One out of three in the deep freeze!

[montvm]

Date(s) Hiked: Jan 3 2008

Trails(s) Hiked:Avaolon, A-Z trail, Mt. Tom Spur trail

Total Distance:6.8, 2150 Ft. elev. gain

Difficulty:Moderate some steep sections

Conditions:Bitter cold, Avalon and A-Z trail broken, but still some drifts, Mt. Tom Spur trail unbroken

Special Required Equipment:Cold weather gear, traction optional, flotation, hot soup for summit.

Trip Report:

The plan was to hike to Mt. Tom, then to Mt. Field and then if time allowed we would hike over to Mt. Avalon to complete the loop. Obviously time did not allow for us to do this. We started at Crawford Depot station approximately 9:30am, it was -13 F when we left the trail head and never got above – 10 F.

Avalon was well packed up to the Mt. Willard junction. After that it was still pretty good except for some drifts. We bear booted up to the Mt. Tom Spur. The Spur trail had not been broken since the last snow storm, so finally got to break out the snow shoes. I had not used them since last year, and not with new Columbia Ice Dragon boots rated for -65 that I had purchased the night before. After some wrestling, they fit the binding’s fine.

My buddy Matt started breaking Mt Tom spur trail and then I took over shortly after and broke the rest of the way. He was getting cramps in his legs which seemed strange because both of use had been drinking plenty of sports drink, and eating chocolate. At the summit we had great views, of the Presidential on one side and views into the pemi on the other. I did not bring my camera but Matt did. He only took 6 pictures, even though we had pretty clear skies. Matt’s camera is a canon A-series, and when you power it on the lens telephotos out. The first time he tried to turn it off, the lens would not telephoto back into the camera, it was frozen stuck. After a few tries it finally closed. As you can imagine he was reluctant to use it again.

For the summit, Matt had brought tomato soup which he shared with me. Amazingly it was still piping hot. Best tomato soup I have ever had! It was close to 2pm when we left the summit so we decided to call it a day. Both cold and happy we made our way back to the car.

My new boots worked pretty well. My feet started off cold so it took some time to warm my toes. They got cold again only when we stopped. I had new heavy weight wool blend socks with a liner sock and I think that the combination of the socks bunching at the toes is what made me have cold toes. I will continue to experiment, until I find the right sock, I think that I just have cold feet syndrome. I will email Matt and have him upload the pic’s and then post them.

Pictures are here.... http://picasaweb.google.com/montvm1/MtTom

Mike

[MichaelJ]

Wow - been a while since I've done a hike that cold but I sure remember what it feels like. Nice job getting Mt Tom, glad you got the views. I agree completely that hot tomato soup on a winter hike is a very enjoyable treat!

ps - I fixed a missing [ in the header of your post.

[montvm]

Originally Posted by MichaelJ

Wow - been a while since I've done a hike that cold but I sure remember what it feels like. Nice job getting Mt Tom, glad you got the views. I agree completely that hot tomato soup on a winter hike is a very enjoyable treat!

ps - I fixed a missing [ in the header of your post.

Yeah it was pretty cold. Cold enough that the Baclava that i wore was still frozen solid after the 4 hour ride home.

Thanks for fixing my header....

[Johnskiismore]

Haven't done a winter hike on that route in a while..... and definately not that cold!

This might sound like a silly question, was there anyone else hiking that day?

Nice pictures, glad everything went well!

[montvm]

Originally Posted by Johnskiismore

Haven't done a winter hike on that route in a while..... and definately not that cold!

This might sound like a silly question, was there anyone else hiking that day?

Nice pictures, glad everything went well!

We did see some people at the Crawford Notch center but not sure where they were headed, did not see anyone on the trail that day....

[David Metsky]

Was it possible this his lens didn't freeze, but that his batteries simply couldn't handle the cold? That's a more likely scenario in very cold temps. Turn off the LCD, use lithium batteries, and keep a spare set of batteries (not the camera) close to your skin.