Mount Osceola (4,340') & Osceola East (4,156')
I got the weekend off from work, after a long couple weeks of "standby duty"(meaning being ready to return to work within a half hour.). A couple of storms making their way through the area adds a heightened sense of readiness to an already "Ready" group of people. Luckily upon request I was granted my normal weekend on-duty off. Special thanks to Shipmate John who agreed to take the watch for me while I was off. As a sort of night before/last minute decision I figured I would spend the day in Central New Hampshire climbing. I chose Mount Osceola because I would be going at it alone (Minus Wonder Dog), and it seemed like one of the easier peaks to summit. Knowing that the upper elevations have had some snow already this year, I decided to take a lot of layers for clothing and my micro spikes. I had originally bought the spikes for my running shoes but thought they would come in handy...which the most certainly did. I wasn't 100% sold on bagging both peaks, so I used the Tripoli Road trailhead. Tripoli is a seasonal road so I risked it being closed, but I really wanted to hike in from that side of the mountain. Around 8:30 I got to the trailhead. Looking around I could see that all the peaks in the area were socked in fog, aparently I bring the clouds with me. Aside from being in and out of the clouds the local high spots were all white with snow. This was slightly intimidating since for all that I knew, I may be the only person on the mountain for a few days. I filed a pretty detailed trip plan with my best friend Lee and Alisha, that included where I was parking and when I was expecting to be home. This likely stems from my carreer which as I mentioned above, is "Always Ready", and nobody wants to be that dope that everyone thinks is missing when in fact they were just fine. I paid my modest $3.00 to park my truck at the trailhead and, fueled on coffee headed upwards. The trail was a modest grade most of the way up with a few places that I needed hands and feet to negotiate. After about 2 miles The trail was completely covered in snow and ice and I could hear the wind really howling above me. After a few almost falls I put the spikes on and continued. In doing so I stopped my GPS watch and forgot to turn in back on until about 15 minutes later or 3/4mile. I was planning on using the watch to identify East Osceola because it is well known for "its view of absolutely nothing" as one writer put it. Therefore i was afraid I would go way out of my way looking for well....nothing.
After a few almost falls on Ice like this I decided extra traction was in order.
The Kahtoola MicroSpikes were perfect for this hike where Crampons would have been overkill.
Wind from Above
I summited pretty quickly, and just as I figured, couldn't see more than 5 feet. Since it wasn't quite noon yet I figured I would trek the one mile towards East Osceola (just so I can check it off the list) and maybe the view would be better in 40 minutes or so. The hike to E. Osceola was actually pretty tough. There were many steep scrambles and even a few nice lookout areas. At this point the snow was between 9'' and a foot. I couldn't help but contrast the difference between the trailhead and the ridge, trailhead being muddy and 50+ degrees and the ridge had a foot of snow and was probably around 20 degrees.
This Cairn was exactly 1 mile from Osceola Summit, I assumed this was East Osceola since it was all downhill afterthis point (towards the Kancamangus highway)
After returning to the Osceola Summit I was greeted with an AMAZING view! the clouds had lifted and I could see for what seemed like 100 plus miles. On the Summit there are remnants of an old firetower in the form of concrete blocks. I laterlearned this firetower was dismantled in 1984. I found some cool info here
http://www.firelookout.org/towers/nh/osceola.htm .
One of the overlooks between Osceola & E. Osceola
This was the visibility the first time through.
This is the View I returned to!
360 degree View of Osceola Summit
I was pretty pumped when I uploaded the data from this trip. Only 7 people have uploaded Mount Osceola, however of the seven people My ascent time was the fastest...I chalk it up to the Mustache!
MapMyRun info
4,000' + MO
I Am still collecting donations for mens health issues if you have a buck or two to spare please do so at MOVEMBER !
Easy Ten Miler
I set out this AM on a "short jog" that turned into a nice 10mi. run with a decent amount of elevation gain. why am I sharing? see below I thought this was awesome!
So I tried to "max out" around mile 7 of my ten mile run, I got it up to 10 but was down to 7 by the time I got the ipod out to take a pic.
\Until next time!
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