Dear SheJumps,

I've been planing to ski Tuckerman Ravine on Mt Washington ever since last winter. Some of you might remember my story I sent in last summer when I climbed Mt. Washington to get ready for this day. On April 2, 2010 everything finally came together. The sky was blue, the temperature was warm and the avalanche danger was finally low.

We arrived at the base at first light and I loaded my pack with skis, boots, food and extra layers of clothes. We started hiking the trail that led to HoJo's (the ranger's house). Almost 3 hours later we reached this point where I got my first look at the snow covered bowl of Tuckerman Ravine that I was going to ski. While taking a brake at Hojo's with another 30 or so hikers and skiers I realized two things. Everybody was really excited as we sat with a view of the bowl and that everybody was older than me; a lot older!

Soon we began climbing up the bootpack of the little head wall which led to the floor of Tuckerman Ravine. This took about an hour.

Standing at the base of the bowl I could see that my choices of where to ski went for about 160 degrees. For the next 20 minutes or so, remembering what my friend Claire Smallwood had taught me in Alta,  I sat and figured out exactly what line I thought I should ski. My dad asked me lots of questions about what I thought was the best way to climb up and ski down. In the end I decided to climb the right gully because it was shortest, but steepest. I also decided that I was going to drop into the bowl from an area known as the lip. This way I could go around the rock face of the headwall that had huge chunks of ice hanging from them.

Now it was time for me to start climbing the steep stuff. I was climbing up  a very steep bookpack to get to the top and I noticed a river of corn snow that was flowing down the mountain right next to us. We were lucky that we were ahead of it because it was filling in the bookpack right behind us. When we reached the top, we had to traverse for a bit until we were above the area that I wanted ski. At that point I found a large rock to sit on to rest and get myself all geared up for the ski.

I was now ready to go and ski but my Dad wanted to take a minute to talk to me about a couple of things. He spent some time reminding me about the self arrest things he had taught me and he reminded me about having a plan of escape if an avalanche occurred while we were in the bowl. In think that it was good that he talked to me about self arrest again, but the avalanche talk kind of made me nervous. Anyway, now it was time to ski.

We traversed across and made a few turns down toward toward the lip. Out of nowhere, this man skied over. He was so excited to see me out there headed toward the bowl. He skis there all the time but had never seen anyone my size up there and  wanted to take my picture. He was going to show his wife so she would let his daughter one day also come and ski Tuckerman Ravine. This made me feel really good. We skied on until we reached the top of the lip. Now I could look down the bowl I had planned on skiing for a whole year.

I have to say, I was really scared. I did not know if I could do this. I had never seen anything so steep and so long. I later learned that it was a 45 -50 degree slope. As I stood there, I told my dad that it was really steep, but he just agreed with me. That is not what I wanted to hear! I felt like I wanted to cry. My Dad asked me if I was scared and I told him that I was. He told me that being scared was going to make it harder for me to ski this. He then asked me if I remembered what my friend Lynsey Dyer has written to me once on a poster she gave me. I did remember. She told me, "Sophie, we are only limited by our own imagination. Feel it and you can do it!".  My first vision was that I would fall and crash and end up at the bottom. But then I thought about what Lynsey7 said. Then I could see myself making nice turns all the way down with a big smile on my face. I felt better. My dad asked me if I was ready and I said, "let's do this" He made the first few turns and I was behind him. Then I broke off on my planned traverse below the waterfall and then He shouted for me to make a turn. I did and before I knew it I had made 10 or 12 turns and I was on my way to the bottom of the bowl with everyone cheering and clapping for me. Once I reached the bottom, I looked back and my Dad was still all the way up in the bowl. He had stopped and let me go all the way on my own. He skied down (and he looked pretty good too). We skied together to the floor of the ravine and all of these people clapped and started to come over to take pictures and tell me how great it was that I just did this.

Now I have skied Tuckerman Ravine and I can't wait to do it again. But first it is time for some of you other girls to JUMP!
--
Sophie Howell
age 9