Yesterday’s decisions got me thinking back to June 1996, the month I first
skied Tux.

The morning of June 15 we pulled into Pinkham under absolutely gorgeous
skies.  What perfect weather, we two newbies thought, how lucky we are for
our first day on the Rockpile!

The next weekend, the morning of June 22, we called the weather report,
which sounded grimly wet.  We talked with the trails desk.  Yes, it was
currently raining - kinda hard.  But people were nevertheless still heading
up.  We asked the critical question: “is skiing today crazy, or hard
core?”  We received the answer we were hoping for, and hit the road from
Boston.

Driving back that evening, we reflected on the two weekend outings.  That
day we had pulled into Pinkham, the rain looked grim in the parking lot,
but it wasn’t bad on the trail, and it soon abated entirely.  We had a
wonderful outing.  By contrast, the previous weekend, that warm sunny
weather had looked nice in the parking lot, but we drenched ourselves on
the trail with sweat, and then we got drenched by rain in the Ravine.

So the day that had looked so perfect turned out to be miserable, and the
day that looked hopeless turned out to be all happy.  Now I’m not
dismissing weather concerns when it comes to safety (except for slippery
rocks, since those rocks above treeline are almost always slippery), and
certainly deciding upon a particular day should reference weather
forecasts, but if you’re already there at the mountain, then head on up!
Otherwise, thy days spent skiing above treeline each season in the
Presidentials will be far too few (e.g., four).

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