It has been a few weeks since I posted anything on here. Since today I have had way more downtime than I want I used it to catch up on some reading, and blogging. I got about halfway through "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand while sharpening my Christmas Story quote repertoire. Christmas duty is usually pretty quiet with a good amount of lounging. Christmas Eve consisted of watching "Vegucated" at my request, which may or may not have converted a few crew members to veganism.
December 25, 2012
Tripyramids(4,180' & 4,140')
Trying to stay efficient with tagging all of the White Mountain 4,000 footers I took on Mount Tripyramids North and Middle Peaks on 2-9-12. I went with another local climber David Chess whom I had met through an online hiking group. His Dog Meka accompanied us. We used the Pine Bend Brook trail to ascend North Tripyramid, and made a short loop DOWN the North Slide in hopes of seeing more of the mountain. This was definitely a mistake in our planning and tacked over two hours onto the total trip time. I can see why the North Slide is popular because the view must be amazing on a nice day. This day wasn't very nice, as a matter of fact I lost control of my truck on the Kancamagus Highway enroute to the trail head on "black ice" despite my temperature monitoring on my trucks thermometer. After heading back up the mountain we stopped on Middle Tripyramid for a few moments and headed back down Sabbaday Falls trail. This trail was very easy on the knees for the descent and has several stream crossings making it fairly easy to lose the trail. We finished up about an hour after dark with headligts. In hindsight I should have looked much closer to the topography of the routes we chose, I suppose the lesson learned is not to get complacent just because you are not alone.
Tripyramids "North Slide" looking down, Loose rock and Ice
Hancocks (North 4,420' & 4,319')
The weekend after Tripyramid I convinced (or nagged to the breaking point) John Mitchell to climb with me. John is one of the most experienced Hikers I know particularly in the White Mountains. He has been instrumental in planning out my last few trips (aside from Tripyramid) so I was happy to get the Hancocks in with him. The trail head starts EXACTLY where I almost wrecked my truck a week before, and is quite flat for the first few miles. After the long flat trek the trail climbs straight up. Microspikes did the trick for traction. On the summit we met another group of climbers enjoying a 16 year old Scotch (my electrolyte infused water suddenly became lame). The ridge transit was a fast mile with slow rolling, snowy terrain. The descent offered perhaps the best views of the day since you ar facing the North peak for a mile or so. We started around 10 AM and were finished before 4 PM. The weather could not have been any better for a good view.
View from North Hancock overlook
Great view of the Osceolas from overlook
South Hancock overlook
View on Descent
Mount(s) Tom (4,051'), Field (4,340'), Willey (4,285) & Avalon (3,442')
This Saturday I set out on a somewhat ambitious peak bagging trip to Crawford Notch, to knock out Peaks 13-15. The trail head should have been easy to spot but I wasn't expecting it to be at a train station so I drove by it a half dozen times before asking somebody. I learned it was pretty icy in the parking area when I fell on my ass before I even set foot on the trail. I packed pretty heavy for this trip because I figured the snow would be deep and it would be cold. This entire hike was one of the most difficult I have done thus far. I wasn't expecting to be tired and out of breath the entire trip, but I was. Maybe it was the heavy pack, tedious slush, or the cold. I took the Avalon trail to the A-Z trail and followed the MT Tom Spur trail. The Spur was not very well marked and the snow was deep so I just used my compass most of the way. There were no tracks to Mt. Toms summit and the snow was well over a foot deep. After sinking in beyond my knees a couple of times I put on my snowshoes. I used the snowshoes across the Mt. Field & Willey ridge. This ridge traverse was eerily quiet and sort of lonely. I enjoy the solitude typically but I felt VERY far away from civilization so this was possibly a bit too much. Mount Field was very foggy but the untouched powdery snow covering everything was just fine for a view! Feeling tired from the extra weight of the snowshoes, and a strong desire to get home where it was warm I considered cancelling on Mount Willey. I decided to check the map again to see just how much further I needed to go for Willey. That's when I realized I dropped my map...Shit! Well I remember it being less than three miles out and back to where I was so I pressed on. The trail from Field to Willey was very well marked with blue blazes every 20 yards or so. This trail would like have been very scenic as well if it wasn't so foggy. Mt Willey wasn't much to see but I'm glad I made the trip across. On my way back to Mt. Fields summit I ran into two friendly women and a Golden Retriever puppy. They thanked me for "blazing the way" and I felt much less alone even with a 30 second interaction. (probably two minutes with the puppy since he was leading the way). I took the Avalon trail back down which conveniently passes the Mt. Avalon summit by "100 yards" according to the AMC sign so I got a few nice pictures from up there. The descent was pretty frustrating because I was moving much slower than I would have liked and my snowshoes weren't the best for downhill walking. Nearing the trail head I found my map draped over a tree stump with a lone microspike, I am assuming the party I had crossed paths with on the ridge had put it there for me. I finished around 1:30 even though it felt much later. While this trip was efficient and rewarding I was glad to be done!
Mount Tom Spur
Mount Tom Summit
Mount Field Summit
Mount Field video
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