Hiking in the White Mountains: Franconia Ridge

- Month #2 of the 2026 Elevation challenge was a huge success. I was able to get in 125,000' of vertical gain in the 28 days of February. 70K on foot and 55K on my splitboard. I have been widely enjoying sunrise skins up Wildcat Mountain and snowboarding down. I've caught a few glorious sunrises from the Polecat Ski Trail while getting lucky with comfortable weather and little to no winds most mornings. As the days have gotten longer, I have mixed in a few late afternoon Wildcat laps, heading up after last chair and snowboarding down at dusk. The afternoon lap has its pros and cons, the advantages is the temperature is warmer, the disadvantage is the trails have been skied off, sometimes down to ice.

- On days when we get fresh snow, I head across the street to HoJo's to snowboard the Sherbie. We didn't have any huge snowfalls this month, but I was able to get in a half dozen Sherbie runs, down from ten last month. My Wildcat runs went up in February, from eight to twenty. I prefer the Sherbie because I can go during my lunch break, and it's a more exciting ride down, but as an intermediate-level snowboarder, I need fresh powder to enjoy navigating the dozens of moguls.

- On foot, I was able to get in a few beautiful days above treeline. The highlights of the month were two solo bluebird days on Madison and Adams. Three perfect days with Sarge, two in the Presi's (Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, and Pierce and Eisenhower), and a terrific day on Franconia Ridge.

- We also spent time doing local favorites, hikes up to HoJo's, Imp Face, Chapel Rock. Mixed in with all this was couple of North of the Notch Run Club Wednesday night meetups and knocking off some 4000's for Grid #3 on weekends when the weather was too cold to go above treeline.

- After two months, I am up to 225K of elevation gained, a quarter of the way to my goal of 1 million. If I stay healthy and strong, I hope to achieve 1 million by September 20th, when I leave for Arizona for two months. We shall see!

- Best pictures of the month below, enjoy!

Mount Jefferson as seen from Mount Adams

The Great Gulf Headwall and Mount Washington

Mount Jefferson with the Franconia Ridge in the background

Mount Washington as seen from Mount Eisenhower

In the clouds on Mount Pierce. Alpine vegetation stay on trail sign covered with a thin layer of rime ice

Snow Moon above Mount Washington at dawn

Presidential Range

Tuckerman, Raymond Cataract, Huntington Ravines

Sarge takes his orange booties up the Greenleaf Trail on Mount Lafayette

Sarge on Mount Lafayette

Classic Franconia Ridge shot

Sarge puts his game face on as he reaches Mount Lincoln

Standing on the edge of the Pemigewasset Wilderness

Franconia Ridge

Morning on Wildcat. Interesting looking cloud blanket fitting snugly on top of Mount Washington

Late afternoon on Wildcat

Sun is about to set, time to snowboard down!

Sarge takes his booties to Mount Eisenhower

Mount Pierce. Presidential Range looms large behind Sarge

Lakes of the Clouds Hut

Sarge rolling around in the snow at Mount Monroe Loop junction

All smiles on Mount Monroe

Looking down at Lakes of the Clouds

High along the Crawford Path

Top of the northeast!

Along the Gulfside Trail

Mount Jefferson summit

Sarge acting all serious at 5,700'

Early morning on Mount Madison and Adams

Another great sunrise skin up Wildcat

Sunshine and clouds on the Tuckerman Ravine trail

North KearSARGE

Sarge at the Pine Mountain ledges

Knocking off G3 peaks. Big snow year on the Hancocks

HoJo's!

Chapel Rock

Impressive numbers being put up. Amber is still going strong as she attempts to break the world record of vert, 3.65 million, in a calendar year!

Date of Hike: 2/21/18

Old Bridle Path: 2.9 miles / Greenleaf Trail: 1.1 miles / Franconia Ridge Trail: 2.0 miles / Greenleaf Trail: 1.1 miles / Old Bridle Path: 2.9 miles
Total Miles: 10.0 (4,527 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- It was "Wacky Wednesday" in the White Mountains! With weather above treeline on Franconia Ridge approaching sixty degrees I decided to head up for an anomaly of a hike for February.
- Conditions below treeline resembled April, soft snow and rapid melt. Conditions above treeline were almost summer like, except for a few patches of wind drifted snow in scrub sections the Greenleaf Trail and Franconia Ridge trails were down to dirt and rock.
- It was an odd hike to say the least, luckily the wind was whipping around 30MPH, if it hadn't been I would have sweated five pounds off as it was very warm. I was actually kicking myself for not bringing sunscreen of all things!
- Views were phenomenal, as is the case when the summits are in the clear. As I strolled along the ridge high clouds floated by quickly which were fun to watch. When I reached the summit of Mount Lincoln I decided to double back instead of heading to Little Haystack and down, it was too nice out not to spend more time above treeline.
- As much as I liked the easy one clothing layer hike, I'm hoping for some more snow soon to enjoy a few more winter wonderland hikes before the annual April snow rot begins.