- Month #3 was another successful month for the 2026 Elevation challenge. I continued to make good progress towards my goal of a million feet of vertical gain by September 20th, when I head to Arizona for the offseason, which I am referring to as the Fall Cactus League.
- I ended the month with 120K of elevation gained, 70K on foot, 50K on splitboard, for a three month total of 345K. (Jan 100K / Feb 125K)
- It was a very wild month of weather. The first couple of days started out cold, followed by a week of fifty to seventy-degree weather, which ended my year of Sherbie runs, as it never recovered enough after the warm spell to be easy enough for me to ride. The hiking trails got butchered too, during one hike, I had to turn around from falling chest deep into a drainage of slush and water on the Fishin' Jimmy Trail, having to climb out of it. It was terrifying for about a minute, thankfully, there was no worry of drowning or being swept away, and it was around 60 degrees out too, so no chance of hypothermia.
- Luckily, Wildcat Mountain's groomers did a helluva job preserving the snow pack, and I hammered Wildcat in the mornings most days of the month with a few afternoon runs mixed in, 22 runs in total.
- After the super warm up, it turned cold again, another 12" + of snow fell in my yard, after it had melted out from 2.5' to bare ground during the first week of March. The snow made Wildcat snowboarding fantastic, and it helped restore the hiking trails to a passable state after they became a postholed mess.
- For hiking during the month, when the conditions were good, I knocked off Grid 3 peaks. I started off the month with 24 peaks on the list, and by the end of the month, I lowered that number to 8.
- I also made it to another couple of meetups for the North of the Notch Run Club, one of which was a wild off-trail excursion from Mascot Pond, up a small talus field to Mascot Mines, followed by scrambling / rock climbing up to the Mascot ledges, through a few no-fall zones. I don't think we will be revisiting that route for a club activity again!
- When conditions started deteriorating again on the 4K peaks during the last week, Sarge and I started heading into Tuckerman Ravine for Bowl Pawtrol. The Tuckerman Ravine Trail sees the most use, so it stays solid and becomes the best game in town so to speak.
- Looking ahead, April will be a transition month, my mornings of splitboarding are numbered. I'm hoping to get another run or two in, but as of this posting, that is iffy at best. I'll focus on Grid 3 peaks when conditions allow, and when they don't, I'll head into the Bowl or head to south-facing peaks like South Mount, Mount Hayes, etc, along with hiking up Wildcat for an easy 2K of gain.
Deep snow on Mount Cabot along the Kilkenny Ridge
Sarge, all smiles on Imp Face!
Morning lap on Wildcat
Morning Wildcat + Sherbie Lap, and afternoon Cat Lap
Afternoon undercast to the east over the Wild River Wilderness
Pano of Moriah - Carter Range, the Presidential Range, and the town of Gorham as seen from Hayes Ledges
Sarge hikes Mount Garfield
On Garfield with Owl's Head, the small lump to the left of Sarge, and Mount Flume and Liberty poking up above his fluffy head
South Kinsman summit
North Kinsman summit with Franconia Ridge slowly fading away as snow flurries move in
Iced over Fishn' Jimmy Trail
Lonesome Lake Hut
Abandoned and flooded Greely Ponds cross-country ski trail
Avalanche info bulletin board at HoJo's
Bottom of the Bowl first aid cache
Mascot Pond mine, gated off to the public to help preserve bat habitat and to keep people from getting hurt. All that can be seen this time of year, are four-foot ice stalagmites!
Mascot Pond
Sarge at Hermit Lake and heading to the bottom of Tuckerman Ravine
Perfect way to end the month, on Bowl Pawtrol!
120K in March, not too shabby! Another solid month for all, and Amber is still humming along as she keeps ticking away towards the 3.65 million vert world record.
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