While Oakes Gulf is most easily approached from Lake of The Clouds, there are a number of reasons why it might make sense to approach from Tuckerman Ravine. - The West Side terrain is not as reliable, frequently suffering from blown out creeks, thin conditions, and heavy wind scouring. This makes Tuckerman Ravine the more reliable ski exit. - Airplane Bowl and the buttress are a longer walk of Lake of The Clouds, in mid winter to early spring it’s possible to ski gentle downhill from the Bigelow Lawn to the top of Halfpipe Gully. - It’s more fun, plain and simple, it’s awesome to ski Oakes all day and finish with a lap down Tucks to The Sherb. Ultimately both approaches have their merits, but I wanted to offer this as an option, since many people I’ve talked to think it’s super complicated to ski Oakes from the east side. Climb to the top of left gully and walk up and over talus until you cross the cairned paths of Lawn Cut Off and Davis Path. This area gets scoured by the wind and conditions can always be different, but almost every time I’ve done this approach, there is usually an isle of snow/rime ice you can ski. The terrain trends slightly downhill and it’s most natural to ski to Airplane Bowl/The Buttress Line. To get to Main Gully / Robinson’s, keep trending down and right along a series of protected snow patches all the way there. Enjoy as many laps as you want, then skin back the way you came to return to Tucks.