On Dec 22 Sam and I celebrated the new winter by driving up to New Hampshire. We slept in the back of the truck with the alarm set for "in a little bit". Things were dry and cold when we went to sleep and when the alarm went off things were still cold but there was also 3 inches of fresh snow everywhere. Eventually we got everything packed up and started wandering around in the dark looking for the trail. We started up around 6:45 or so just as it was starting to get a little bit almost barely light. The trail was wide and pretty obvious despite the fresh snow. Unfortunately under the snow was a mix of gravel, rocks, and ice. We both slipped and fell over or at least to a knee or hand a few times. There were 2 groups ahead of us and we followed them on what we thought was the turn off to Lion Head trail - it actually wasn't and eventually we noticed this and backtracked a bit and took another trail that rejoined the Tuckerman Ravine trail. From there we found the correct trail and started up.
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| Sam where we first started to get some visibility |
Soon things started getting steeper and we put on crampons. Between my heavy leather boots, steel crampons, and heavy gaiters my feet felt very heavy - but they stuck on the ice. As we got higher up the trail the snow eased up and we began to get a little visibility. We were both pretty hot at this point but didn't want to actually take off any more layers. Near the top of the Lion Head trail we even saw a little bit of sun. Then we came over a point and the wind picked up. This helped clear parts of the trail but drifted other parts. Where the trail passed through the Krumholtz it was a little more sheltered again but beyond that was pretty windy again. It was nice to have a balaclava and ski goggles. The cairns - rock piles to mark the trail - up here were very big and close together so that they could be followed even in a whitout. We could usually see at least 6 at any one time. There were little rime ice fingers growing all over towards the direction the wind comes from. I didn't see many bigger than a few inches, but they were impressive in their number.
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| We barely saw the sun for a little bit |
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| rime ice formations |
When we turned N towards the summit the visibility was going down and the wind was coming up. Also the footing was harder because it was larger rocks underfoot but many of the gaps between them were filled with drifts of snow. It made for some slow plodding progress but by 11:30 or so we made it to the parking lot. From there we went up to the buildings and found the summit sign. I thought the visibility was completely going but it was only ice covering my goggles (and just about any other surface). It was forming amazingly fast - you could see it cover the camera lens among other things. (we took Sam's camera up because mine probably wouldn't have handled the conditions well). (most of the photos here are ones Sam took, although you will have to wait for my trip report to see his "arty" shots.
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| Tom hiking up past more rime ice and rocks |
At the top the wind was windy (40 to 50 according to the summit weather station we were told) but we measured only 25 on Sam's wind meter as well as a bit under 20 degrees F with a windchill in the negative numbers. It was cold, especially as ice was forming on just about everything. We had more warm clothes but rather than stick around and get everything ice covered putting it on we just headed down. We made much better time heading down at first, especially as there was a bit more snow and the wind was from behind. We passed 4 groups that were still coming up (including one group ahead of us that also took the wrong turn but continued on up Huntingdon Ravine). The final part of the trail seemed to take forever, but we got back to the parking lot by 3 or so. As far as elevation goes it was a little lower than going from Phoenix to Flagstaff and back, but the weather was a lot more severe. It was enough to give us a good taste of winter and not have it be totally casual but the unpleasantness didn't actually last very long. I would have liked to have a few expansive views and some wind and snow free times to swap out lenses though. Still, I have to rate it a highly successful trip.
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| Sam and Tom icing up on the summit of Mount Washington |
here is a link to the spot track - unfortunately it didn't start registering until we were a good ways into the trip and it didn't get us on top. - zoom in to the satellite view to see some of the buildings up top.
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=288840
