Date: February 23, 2000
 

Hello Adventurers !!!
 

This is the second e-mail (in a series) to help plan and prepare for the
Third Annual Tuckerman Ravine Hiking/Skiing Expedition...
 

First things first... there has been a change in the "tentative" date of
the expedition... we are now looking at April 14 - 16 as the most likely
date... Mount Washington has been receiving (slightly) above average
snowfall this winter so we expect that the Sherburne Ski Trail will
still be skiable on this weekend... of course that could all change in
the next 2 months... as you all know, we won't commit 100% to a date
until two weeks prior (based on natural snow cover and projected
avalanche danger) but April 14 - 16 is what we're shooting for now...
does anyone have a problem with April 14 - 16 ? ... please let me know
your date preference... I called the Royalty Inn and so far all the
weekends in April look good for getting rooms and a good group rate (no
dart tournaments on the horizon... that's an "in" joke for last years'
participants)
 

Item number 2:

The best explanation/introduction of/to this expedition can be found on
the website at:

http://members.home.net/ablack/tucks3.html

Please check it out and let me know if you have any comments or
questions...
 

Several other things:

1. - Now is the a good time to start "training" for the hike up to
Tuckerman Ravine... I've found that stairmastering with ankle-weights
and/or a weighted backpack is an excellent training method... if you can
do an hour on a stairmaster with 20-40 extra pounds you're probably
"good-to-go"... as I mentioned before, I'll be leading a "shake down"
hike (twice) up and down Bob's Hill in the Catoctin mountains of
Maryland before we go... at this point, I'll say that that will happen
on Sunday April 9th at 1:00 PM... let me know if you're interested in
participating... it's highly recommended !!!

2. - Does anyone own (or want to own) any "Family Radio Service" radios
? ... I recently purchased a pair and if we could get another 2 or 3 (or
more) on the expedition I think it would be really helpful in keeping
our group organized... the pair I purchased were made by Audiovox and
sold for $70 (for the pair) at BestBuy... the Audiovoxes (Model FR230-2)
were about the smallest I've seen... they tune all 14 channels (cheaper
models only have 2 channels) but don't have all the fancy voice
scrambling/privacy code stuff on them... I used them on a recent ski
trip and thought they were great... anyway, let me know if you can have
any you can bring along...

3. - Does anyone own any small lightweight plastic sleds/toboggans (like
those "SkiBob" things they sell at Princeton Sports) ? ... I think it
might be fun this year to bring a couple of sleds up to Tuckermans...
after climbing the bowl a time or two, some people might really enjoy
just noodling around on a sled on that vast snowfield... again, let me
know...
 

That's all I can think of for now... I hope you all join us this year...
let me know your level of commitment and answers to any of the quesions
in this e-mail...
 

See Ya Soon,
Allen