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

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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

Mount Tecumseh (#12)

Date of Hike: 1/18/09

Mount Tecumseh Trail: 5.0 miles (2,400 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- On Trail at 8:40am, finished at 11:00am
- There was about 4 inches of fresh snow that had fallen over the night and it was already broken out
- Highlight of the hike was seeing the only person I ran into descending via a small butt sled!  He had sledded 90% of the trail only stopping on the parts near the summit that were to narrow and one or two level sections.
- Some descent views from the ski slope outlooks and the last .3 mile up to the summit.  Higher elevations were clouded up so no good views of the Osceola's or Tripyramids
- Not an exciting hike but it's on the list and I was pretty beat up from hiking on Friday (which was made tougher from getting lost and breaking trail), snowboarding Cannon Mountain on Saturday (which included a few falls on the diamonds), hiking on Sunday, and having a gnarly head cold with an annoying cough which slowed me down a little on steeper sections

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Tangent Ski Trail Outlook

View from Tecumseh Summit 

Mount Tecumseh Trail

North and Middle Tripyramid (#10 & #11)

Date of Hike: 1/17/10

Pine Bend Brook Trail: 4.5 miles
Mount Tripyramid Trail: .6 miles
Pine Bend Brook Trail: 4.5 miles
Total Miles: 9.6 (3,450 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- On trail at 7:45am, finished at 12:15pm, temps in the mid 20's, no wind, cloudy day with no views
- Wore snowshoes the whole day, trail was well packed
- Pine Bend Brook Trail "is what it is." The trail follows a brook and bends around a forest full of pine trees
- The trail is pretty level until you enter the Sandwich Range Wilderness then it becomes steep to very steep near the top
- Didn't see anyone until came across a group of eight guys at the Scaur Ridge trail junction when I was descending.  Saw five more people around the Sandwich Range boundry
-  When I finished the hike I went online to check tomorrow's forecast on Mount Washington which will be a waste of a day but I noticed todays forecast for the summit had changed since last night and was in the clear with an undercast.  If I had known this in the morning I would have hiked in Mount Washington!

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NorthTripyramid Summit

Middle Tripyramid Summit

Pine Bend Brook Trail

Mount Tom, Mount Field, and Getting Lost on Mount Willey (#7,#8,#9)

Date of Hike: 1/15/10

Avalon Trail: 1.3 miles
A-Z Trail: 1.0 miles
Mt. Tom Spur: 1.2 miles
Willey Range Trail: around 3.7 miles
Ethan Pond Trail: .3 miles
Kendron Flume Trail: 1.2 miles
Route 302: 1 mile
Total Miles: 9.8 miles (elevation gain 3,500)

 Trip Report:
- Left RI at 5:15, on trail at 8:45am, finished at 2pm
- Temps in high 20's, low 30's, cloud cover above 3,000 feet, no views until coming down Willey Range Trail. I'm now 0 for 3 with views hiking these mountains
- Snowshoes the whole day, saw 6 people on the hike up to Mount Tom and then nobody the rest of the day
- Original plan was to turn around on Willey summit backtrack to Avalon trail and hike down and hope to catch some good views of Crawford Notch from Mount Avalon summit
- Trail was well broken out until a half mile to Mount Field, then snow drifts up to two feet covered the trail but it was still easy to follow

Now I was on my way to Mount Willey. There are 1.4 miles between Field and Willey, it was smooth sailing until I noticed that whoever broke the trail a few days beforehand really had no idea what they were doing and unfortunately for me I thought they did. First they went off the trail to the north (left towards route 302) for a good 5 minutes until rejoining the trail. I thought I was in good shape until I noticed that it seemed like I was bypassing the summit to the north of it. Finally the trail I was following seemed to head south (to the right) towards Willey's summit, however then I really realized the trail was a lost cause because it would go about 100 feet one way then 100 feet another, until it was a dead end and then everything became a maze, the original bushwhack I was following was going in circles to nowhere. Next I decided to head up until I came across the Willey Range trail, stumble the summit, or give up and head back int he direction of Mount Field until I found the original bushwhack before it went coo-coo bananas. Luckily heading up brought me to the summit. I thought I had reached the summit from the north, however in fact I had gone past the summit and "backdoored" it from the south east, meaning the whole time I was turned around and lost my bearings following the bushwhack. If I had bailed out I would have went the wrong direction and ended up in Zealand Notch via Whitewall to Ethan Pond which would have been awful and not Crawford Notch and 302. At the summit the trail was unbroken in each direction and visibility was at about 25 feet, once again not knowing at the time that I was heading in the wrong direction I headed east instead of west back to Mount Field a few seconds later I saw an AMC sign with an arrow that said outlook, now I was totally confused. My choices were head in the direction of the outlook or head down. I decided to head down thinking I'd cross the bushwhack I was on. Heading down was the wrong choice, it was very steep, unbroken, waist deep snow, after 100 yards of sliding down I realized the outlook was the outlook just past the Willey Summit. I turned around thinking no problem I know where I am now time to head home. Not the case, I would go about 25 feet and slide back down, the snow was so deep I couldn't get any uphill traction. Took my Ice Axe, swung, hoping it would bite into packed snow deep beneath but it was useless I just kept sliding down. Knowing that I had no choice it was time to descend the steep part of the unbroken Willey Range trail to Ethan Pond which I know would be broken.

My thoughts know turned to the trail ahead and if it would be easy to follow since it was unbroken. Luckily it was except for a few massive blowdowns. The first half mile until past the ladder steps is very steep. I would butt slide down causing a interesting mini avalanche all around me, after about 50 feet of mostly controlled sliding I would sink down into the snow and have to pick myself up and repeat. Past the ladder steps when i was able to walk again I realized the crampons on my snowshoes had cut a whole in my snow pants and snow was now in the lining of my pants and had become hard-packed, this was annoying but I continued on.

Finally I reached Ethan Pond trail which was broken out, but I only would be on this trail for .3 mile until the Kendron Flume trail which hadn't been broken out for about a week. The trail was easy to follow but there were numerous blowdowns where I had to crawl under, in-between, over...and through! Upon reaching the Flume I finally took a break to eat some food on the completely snow-bridged frozen over Kendron Flume. After about 10 to 15 minutes I continued on, I hit the train tracks and decided that the best way back to my car was to try and hoof it since the tracks were unbroken. Next my snowshoe came off from all the pounding and sliding and went about 25 feet downhill so I followed it down the hill, put it back on and just bushwhacked the last .2 miles to the Willey House on Rout 302.

I changed into dry clothing for the walk up 302, it was very windy in the notch and I tried hitchhiking...no dice, people just zoomed on by me, I don't understand why no one would want to pick up a complete stranger with and Ice Axe attached to his backpack??? I walked about a mile saw some great views of crazy ice climbers on the near vertical ice sheet of the Frankenstein Cliff. Suddenly the breakdown lanes disappeared from the road and I wasn't to thrilled about this, luckily a car started beeping and another hiker who was blown off Mount Carrigain picked me up!

Back at my car I took off my boots and imagined how awful it would be to go through that in the Presidential Range above treeline!

 Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Mount Tom Summit

Willey Range Trail

Ice Climber on Frankentsein Cliff

Mount Willard