Mount Monroe & Mount Washington (#13 & #14)

Date of Hike: 1/23/10

Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail: 2.4 miles
Mount Monroe Loop Trai: .6 milesl
Crawford Path: 3.0 miles
Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail: 2.4 miles
Total Miles: 8.4 (4,100 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Left RI at 4am, on trail 7:30am, finished 1:45pm
- Temperature was -8 at Bretton Woods, -2 at Marshfield Cog Station, warmed up to 10-15 dergrees on the trail with winds 25-40 mph out of the north with wind chills around 0 to 10 below
- Clear skies with 130 miles plus visibility!
- Hiked in snowshoes up until "The Gorge" then switched to crampons and kept them on the rest of the day
- Followed two hikers up to hut and was hiking with a guy named Eric who was hiking with his girlfriend who was a little ways back.
- Changed into warm dry clothes in "The Dungeon" at Lakes of the clouds hut, froze my fingers up quite a bit while changing, switched from gloves to mittens the rest of the day which kept my fingers warm
- You can make your own trail up to Mount Monroe summit because the wind blows away any tracks
- The worst part of the hike today was hiking to Monroe's summit, the wind was pretty fast and to make things worse I ripped open my snowpants again with my crampons and my camel back froze up!
- Back at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut hikers were walking up the snow drift and walking around the roof of the hut and taking pictures which was kind of funny
- Hiking up to Washington via the Crawford Path was pretty awesome, all you could see was white everywhere and the sun reflected off the snow pretty fierce so I wore my snowboard goggles
- Very little trace of a path eventough there were 3 people withing a half mile in front of me, although the cairns stood out like bumps along the way to help guide the way
- The last .5 miles was exhausting, since my camelback froze I couldn't hydrate and I didn't feeling like taking off my backpack and finding my gatorade so my pace became pretty slow
- Views from Observation Deck were the best ever!

Gear packed for the trip:
-I started off with thermal pants, North Face three season hiking pants, Columbia snow pants, Under Armor tshirt, REI long leeve t-shirt, Columbia fleece jacket and neck warmer, North Face hat and gloves, Columbia -65 rated boots, tubbs Flex Alp Showshoes
- In my backpack I had crampons, microspikes, extra neck warmer, gloves, two pairs of mittens, two extra hats, three changes of long sleeve t-shirts, spare under armor tshirt, extra socks, Columbia winter wind braker and fleece, camelback, rope, hand towel, Ice Axe, sandwiches, gatorade, granola bars

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail

Mount Washington from Mount Monroe Summit

Mount Washington Summit

Mount Jefferson, Adams, and Madison

Wildcat Ski Area

Lakes of the Clouds Hut and Mount Monroe

Crawford Path

Sun Shower at Lakes of the Clouds

Lakes of the Clouds

Sea of White Summit Cone