I had to work last night until midnight. And with the equinox landing just after 1am tonight, I was left with only today to squeeze in one last winter hike for the season. So at 4am this morning (on less than 2 hours of sleep) I headed north with Gunn and my friend Rand.
We arrived at the trailhead at 7:30...
From the parking lot it is not possible to see the summit of Passaconaway, but you can see the summit of its sister peak, Mt Whiteface (on the left)...
The Dicey Mill Trail is a very gradual elevation gain all the way until the last mile, where you climb relatively steeply to the summit. This was more like a mid-spring hike than a winter one, as the trail was firmly packed with either snow or ice or both. There is only one semi-major stream crossing, and that was greatly aided by a fallen birch...
Just after the stream crossing we decided it would be wise to go for traction, so we all put on our crampons (microspikes were sufficient)...
Sadly I did a pitiful job of taking pictures today, so there were only a couple of them taken before we reached the one and only outlook located just below the summit...
And then to the summit.....
Rand and Gunn at the summit....
And as always, I perform the traditional "Hail the Mountain Gods" pose....
.... before returning to the outlook to enjoy the World's Greatest Summit Cookie, the Pepperidge Farm's Double Chocolate Milano!!!
And once again, upon reaching the summit, my friend Rand reached into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of his homebrewed mead - lingonberry, this time! He raised a cup of mead and hailed our gods, ancestors and wights of the land where we stood. Then the three of us passed the cup around and shared the fine mead that Rand had made. The last part of the bottle was poured upon the ground as a gift to those who had gifted us with such beautiful surroundings and a wonderful day to enjoy them.
On the way back down we reached the stream crossing. All three of us had successfully crossed it the first time by performing a balancing act across a downed birch tree, so I was fairly confident that SOMEone would have to take a dip in the freezing cold water as we attempted to re-cross the stream. But alas, we were all on our game this day....
Weather-wise, this was an incredible day - especially for "winter". It was low 30's at the summit (4,043') and about 60 when we returned to the base.
Once back in Ossippee we had lunch at the Yankee Smokehouse. While the smoked pork wasn't anything special, it was nice to find Woodstock's Pig Ear on tap...
So with a successful summit today I have now logged 26 winter 4,000+ footers, and have knocked 17 of them off of my 4-season list. This was my 4th summit of Passaconaway, and my 208th total successful peak.
Now on to SPRING!! I've done 29 of the NH 48 in Spring. And of the peaks I have left, 4 of them would make 4-season peaks (Madison, S. Twin, Garfield and Isolation).
No comments:
Post a Comment