PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. — Matt Spencer and Richard Rutitis drove nine hours from Toronto for the chance at a few morning runs in Tuckerman Ravine, the backcountry bowl on the east side of Mount Washington. It’s been a tradition for the pair of 27-year-old skiers for 13 years.

Most years the Canadians come in May. This year they didn’t wait because they were afraid there won’t be any snow by then.

“This is the last place in the Northeast to hold snow. There was definitely more snow last year in May than there is now,” said Spencer, after the two had hiked up and skied down through the ravine’s twin cliffs known as The Chute.

While ski areas across New England made snow this winter to stay open, there was little snow in the woods for backcountry skiers.

According to the National Weather Service in Gray, the White Mountain National Forest recorded 92 inches of snow this winter – far below the average annual snowfall of 169 inches.

Around 6,288-foot Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast and a springtime draw for backcountry skiers, there was plenty of snow last weekend but still far less than normally seen at the end of March.

“I pretty much ski in the woods but that hasn’t happened this year. I skied here eight years ago when I was 15 so I decided to come back,” said Sam Williams, 23, who drove up from Boston to ski Tuckerman on March 26.

As a result of the poor snow year, visits to the ravine by skiers are down this year, said Justin Preisendorfer, the White Mountain district ranger with the U.S. Forest Service.

“On a Saturday in early April you could see well over 4,000 (skiers). I think we would be lucky to get 400 on a busy day this year,” Preisendorfer said.

Russell Merchant of Lake George, New York, and Sam Hallowell of Newport, Rhode Island, shared a similar story to the Canadian skiers who came to Tuckerman last weekend. They drove eight hours through the night, slept in their van at the base of Mount Washington, and in the morning hiked up from the bare ground along Route 16 to the bowl’s ice and snow two miles away.

They found what they were after, just far less than expected.

“There is definitely not as much snow as I thought there would be. But it’s still a playground,” Merchant said with a shrug as fewer than 50 skiers hiked and skied around him.

Last Saturday as the Friends of Tuckerman president looked around at the exposed walls of the backcountry bowl, Jake Risch shook his head and said it was like nothing he’d seen in his 30 years skiing the ravine.

“It has not been a normal year here. Normally this time of year we would probably have snow 20 feet over us where we are standing,” said Risch, of North Conway, New Hampshire.

“Look around at the boulders. They’re normally covered in snow. The brush up there on the wall, that’s normally covered. The rocks under the lip are exposed.”

Risch, 38, whose father, Al, started the nonprofit Friends of Tuckerman group that helps support the rangers’ work here, has skied Tuckerman since he was 8. He said it is the worst winter on Mt. Washington he can remember.

“This feels like April or May, not March,” Risch said. “I’m also a white-water paddler and both sports depend on heavy snow pack. So this bums me out.”

But not everybody last weekend was downcast about the conditions.

Peter Jegoron of Haverhill, Massachusetts, has been skiing the ravine for 19 years. He made the annual pilgrimage with some buddies who gambled on the weather, and won – with a sunny, 50-degree day that let them ski in T-shirts.

“The conditions are perfect. The sun is out, the snow is soft. I’m not going to be negative about anything. This is a gift,” Jegoron said.

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