of the Maine Ski Hall of Fame. Write to him at DaveiSkiGolf@aol.com. 

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