bpope’s blog

Winter School is over, and I’ve got plenty of trip reports, but for those of you interested in the “cliff notes” version, here it is:

Carter Dome - 3350′ in elevation gain, 10 mile round trip
Hancocks - 2400′ in elevation gain, 9.8 mile round trip
Willard - ~3 miles hiking round trip and 2 technical pitches of ice
Monroe attempt - made to Lakes of the Clouds, 2400′ in elevation gain, 5 mile round trip
Washington - the highest point in New England at 6288′, about 4250′ in elevation gain and about a 9 mile round trip (winter trail, unsure of exact length)

I was thinking about doing elevation maps for all of the hikes, but that seemed like lots of work, so I figured I’d let you guys check out the maps in the galleries page.  Think you’ve seen them?  Check again: I updated all of them to highlight the trails that we took.

The last weekend of winter school proved to be the most exciting.  Despite feeling a bit under the weather at the start of the weekend, I decided I couldn’t miss out on a chance to summit Washington in the winter.  Unfortunately, strenuous winter hiking isn’t a great cure, so both days were a bit rough on me and I’ve spent most of this week recovering, hence the delayed report.  You don’t want to hear about that, though, so on to the trip reports!

Saturday broke early and we headed out of Boston at about 5 am.  We made record time to Lincoln, NH, met up with the rest of our group and headed to the trailhead.  The plan was to start from the base of the Cog Railway and head up the Amanoosuc Ravine to Mt. Monroe and along the ridge to Mt. Eisenhower, then back down.  It turned out that the 6-8 inches of fresh powder made for heavy work when breaking trail, but breathtaking forest-scapes.  As we approached the Lakes of the Clouds, the trees thinned, and we found ourselves above treeline.  As we arrived at the AMC hut there, we ran into a couple of skiiers descending Washington.  I can only assume that their skis were trashed by the rocks!  After a short delay, we were ready to continue, but found that  the wind had picked up and was blowing snow all over, leading to very poor visibility.  Our leaders determined that the conditions were not safe enough to continue, so we turned around and headed back down the trail.

This led to an early arrival at Intervale, our home for the night.  We heated up the cabin, melted water, and cooked our dinners hoping for an early bedtime.  Soon, though, the cabin was bustling with new arrivals from Boston, all eager to make our attempt on Washington in the morning, so it wasn’t until after 11 that I was able to fall asleep.

Once again on Sunday we arose at 4am, stuffed down whatever breakfast we could, and headed for the trail.  We left from the Pinkham Notch AMC hut, up and to the north of Tuckerman’s Ravine and along the Lion’s Head trail.  Due to avalanche concerns, the winter trail is slightly different than the summer trail, and was very, very steep at points!  Nevertheless, we made it up eventually, with the aid of our crampons and axes.  Upon reaching treeline we encountered winds whipping over the Lion’s Head sustained at 40-45 mph and gusting to 80 at times (according to the weather observatory).  Fortunately the temperature stayed warmed, so it wasn’t exceedingly dangerous (~ 5-10 F).

Again, today, the fresh snow was whipped into the air by the high winds, so visibility was a concern.  Fortunately, though, we were able to see from cairn to cairn and could continue on to the peak.  Having left the trailhead at 6:15 am, we summitted at about 11:30.  We waited on the peak for another MITOC group, and began descending at about 12:15.  The high winds made for a difficult return trip while we were above treeline, and it had filled snow back into all of our tracks from the way up!  Nevertheless, we made good time and arrived back in the parking lot at 3pm.

My car was waiting for one of the members and much of the gear from a trailing group.  We expected them shortly, but they didn’t show up.  As it turned out, one of them had twisted an ankle, so we headed about half a mile back up the trail to help the descending team.  Finally at 5pm we were back on the road to Boston.

Overall, despite disregarding my health, the weekend was great fun.  I achieved my goal of getting to the top of Washington for the first time, in winter and exceedingly poor visibility to boot!  It’s gotten me excited for more mountains and winter summits to come!  (As always, check out the galleries section for more pictures.)

This week’s winter school adventure was my first time ice climbing! As I’ve told my mother, I’m convinced that ice climbing is an inherently unsafe activity and it really can’t be safe. I should have clarified: more extreme ice climbing is an inherently unsafe activity due to the variability and instability of really vertical or waterfall ice. Maybe I’m just justifying my activities now…

Anyway, in true MITOC tradition, Woody and Polly led us in a slow and heavy trip. It took most of the day to make it up the mountain with two technical pitches on the way up and three raps on the way down. Nevertheless, it was a great intro to ice climbing. We hiked about a mile south from the Crawford Notch AMC center, following the train tracks. Then we turned right and headed up Mount Willard. The next 45 minutes was very steep hiking, requiring crampons but no ice tools (except for one tricky ice bulge).

The first pitch of ice really turned out to be a mix of snow, ice, and a bit of mixed climbing at the end, something near WI2. It turned out to be a good intro, and the bit of mixed climbing at the end was challenging, and fun too. It was funky figuring out how crampons felt on rock. The second pitch was straight ice, WI3, and a ton of fun. I don’t know what else to say. Other than a slight case of the screaming barfies as my hands thawed out, the climb was just awesome. Plus, being roped in on the side of a mountain always feels good.

We took three raps and some hiking we made it back to the railroad tracks. By that time the temperature had dropped, and the wind kicked up making the hike back to the cars a bit chilly (my eyelashes kept freezing together when I blinked). We made it back safe and sound, though. Now I’m just looking forward to my next ice climbing adventure. (Sorry Mom!)

For pictures, check out the flickr set or the galleries page.

I decided to make the most of my first weekend of winter school and the long weekend, so I headed back up to New Hampshire on Monday (1/19).  Not far from Lincoln, NH on the Kancamangous Highway, right at the hairpin turn, is a trailhead that leads to two 4000′ peaks: North and South Hancock.  With a crew of 8 (including three guys named Jon, of John), we headed out of the parking lot and up the trail through a foot or so of fresh powder.

Of course, off of the trail, there was considerably more than just of a foot of powder!  About 3 miles into our journey, we headed off of the beaten path and up South Hancock.  The final half mile to the peak was the longest half mile of my life.  Breaking trail up steep powder slopes is tougher than I expected!  The hike along the ridgeline was fully worth all of the effort, though.  We hiked through miles of untouched snow and hemlock boughs brimming with snow.  Here and there, fox tracks crossed out path, but that was the only disturbance in feet of beautiful powder.  The steep trip down was even better: taking tight turns down the steep trail through untouched snow.  (I think I finally have something to compare with backcountry skiing.)

We reached the parking lot, after almost 10 miles of strenuous hiking, having walked through the waning light and into the night clicking on our headlamps along the way.  After a late and leisurely supper at the Common Man in Lincoln, it was back into the cars and onto I93 South back to Boston.  I’m excited to go back in the summer to see how the forest compares then.

For more pictures, check out the galleries page or my flickr photostream.

I headed out early, leaving the apartment at about 4:00 this morning. That got us to the 19 Mile Brook trailhead at about 8:30, and onto the trail at about 8:45. At the start, temperatures were hovering at about -15F, but rose as high as 5 or 10F during the day.

We hiked to the summit via Carter Notch, for a round trip of about 10 miles with almost 3500 feet of total elevation gain from trailhead to peak. For me, it was my first time needing/using crampons, and my first winter ascent in the White Mountains. Definitely something I’m looking forward to repeating! Another highlight of the trip is that it was led by Mike Kokko, an old friend of mine. Overall, it was a great day, a great hike, and in good company. The only blemish was that the sky was, for the most part, overcast, though the sun poked its head out briefly while we were on the way down.

Check out the galleries section for more pictures, or check out my or Kokko’s flickr pages.