(I am listing this online because you never know when your home puter will go kafloowey.)
First successful summit of each of the 67 New England 4,000+ footers (all NH unless noted)....
Washington 10/14/1994
Moosilauke 10/30/1994
Madison 11/27/1994
Cannon 2/19/1995
Jefferson 3/19/1995
Passaconaway 4/23/1995
Hale 5/21/1995
Lafayette 6/4/1995
Lincoln 6/4/1995
Carrigain 6/18/1995
Katahdin/Baxter (ME) 6/27/1995
Katahdin/Hamlin (ME) 6/27/1995
North Brother (ME) 6/28/1995
Tecumseh 7/23/1995
North Kinsman 7/29/1995
South Kinsman 7/29/1995
Hancock 8/13/1995
South Hancock 8/13/1995
Eisenhower 8/20/1995
Monroe 8/20/1995
Pierce 8/20/1995
Jackson 8/20/1995
Whiteface 9/4/1995
Osceola 9/17/1995
Moriah 10/1/1995
Isolation 10/8/1995
Waumbek 11/5/1995
Flume 11/19/1995
Liberty 11/19/1995
East Osceola 11/26/1995
Wildcat 1/21/1996
Wildcat "D" 1/21/1996
Garfield 3/17/1996
N. Tripyramid 3/31/1996
M. Tripyramid 3/31/1996
Galehead 4/21/1996
Cabot 5/19/1996
Zealand 5/26/1996
North Twin 6/9/1996
Field 6/22/1996
Willey 6/22/1996
Tom 6/22/1996
M. Carter 6/30/1996
S. Carter 6/30/1996
Carter Dome 6/30/1996
Bondcliffe 7/15/1996
Bond 7/15/1996
West Bond 7/15/1996
South Twin 7/16/1996
Owl's Head 7/17/1996
Adams 7/19/1996 (finished NH)
Camel's Hump (VT) 7/14/1997
Mansfield (VT) 7/15/1997
Abraham (VT) 7/16/1997
Ellen (VT) 7/16/1997
Killington (VT) 7/18/1997 (finished VT)
Old Speck (ME) 8/20/1997
Sugarlaof (ME) 7/19/1998
Spaulding (ME) 7/19/1998
Abraham (ME) 7/19/1998
S. Crocker (ME) 7/20/1998
Crocker (ME) 7/20/1998
Bigelow/West (ME) 7/22/1998
Bigelow/Avery (ME) 7/22/1998
Saddleback (ME) 7/24/1998
Saddleback/Horn (ME) 7/24/1998**
Reddington (ME) 7/23/1999 (finished New England)
**I celebrated with a bottle of champagne when I summited Saddleback/Horn in Maine because I had completed the list. Upon returning home from that trip I found the new AMC hiking 'bible' had arrived in the mail and that due to them now using GPS, there were 2 more peaks! I had done one of them (Spaulding) on that trip, but I needed to then return one year later to exactly the same place in order to climb Reddington (the easiest of all the summits to climb - the difficulty is in reaching the trailhead which is 8 miles down a dirt road that is poorly maintained). The one cool thing about having to return to Maine to finish the list was that my son, Gunn, was then able to accompany me on the hike.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Memory Lane
Finally getting back out into the mountains with Gunn this week obviously brought back a flood of memories, like.....
...his first and second peaks, both done when he was still 4 yrs old - Osceola (4,340') in June and Jefferson (5,712') in July of '97.
Then in '98 we climbed Whiteface (4,020') in the rain, camped at the summit, then hit Passaconaway (4,043') the following day. (Picture taken at the top of the ledges on Whiteface with Passaconaway in the distance.)
One of my favorite hiking trips was from '99 when we stayed at the Zealand Hut then marched through the rain to the summit. Gunn had a blast!
One year we climbed a 3,000' peak (can't remember which one) up in Baxter State Park in Millinocket, Maine. The deer can be overly friendly, as evidenced by this photo. (No food in Gunn's hand - it just thought he was a salt-lick!)
In '01 we summited Eisenhower (4,780') in the Presidential Range. It was his birthday so I smuggled a new bat along with a ball and my glove and he hit a few on the summit. He'd hit the ball and it would bounce wildly off the jagged rocks. How I came home with both eyes intact is beyond me.
In '06 we hiked the long journey to the top of Isolation (4.004'). Moments after this shot was taken, the skies opened and we spent the afternoon hiking through a near constant downpour. But it was fun!
Because I can't reclaim my own damn photos from Flickr, here is a great shot of us on Moosilauke in '99, and the Flume Slide Trail in '00.
Over the last 20 years Gunn and I have shared many a good time - and most of them took place thousands of feet above sea level. Here's to many, many more sore muscles and river crossings!!
...his first and second peaks, both done when he was still 4 yrs old - Osceola (4,340') in June and Jefferson (5,712') in July of '97.
Then in '98 we climbed Whiteface (4,020') in the rain, camped at the summit, then hit Passaconaway (4,043') the following day. (Picture taken at the top of the ledges on Whiteface with Passaconaway in the distance.)
One of my favorite hiking trips was from '99 when we stayed at the Zealand Hut then marched through the rain to the summit. Gunn had a blast!
One year we climbed a 3,000' peak (can't remember which one) up in Baxter State Park in Millinocket, Maine. The deer can be overly friendly, as evidenced by this photo. (No food in Gunn's hand - it just thought he was a salt-lick!)
In '01 we summited Eisenhower (4,780') in the Presidential Range. It was his birthday so I smuggled a new bat along with a ball and my glove and he hit a few on the summit. He'd hit the ball and it would bounce wildly off the jagged rocks. How I came home with both eyes intact is beyond me.
In '06 we hiked the long journey to the top of Isolation (4.004'). Moments after this shot was taken, the skies opened and we spent the afternoon hiking through a near constant downpour. But it was fun!
Because I can't reclaim my own damn photos from Flickr, here is a great shot of us on Moosilauke in '99, and the Flume Slide Trail in '00.
Over the last 20 years Gunn and I have shared many a good time - and most of them took place thousands of feet above sea level. Here's to many, many more sore muscles and river crossings!!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Mt Lincoln (5,089')
Its going to be difficult to put into words just how exhilarating this hike was. Chances are, the pictures are going to need to convey that. (Skip to the full set of pictures here.)
At 4am we made the coffee, packed the car and headed north. Unlike our trip two days ago, the ride up was a smooth one - no getting stuck behind snowplows or driving through heavy snow. We made it from home to Peg's in Woodstock in just under two hours. And if there is a better way to prep for a long hike than a plate of blueberry pancakes at Peg's, then I haven't found it yet.
The sun had just begun to brighten the sky a bit when we arrived at the trailhead. And I guess at this point I should warn you - the theme of this story is COLD. We had to put on or boots and top layers before throwing on the backpacks, and it was so damn cold out, that by the time we had spent only a few minutes doing that, we had to climb back into the car in order to thaw our hands before heading up the trail..
Once we could feel our fingers again, we headed up the Old Bridle Path which would shortly (0.2) lead us to the Falling Waters Trail. Just before we left the lot I shot this picture of the cliff side of Cannon Mt (where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be)...
The bitter cold was manageable. With the proper gear and layering, -2 degrees is a long way from the maximum that I could stand. There was virtually no wind until we reached the ridge, and the trail was completely broken out for us. Add in the fact that there were no clouds all day, and the result is amazing.
At 0.2 miles we hit the start of the Falling Waters Trail where it branches off to the right over a river. Hard to imagine there is water flowing under all that ice and snow...
With it being so cold (damn, there's that word again) every little bit of moisture in the air seemed to find my beard. As it never warmed all day, the icicles grew longer and heavier util we returned to the car at the end of the day. Thus an hour into the hike the beard was frozen and I even had ice forming on my damn eyelashes...
The first waterfall we came to had very little visible water (as with all of the falls we would encounter). But it was still impressive, even though this would be the smallest of them..
Gunn hiked up ahead in an attempt to get a picture of him at the top of these falls, but there was no safe way for him to get out there...
While Gunn may not have been able to set up a good shot, it is good to know that he has superpowers that come in handy when the need arises...
As we approached the next set of falls, Gunn played photographer - probably in hopes of catching his old man break through this ice bridge...
This next set of falls was much larger. Here is Gunn ascending to the left....
(By the way, these early shots are a bit dark as the sun did not come over the ridgeline until much later. On the way back down we took many more shots as the sun was shining.)
The next set of falls is the largest. I would estimate the height at 90 feet....
On the trail just above those falls there is a magnificent ice display that overhangs the cliff...
Beard update: By the time we reached the top of the falls, I was doing my best to blend in with my surroundings...
Eventually we were able to drop our parkas, even if only for a couple of hours. The air temp hadn't climbed a lot but our body temps certainly were after all the climbing we had done...
Eventually (long after I had expected to) we reached the spur path to Shining Rock (4,130'). At this point we had traveled 2.8 miles and gained 2,350' of elevation. In the summer, Shining Rock is pretty cool. Its a massive slab of exposed rock as big as a city block. But the spur trail had not been broken out and we decided to pass on it.
Instead, we layered back up due to the temps beginning to drop and headed for the ridge...
Onward we marched and about a half mile above Shining Rock, we reached treeline on the shoulder of Little Haystack...
As we approached the summit of Little Haystack the air temp on the ridge was bitter cold - I would estimate it at -5. But what made it bearable was that there was no wind. Pretty amazing to be at that elevation (4,760') and find it so calm...
We took a breather at the summit before moving on...
The views from the ridge on such a clear day are breath-taking....
Here's one looking down at Cannon Mt - quite a different perspective than when we were back in the lot...
No time for a long break so we headed north along the ridge towards Mt Lincoln. This section of this trail, the Franconia Ridge Trail, is also part of the Appalachian Trail...
Most of the ridge is exposed rock, but here and there you will find small batches of krummholz where snow has a chance to collect. Here is Gunn scaling a 6'+ drift...
The stretch to Lincoln consists of a few large rock crossings. I found myself silently cursing a few...
0.7 miles from Little Haystack we reached the final climb up the cone of Lincoln...
Within 100 feet of the summit, the wind showed up. Gusting from 20-25 made the below zero air feel like flying ice swords that pierced every pore on your face. Needless to say there would be no chance of exposing any skin up there, so our traditional summit cookies - those delicious Pepperidge Farm Double Chocolate Milanos - would have to stay in the pack until we got back down out of the wind. But there ain't nothin' that can keep us from performing our other tradition - the Hailing of the Mountain Gods!!
The largest peak in the distance (far right) is Mt Washington (6,288').
After less than 5 minutes on the summit of Lincoln we headed back down to get out of the wind...
Once we were safely out of those upper level winds we took a break to drink some Powerade and consume some chocolate - just the fuel we would need to finish the 3.5 hour trip down...
With a summer book time of 3.5 hours to summit Lincoln via Falling Waters I had hoped to do it in 4, maybe 4.5 hours. But it took a full 5 for us to reach our destination. Fortunately we knew that we still had the daylight required to get back to the car without needing to don our headlamps.
Back at the summit of Little Haystack, we shot this picture of the trail junction sign covered in rime ice. Something I've seen numerous times before but this was pretty cool. My guess is that due to people wiping off the center of the sign, the rime ice eventually built up along the outer edges until the sign became sort of a 'rime ice picture frame'...
Dropping off of Haystack we reach treeline very quickly...
Before entering the trees, one last shot looking south...
Beard update: Not only did the beard ice up, but the ponytails on my knit hat became solid...
I had expected to find our journey down covered in dripping wet trees but with the air temp staying so low, even the sun didn't appear to have much effect on the snow pack.
As we neared the top of the falls we came to one of the most difficult sections. It was an extremely short run, but the ice we had to scale was very steep, making it difficult to traverse with our microspikes (this is the bottom of that section)...
When we were on the way up I must have been focused on climbing that section because I missed this awesome overhang right above us. Glad I noticed it on the way back down...
There are a few more pictures at the link above, but here are a couple of the ones we shot at the falls on the way down...
Eventually we returned to the end of the Falling Waters Trail - back at the bridge where it meets the Old Bridle Path...
Back at the car, we found that the air temp had climbed all the way back up to +18...
What an amazing day... Perfect weather. 360 degree views from the summits. Good trail conditions. And another chance to spend a day in the mountains with my son. Aye-yup.
---------
Stats:
Today we began at 1,780', climbed 3,300' over 3.9 miles. Trip up took 5 hours, 3.5 down.
This was Gunn's: 2nd climb of Lincoln, 1st in winter. His 3rd winter 4,000 footer. His 63rd successful summit.
This was my: 6th climb of Lincoln, 1st in winter (after one unsuccessful attempt). My 25th winter 4,000 footer. My 207th successful summit. My 16th peak climbed in each of the four seasons.
At 4am we made the coffee, packed the car and headed north. Unlike our trip two days ago, the ride up was a smooth one - no getting stuck behind snowplows or driving through heavy snow. We made it from home to Peg's in Woodstock in just under two hours. And if there is a better way to prep for a long hike than a plate of blueberry pancakes at Peg's, then I haven't found it yet.
The sun had just begun to brighten the sky a bit when we arrived at the trailhead. And I guess at this point I should warn you - the theme of this story is COLD. We had to put on or boots and top layers before throwing on the backpacks, and it was so damn cold out, that by the time we had spent only a few minutes doing that, we had to climb back into the car in order to thaw our hands before heading up the trail..
Once we could feel our fingers again, we headed up the Old Bridle Path which would shortly (0.2) lead us to the Falling Waters Trail. Just before we left the lot I shot this picture of the cliff side of Cannon Mt (where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be)...
The bitter cold was manageable. With the proper gear and layering, -2 degrees is a long way from the maximum that I could stand. There was virtually no wind until we reached the ridge, and the trail was completely broken out for us. Add in the fact that there were no clouds all day, and the result is amazing.
At 0.2 miles we hit the start of the Falling Waters Trail where it branches off to the right over a river. Hard to imagine there is water flowing under all that ice and snow...
With it being so cold (damn, there's that word again) every little bit of moisture in the air seemed to find my beard. As it never warmed all day, the icicles grew longer and heavier util we returned to the car at the end of the day. Thus an hour into the hike the beard was frozen and I even had ice forming on my damn eyelashes...
The first waterfall we came to had very little visible water (as with all of the falls we would encounter). But it was still impressive, even though this would be the smallest of them..
Gunn hiked up ahead in an attempt to get a picture of him at the top of these falls, but there was no safe way for him to get out there...
While Gunn may not have been able to set up a good shot, it is good to know that he has superpowers that come in handy when the need arises...
As we approached the next set of falls, Gunn played photographer - probably in hopes of catching his old man break through this ice bridge...
This next set of falls was much larger. Here is Gunn ascending to the left....
(By the way, these early shots are a bit dark as the sun did not come over the ridgeline until much later. On the way back down we took many more shots as the sun was shining.)
The next set of falls is the largest. I would estimate the height at 90 feet....
On the trail just above those falls there is a magnificent ice display that overhangs the cliff...
Beard update: By the time we reached the top of the falls, I was doing my best to blend in with my surroundings...
Eventually we were able to drop our parkas, even if only for a couple of hours. The air temp hadn't climbed a lot but our body temps certainly were after all the climbing we had done...
Eventually (long after I had expected to) we reached the spur path to Shining Rock (4,130'). At this point we had traveled 2.8 miles and gained 2,350' of elevation. In the summer, Shining Rock is pretty cool. Its a massive slab of exposed rock as big as a city block. But the spur trail had not been broken out and we decided to pass on it.
Instead, we layered back up due to the temps beginning to drop and headed for the ridge...
Onward we marched and about a half mile above Shining Rock, we reached treeline on the shoulder of Little Haystack...
As we approached the summit of Little Haystack the air temp on the ridge was bitter cold - I would estimate it at -5. But what made it bearable was that there was no wind. Pretty amazing to be at that elevation (4,760') and find it so calm...
We took a breather at the summit before moving on...
The views from the ridge on such a clear day are breath-taking....
Here's one looking down at Cannon Mt - quite a different perspective than when we were back in the lot...
No time for a long break so we headed north along the ridge towards Mt Lincoln. This section of this trail, the Franconia Ridge Trail, is also part of the Appalachian Trail...
Most of the ridge is exposed rock, but here and there you will find small batches of krummholz where snow has a chance to collect. Here is Gunn scaling a 6'+ drift...
The stretch to Lincoln consists of a few large rock crossings. I found myself silently cursing a few...
0.7 miles from Little Haystack we reached the final climb up the cone of Lincoln...
Within 100 feet of the summit, the wind showed up. Gusting from 20-25 made the below zero air feel like flying ice swords that pierced every pore on your face. Needless to say there would be no chance of exposing any skin up there, so our traditional summit cookies - those delicious Pepperidge Farm Double Chocolate Milanos - would have to stay in the pack until we got back down out of the wind. But there ain't nothin' that can keep us from performing our other tradition - the Hailing of the Mountain Gods!!
After less than 5 minutes on the summit of Lincoln we headed back down to get out of the wind...
Once we were safely out of those upper level winds we took a break to drink some Powerade and consume some chocolate - just the fuel we would need to finish the 3.5 hour trip down...
With a summer book time of 3.5 hours to summit Lincoln via Falling Waters I had hoped to do it in 4, maybe 4.5 hours. But it took a full 5 for us to reach our destination. Fortunately we knew that we still had the daylight required to get back to the car without needing to don our headlamps.
Back at the summit of Little Haystack, we shot this picture of the trail junction sign covered in rime ice. Something I've seen numerous times before but this was pretty cool. My guess is that due to people wiping off the center of the sign, the rime ice eventually built up along the outer edges until the sign became sort of a 'rime ice picture frame'...
Dropping off of Haystack we reach treeline very quickly...
Before entering the trees, one last shot looking south...
Beard update: Not only did the beard ice up, but the ponytails on my knit hat became solid...
I had expected to find our journey down covered in dripping wet trees but with the air temp staying so low, even the sun didn't appear to have much effect on the snow pack.
As we neared the top of the falls we came to one of the most difficult sections. It was an extremely short run, but the ice we had to scale was very steep, making it difficult to traverse with our microspikes (this is the bottom of that section)...
When we were on the way up I must have been focused on climbing that section because I missed this awesome overhang right above us. Glad I noticed it on the way back down...
There are a few more pictures at the link above, but here are a couple of the ones we shot at the falls on the way down...
Eventually we returned to the end of the Falling Waters Trail - back at the bridge where it meets the Old Bridle Path...
Back at the car, we found that the air temp had climbed all the way back up to +18...
What an amazing day... Perfect weather. 360 degree views from the summits. Good trail conditions. And another chance to spend a day in the mountains with my son. Aye-yup.
---------
Stats:
Today we began at 1,780', climbed 3,300' over 3.9 miles. Trip up took 5 hours, 3.5 down.
This was Gunn's: 2nd climb of Lincoln, 1st in winter. His 3rd winter 4,000 footer. His 63rd successful summit.
This was my: 6th climb of Lincoln, 1st in winter (after one unsuccessful attempt). My 25th winter 4,000 footer. My 207th successful summit. My 16th peak climbed in each of the four seasons.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Mt Jackson (NH) 4,052'
In February of 2005 I summited Carter Dome (4,832'). That was nearly 7 years ago and I have not climbed a 4,000 footer in winter since. I have climbed a couple of peaks in winter conditions, but not 'officially' between the solstice and the equinox, which is the only way they qualify.
The reason for this extremely long span of time between winter peaks was simply due to my getting lazy and packing on enough pounds to sink a small ship. But finally, about 7 months ago I began working diligently on getting myself back into hiking form. So far I have dropped nearly 60 pounds, and while another 40 is my goal, I have finally reached the point where I can get back out on the trails.
This past October I climbed Mt Moosilauke (4,802) with some friends of mine. I was pretty surprised at how well I managed and especially by how well I felt after the hike. Here's some pics from that hike.
One thing that I had just about resigned myself to was the thought that I would never be back in the mountains in winter. The added effort it takes to trudge through snow and ice to reach a summit - compounded by the extra weight of gear and additional clothing - seemed something that was all in my past. But things have changed....
My son, Gunn, and I shut off our alarms at 3:30 this morning, brewed some coffee, packed up the car and headed north. While the snow had stopped here at home by the time we got up, we ended up running into near white-out conditions as we journeyed only 20 miles or so up route 93 in NH. Driving was slow, and it was made even worse by the snowplows we got stuck behind. Why do those guys drive at only 15 mph?!?!
We had hoped to stop for breakfast in Woodstock at Peg's - my favorite spot. But after spending 45 minutes behind the same plow, we got off at the Tilton Diner in hopes that the plow would be well in front of us by the time we finished eating.
The plan was to hit the trailhead by 7:30. but with all the road delays we didn't manage to reach the start of the Webster-Jackson Trail until 8:30.
The one upside of the delay in starting was the fact that the precip had ended by 8:15. And we we able to do the entire hike without anything falling from the sky.
The trail was broken out beautifully - no snowshoes required. The heavy snow had all fallen further south, and this trail must have seen a lot of traffic over the long weekend. We needed crampons the entire way, but not a single swear word rung forth to curse any postholing.
The air temp when we started was about 22, which is perfect for winter hiking. We each had three layers top and bottom including snow pants, but we left our winter parkas in the backpacks until the summit. Within 10 minutes of hiking we were taking off a top layer, and 10 minutes later we were removing hats and gloves.
The trail being so well packed meant we were able to keep a good pace. We were keeping up with the summer 'book time' for the trip and reached the halfway point in 90 minutes.
As we gained elevation the snow totals, not surprisingly, became pretty impressive, even though this has been one of the worst seasons for snow. The trees down below had minimal snow on them, but those up higher were pretty well caked.
As with a lot of the NH peaks, when the tree height begins to dwindle, you can be sure you're nearing the summit.
It was here that we (finally) felt that it had become cold enough to put our hats back on. But still, zero wind. Not until we broke through the treeline did we even begin to feel a breeze, and I would estimate it at less than 10mph.
Gunn lead the whole way up and was the first to reach the summit of Mt Jackson. It took us 3 hours, which was nearly an hour faster than I had planned on.
We hiked over to the actual summit and were able to spend about 15 minutes after putting on our parkas. We enjoyed our traditional summit cookies - Pepperidge Farms Double Chocolate Milanos - and I even enjoyed a bit of pipe smoke.
Of course we also made sure that we performed our traditional "Hail to the Mountain Gods!"
We even spent a few minutes relaxing on top of the frozen ice and snow up against the summit cairn as I smoked my pipe.
When the time came to head back down, we kept our parkas on but only until we reached treeline. Once below there it felt as if the temp shot up 15 degrees. We moved along pretty quickly and returned to the base in about 2 hours.
At the base the air temp was 32 degrees - shocking for Crawford Notch in January. And not 1 minute after getting in the car, it began to rain. It's all about timing.
A great day spent in the White Mountains of NH. And one of the best ways to end it is to stop for a pint at the Woodstock Inn. This time of year brings around my favorite of their's - "Wassail Ale". (Even though its in a "Pig's Ear" glass.)
Here are all the pics from this hike.
Now some (less exciting, but absolutely necessary) stats..........
For Gunn:
2nd winter peak.
62nd successful summit.
NH. = 47/48 (2 winter)
ME. = 2/14
VT. = 1/5
For me:
24th winter peak.
206th successful summit.
NH. = 48/48 (24 winter)
ME. = 14/14 (0 winter)
VT. = 5/5 (0 winter)
NH in all four seasons = 15/48
The reason for this extremely long span of time between winter peaks was simply due to my getting lazy and packing on enough pounds to sink a small ship. But finally, about 7 months ago I began working diligently on getting myself back into hiking form. So far I have dropped nearly 60 pounds, and while another 40 is my goal, I have finally reached the point where I can get back out on the trails.
This past October I climbed Mt Moosilauke (4,802) with some friends of mine. I was pretty surprised at how well I managed and especially by how well I felt after the hike. Here's some pics from that hike.
One thing that I had just about resigned myself to was the thought that I would never be back in the mountains in winter. The added effort it takes to trudge through snow and ice to reach a summit - compounded by the extra weight of gear and additional clothing - seemed something that was all in my past. But things have changed....
My son, Gunn, and I shut off our alarms at 3:30 this morning, brewed some coffee, packed up the car and headed north. While the snow had stopped here at home by the time we got up, we ended up running into near white-out conditions as we journeyed only 20 miles or so up route 93 in NH. Driving was slow, and it was made even worse by the snowplows we got stuck behind. Why do those guys drive at only 15 mph?!?!
We had hoped to stop for breakfast in Woodstock at Peg's - my favorite spot. But after spending 45 minutes behind the same plow, we got off at the Tilton Diner in hopes that the plow would be well in front of us by the time we finished eating.
The plan was to hit the trailhead by 7:30. but with all the road delays we didn't manage to reach the start of the Webster-Jackson Trail until 8:30.
The one upside of the delay in starting was the fact that the precip had ended by 8:15. And we we able to do the entire hike without anything falling from the sky.
The trail was broken out beautifully - no snowshoes required. The heavy snow had all fallen further south, and this trail must have seen a lot of traffic over the long weekend. We needed crampons the entire way, but not a single swear word rung forth to curse any postholing.
At the base the air temp was 32 degrees - shocking for Crawford Notch in January. And not 1 minute after getting in the car, it began to rain. It's all about timing.
A great day spent in the White Mountains of NH. And one of the best ways to end it is to stop for a pint at the Woodstock Inn. This time of year brings around my favorite of their's - "Wassail Ale". (Even though its in a "Pig's Ear" glass.)
Here are all the pics from this hike.
Now some (less exciting, but absolutely necessary) stats..........
For Gunn:
2nd winter peak.
62nd successful summit.
NH. = 47/48 (2 winter)
ME. = 2/14
VT. = 1/5
For me:
24th winter peak.
206th successful summit.
NH. = 48/48 (24 winter)
ME. = 14/14 (0 winter)
VT. = 5/5 (0 winter)
NH in all four seasons = 15/48
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