Max
New member
Saturday, Jan. 17th. My plan for this perfectly clear day was to climb Adams and Madison, but due to 80 mph winds on the Presidentials, I decide to hike in the Carter Range instead. I start up 19 Mile Brook trail, then hit the Carter Dome trail to Zeta Pass. I hadn’t used snowshoes on my last 4 hikes, and after talking it over with a couple guys at the trailhead parking lot, we all agreed that we probably wouldn’t need them today either. So they remained in the car, and it was an easy hike in nice, bare boot-able conditions up to the pass. After a brief stop, I headed north towards the South Carter summit. A few yards up the trail and I was post-holing in several places due to some accumulated drifts. I thought of the snowshoes in the car and how “helpful” they were down there! But it only lasted a short while and as I began to ascend, the conditions got better. Right to the summit of South Carter, and I figured I was home safe. Off I go, plodding along towards Middle Carter, with the snow getting deeper and the post-holing more frequent. Soon it’s becoming much more than a minor annoyance, it’s downright slow progress and I am frequently going in nearly hip deep in places. I get to a spot where I can see the middle summit…it looks a LONG ways away, enhanced I’m sure by my painfully slow progress. I don’t relish doing that entire distance at this speed! For a brief moment, I consider turning around and abandoning reaching the middle peak, but thoughts of getting this close and having to come back keep me pressing on. It has taken me a half hour to reach the south summit, and nearly and hour and a half more to cover the 1.3 miles from south to middle peak, and it has been a mighty struggle, but I finally reach the summit sign. Along the way I have also fallen into 2 spruce traps, one while trying to set up my camera (unsuccessfully) for a self-portrait. I think about pressing on the half mile to the Imp Trail and descending that way, but there are no tracks coming from that direction and I am leery of breaking more trail like this, and falling in more traps as well. I turn around and head back the way I came. It is a bit easier on the return trip, it takes me just over an hour to reach Zeta Pass, less than half the northward time. But I am shot, my gas tank is nearly empty and plans to do an up-and-back to Carter Dome are scrapped. It’s a good thing I don’t need the dome for my winter list. I grab a quick snack at the pass, and get a second wind for a steady descent back to the car. Then it’s down to Gorham to grab a motel for the night and a quick trip to Mr. Pizza to recharge my batteries.
Sunday morning dawns with snow squalls and light winds. I can’t see the summits of the northern Presidentials, so I decide to head westward and climb Cannon Mt. Before going home. I reach the ski area parking lot and the toughest part of the day’s trip begins…battling the 35 mph winds in the parking lot, getting my gear ready and strapping on crampons for the climb up the steep Kinsman Ridge trail. This time I take the snowshoes as well (lesson learned). It’s a steady steep climb to the summit and nothing eventful happens. To avoid the rocky open section of the upper part of the trail, I continue on what appears to be clear cutting for a new glade-type ski trail and join one of Cannon’s ski trails. It’s open for skiing, but the left edge is rocky and icy and no one is skiing here due to thin cover, so I use it for the ascent, and it keeps me from interfering with downhill skiers. And just as I figured, I didn’t need the snowshoes…but I got ‘em in case! It’s an easy climb and I reach the summit tower in under 90 minutes. I drop down to the tramway building and watch the skiers and boarders for a bit, it seems like snow conditions on Cannon are reasonably decent. I head back down the same way I came up. Great conditions for bare-booting, and I stride along like I’m wearing my 7 league boots, cover enormous ground in a hurry. Half running, and sliding much of the lower section of trail as if it were an Olympic luge run, I make it from the summit to my car in an insane 23 minutes! A winter round trip of a NH 4,000 footer in 2 hours. Well, at least I got an early start home. It’s still morning (10:30 AM) and for a few moments, I think of driving to Tecumseh to bag that one as well, but my long suffering wife would probably like to see me again, so I decide to beat the heavy part of the southbound traffic and I’m home by 1:30. A nice weekend, 3 new ones off my winter list and a lesson learned as well. Those snowshoes really don’t weigh that much.
Max
Sunday morning dawns with snow squalls and light winds. I can’t see the summits of the northern Presidentials, so I decide to head westward and climb Cannon Mt. Before going home. I reach the ski area parking lot and the toughest part of the day’s trip begins…battling the 35 mph winds in the parking lot, getting my gear ready and strapping on crampons for the climb up the steep Kinsman Ridge trail. This time I take the snowshoes as well (lesson learned). It’s a steady steep climb to the summit and nothing eventful happens. To avoid the rocky open section of the upper part of the trail, I continue on what appears to be clear cutting for a new glade-type ski trail and join one of Cannon’s ski trails. It’s open for skiing, but the left edge is rocky and icy and no one is skiing here due to thin cover, so I use it for the ascent, and it keeps me from interfering with downhill skiers. And just as I figured, I didn’t need the snowshoes…but I got ‘em in case! It’s an easy climb and I reach the summit tower in under 90 minutes. I drop down to the tramway building and watch the skiers and boarders for a bit, it seems like snow conditions on Cannon are reasonably decent. I head back down the same way I came up. Great conditions for bare-booting, and I stride along like I’m wearing my 7 league boots, cover enormous ground in a hurry. Half running, and sliding much of the lower section of trail as if it were an Olympic luge run, I make it from the summit to my car in an insane 23 minutes! A winter round trip of a NH 4,000 footer in 2 hours. Well, at least I got an early start home. It’s still morning (10:30 AM) and for a few moments, I think of driving to Tecumseh to bag that one as well, but my long suffering wife would probably like to see me again, so I decide to beat the heavy part of the southbound traffic and I’m home by 1:30. A nice weekend, 3 new ones off my winter list and a lesson learned as well. Those snowshoes really don’t weigh that much.
Max
