Skiing Lincoln's Throat on a Powder Day (02/17/24)

Crazy time up on Mount Lincoln today. Original plan for the day was to make the long haul over Zealand out to the slides on South Twin, but with avy risk a little iffy and my legs still tired from North Twin, I decided last night to hit Lincoln's Beard instead since recent photos of it look solid. Checked MWAC this morning and saw south and east facing slopes were going to be more windblown. That combined with the -20 predicted wind chill on the ridge made me change my mind again last minute this morning and I elected to try for Lincoln's Throat, hoping there would be enough coverage. It ended up being one of the deeper pow days I've ever gotten in New Hampshire! Due to some poor navigation, I ended up getting nearly cliffed out by some hefty drops/boulders trying to bushwhack from the hiking trail down to Walker Brook. Thankfully it was a short connection and after making it way more difficult than it had to be, I popped out on the brook and started the skin up. There was quite a bit of open water but overall it was an enjoyable ascent! Just after I laced up my crampons to start bootpacking, the wind gusts started picking up. By the time I made it to the top of the line, it felt like a full on blizzard. I waited it out for a little and got a nice window where the snow slowed down to drop in! It was definitely a little sketchy up below the ice falls with a lot of new snow and a lot of wind blowing around. Things felt a little slidey but mostly because there was zero bonding between the new super light snow and the rocks/ice below it (there was almost no base at all on the majority of the slide). After a few ski cuts and some cautious turns on the steeper sections, I felt great about sending it down the rest of the way. Had to angle to GoPro down for a lot of it to show just how deep it was! Got a lot more slides on the short list to hit soon so keep an eye out for more videos this week!