Caribou Mountain - Sunday Jan 23 to Tuesday Jan 25 (brrr!)

This hike on Caribou, near Evans Notch, was designed to get me
out in the recent wave of cold air we had. Parked Sunday evening
at the spot on Route 113 where the plowing ends (on the north side).
The temp on the bank in Gorham read 8 below at about 8 pm. Spent
about 1.5 hours road walking on the closed, packed-by-snowmobilers
road getting to the trailhead. Did a quick bivy there - dug a trench
with a wall to block the wind. I slept in a 20 below bag, bivy sack
and some layers and was fine.

I guesstimate the overnight lows at somewhere between minus 15 and minus 30.

The next morning, set off very early - No one EVER hikes this
Mountain in winter. I've done several hikes here the last few winters
and never seen any evidence of any other hikers - the trail is always
completely untracked. Its only 3 miles to the top, but the hike took
much of the day, breaking trail thru 2.5 feet or so of snow. It was
exhausting. I think the temp probably never got out of the mid single
digits, but the mountain faces south and gets a lot of sun (on the Mud
Brook Trail) so it feels a lot warmer. I was pretty comfortable in a
medium weight fleece, and really didn't need to rush to put my jacket
on during breaks.

The top of Caribou is really cool. It's an open alpine top, with great views. The wind was blowing, and by late afternoon up there, it was getting pretty cold again (probably like 10 or 15 below by early evening). Dug out a kind of half-assed snow shelter out of the wind but near the summit and spent another night. It warmed up a little overnight and was probably not much below zero by early Tuesday. Then hiked back to the car in well under half the time it took going up.

Now that the trail is broken out, I encourage y'all to check out this hike (and look for my missing microspike!). And do it next winter too (at some point I'd like to hike this mountain and not have to break trail thru numerous snowfalls worth of snow). This isn't really a sexy mountain - it's only about 2900 feet, and it's technically only 3 miles from the road, but even with the trail broken, this would be a looong day hike because of the road walk. (By the way, the road walk is not unpleasant - there are also a lot of dogsled teams on Route 113 and they're cool to see). With the trail unbroken, there's no way this is a day hike, but for such a little mountain, it throws a lot at you. Unfortunately, my digital camera disagreed with the cold, but trust me that it's a beautiful place!

companion post

this post comes with a companion post!
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39249

That was a totally kick-ass trip report. Intentionally picking a less-travelled, unbroken mountain, sleeping in the snow trenches/caves, doing it all alone. I don't think I have the stones to do that. Very cool.

Very cool, Tom!

Tim

thanks. i know this is unorthodox, but in some ways, I think it's a lot easier to stay warm on a winter camping when it's really cold. You don't sweat nearly as much, sweat seems to wick away faster, and I also think that it dries faster too. The snow doesn't get you as wet either - I crawled around digging snowshelters for a few hours and the snow just brushed right off. Staying dry when it's really cold is not nearly as difficult as when we have daytime highs in the 30s and lows in say the teens. And when you're dry you're warm, right?

what was your choice of food for this?

massive quantities of oatmeal in the morning. also, frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I made at home, granola bars, frozen donuts, cliff bars (kept in an inside pocket, near skin, because they're hard as a hockey puck when frozen), cup-a-soup, and lipton noodles. I think that's it. Need to schlep plenty of fuel for the stove.

afterwards, i dominated a "Steakhouse A1" at the Gorham Burger King, which I can't recommend highly enough.

Nice! Did you carry a shovel for the trench or use a snowshoe?

rocked an avy shovel.
much of this bivying/trenching/snowsheltering is based in a disinclincation to haul a tent around. though i wonder if much weight/space is saved in actuality.

Really cool trip report!

After getting rain/snowed out of an October King Ravine/Mt. Adams hike in October '09, we bailed and did an overnight on Caribou the next night. Got down to 10 that night, but the stars were amazing. Caribou is a great example of why people who stick to the 4k's are missing out on some really nice smaller mountains. I've made the trip 4 times and will do it again.

Dude,

Wow, that's awesome. Definitely an awesome trek and trip report! I don't think I could ever do that, but have a huge amount of respect for people who can. Keep us posted on your next trip!

Karl