Sledding Dowwn Mt. Washington

[rickb]

In another thread a poster mentioned coming back from his sledding trip down Mt. Washington.

This sounded real cool.

To those familiar with this activity, I have a few questions:

1. Do you come down the Auto Road?

2. What kind of sled do you use?

3. How do you brake, if indeed that is possible?

4. How many stops do you have on the way down (more or less)?

5. Are there any special considerations for the sledding part of the journey that make the ride either safer or, most importantly, more fun?

[Roland]

Rick,

You're right, the Auto Road is the preferred route. The sled of choice is the Swiss Bob. See picture below.

These measure about a foot square, weight 2 lbs and can be controlled with a little practice.

The folks at Great Glen Trails are capitalizing on this market by offering rides/tours, in their snow coach, to tree line. Passengers can opt to ride, ski, snowshoe or slide down.

http://www.greatglentrails.com/winter/sightsee.html

[peakbagger]

I suspect that "sliding down Mt Washington" is actually sliding down from around treeline although I expect that the folks at the observatory probably have made the entire run. There has been a group that has taken Luge runs down the Autoroad from the halfway point but this has been limited to expert Luger's. The lower autoroad that Great Glen runs tours up, tends to get packed and rutted from the snowcat traffic so its going to be a rough ride.

The popular run "down Mt Washington" is the Sherburne trail from the base of Tuckermans ravine down to the AMC Pinkham notch facility. Typically when the weather warms up in the spring, the sledding starts at Hermit Lake but earlier in the year I have known folks who have slid down part of the headwall and kept going down the trail between the upper bowl and Hermit (this is usually melted out by the time the weather gets nice in the spring ).

I have done the run from Hermit several times and there are a lot of locals that do it every week or more often when the conditions are right.

I try to avoid the trail in late afternoon as the sledders become roadblocks for the skiers coming down from the bowl. If you do wipe out in the trail, get off to the side quickly and give skiers a chance to pass. On the flat sections, there are sections that you may have to walk and you may posthole. If you do posthole do it well off to the side of the trail despite the temptation to walk in the middle of the trail

The Sherburne trail is a cut ski trail running through the woods. Its a bit flat up near Hermit Lake but gets steep and curvy as you go down. The trail is highly conditions dependent. Its frequently boilerplate in the morning and dangerously fast and then as the sun softens it up, it turns into a mix of boilerplate and slush patches. Some of the corners drop steeply and throw outwards into the woods so it best to maintain a bit of control. It also gets bumpy so make sure you have some padding (either natural or artificial:) ) on your sled.

The best device IMHO is a swissbob, but I have seen every type of sled used. I have glued some ensolite foam on the seat and it works pretty well.

The hike up to Hermit lake from Pinkham is about 1 to 2 hours and the slide down is about 15 minutes. I would recomend starting around 10:30 to 11:00 and sliding down after lunch when its the sunniest and the skier traffic is low.

I have friends who used to do this route a lot but have switched to hiking up Wildcat and sliding down after work (dont know the legality of this!)

[The Old Fhart]

When I worked for the Observatory for 4 winters, on the Wednesday shift change we'd often slide down from just below the 1/2 way point (4 miles) on the Auto Road rather than take the snocat the whole way down. Above tree line the snow is generally wind-blown and glassy, referred to as boilerplate, and not at all safe for sledding. The sleds we used were the plastic about 3-foot long sleds you could sit in. You could steer or slow down by dragging one or both hands. The time for the run was as short as 8 minutes depending on conditions. If the snow at the lower end of the road was a little soft there was one place near the 2 mile mark (at the A.T. crossing) where you'd have to push or get out and walk for a 100 feet or so. If the snow was too soft and you were continually stopping ,the cat was doing about 8 mph and the driver would make you get back inside if you were slowing him down. Several of the sleds actually wore out from the abrasion with the snow and had holes in the bottom. The cat often plows up and down so the road is generally pretty smooth.

[warren doyle]

It has been almost two weeks since Mr. Boudrie started this thread.
Here is some info on sledding down the Mt Washington auto road ( a 4-8 mile sled run, conditions permitting, with a 3000-5000' descent). I have made this an almost annual event since 1974. In 1994, it became prohibited by the owners of the auto road. You cannot sled down the auto road - ski? yes; sled?no. If you follow the auto road on foot/snowshoe/ski, you need to pay the auto road owners a $15 trail fee.
That's for the obedient, law-abiding folks.
As for all the others....
to paraphrase WV's state motto:

Mt. Washington sledders are always free!!!! Wheee!

[The Scribe]

I didn't think you could do that either.

The link to Great Glen Trails as part of this thread doesn't mention sliding at all. It mentioned X-C, Telemark, and snowshoeing only.

I haven't done it personally, but skiing/sledding down from the floor of Tuckerman Ravine right to the AMC lodge is something. As stated by someone, some have even gone over the headwall skiing and kept right on going.