albee
New member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2005
- Messages
- 637
- Reaction score
- 122
I've been making more than my fair share of pilgrimages to the Whites this winter with the express intent on finally finishing my 48w. I've had 29 done and 19 left since March 2005... I missed all of last winter due to an extended stay in New Zealand (poor me!) that brought me home on the first day of spring. So this year, I've vowed to finish, and I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
I managed to knock off a bunch of the pesky long-distance single peaks before we really got any snow back at the end of December. Isolation, Carrigain, and Moosilauke were scratched off on December 24th and 25th. A few days later I tagged Moriah on a cold and windy day, a day when I would have liked to hike the whole Moriah-Carters-Wildcats ridge, but after Shelburne Moriah and Moriah I decideed it was just too cold. Since then, indoor track season has started and that has kept me from the mountains for a few weekends.
But this weekend would be different. I took an optimistic outlook on the partly-cloudy/chance of flurries weather forecast and roped my friend Dave into joining me on the Osceolas. Dave is slowly working his way through the New England Hundred Highest list... I think he's done 24 so far, which is pretty good since he's deathly afraid of heights! He's also one of the strongest and fastest climbers I know... he's a former record holder of the Mount Washinton road race, having run the auto road all the way to the summit in under 61 minutes! Even though he recently lost a month of training due to a stress fracture in his hip, he managed to leave me in the dust (or should I say spindrift!) on the steep climb up East Osceola.
We started from the Kanc at a little before 10 AM on Saturday. The first 1.3 miles up the Greeley Ponds trail went by quickly and painlessly, and before I knew it we were both layering down due to unexpectedly warm temperatures. The forecast was for a warming trend from 0 to 10 F before noontime, but it was 15 when we started and it stayed there all the way to the summits. Not bad after being -33 on Mt Washinton the night before!
As I mentioned, going up East Osceola was steep. Real steep! I take a long time to get my climbing legs under me, but the push up to the knife-edge ridge on East Osceola took almost an hour and I was working my butt off to keep up. I was happy to finally gain the ridge and get some views to where the trail would take us. We passed a number of people once we finally got to the summit of East Osceola and bounced on down to the next col. I had been warning Dave about the chimney on this trail, and when we finally got there, the bypass on the right was much easier than I remembered it being. Dave methodically worked his way up the rocks, and I finally got a chance to wait for him for once. From there, it was smooth sailing to the summit area.
We took pictures at the clearing on the summit, then hunted around for 5 minutes looking for the correct trail to the "true" summit. Once we were satisfied that we had found the tippity top, we reversed course and headed back the way we had come. We were both warmed up and ready to make good time on the way back. The chimney slowed us down again, but after that it was up over East O and then the long adventure of glissading down what had taken me seemingly forever to climb. We were 40 minutes faster on the way back to the car, and we passed a lot of people that were taking short afternoon walks to the Greeley Ponds. Total trip time was 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Afterwards, we had discussed going for a run before the long ride south. We both decided that the Wilderness Trail would be a good option, so after a quick change of clothes, we set out on an out-and-back along the emerald-green Pemi. We turned around a little after the Osseo trail junction, and it was funny to see the looks on people's faces as they snowshoed or skied along and we just jogged on past without any need for traction on the flat and packed down trail. 7.6 miles hiked, 4 miles run... now that's my idea of a day in the Whites! 35 down, 13 to go!
On a side note, it was nice to run into Drew, MEB, Tom + Atticus, Jeff V., and Little Sister (I think), with Cath Goodwin pulling in while at the Lincoln Woods parking area before we got started in the AM. They were heading out for the long trip to Owl's Head. Hope they had a good time!
I managed to knock off a bunch of the pesky long-distance single peaks before we really got any snow back at the end of December. Isolation, Carrigain, and Moosilauke were scratched off on December 24th and 25th. A few days later I tagged Moriah on a cold and windy day, a day when I would have liked to hike the whole Moriah-Carters-Wildcats ridge, but after Shelburne Moriah and Moriah I decideed it was just too cold. Since then, indoor track season has started and that has kept me from the mountains for a few weekends.
But this weekend would be different. I took an optimistic outlook on the partly-cloudy/chance of flurries weather forecast and roped my friend Dave into joining me on the Osceolas. Dave is slowly working his way through the New England Hundred Highest list... I think he's done 24 so far, which is pretty good since he's deathly afraid of heights! He's also one of the strongest and fastest climbers I know... he's a former record holder of the Mount Washinton road race, having run the auto road all the way to the summit in under 61 minutes! Even though he recently lost a month of training due to a stress fracture in his hip, he managed to leave me in the dust (or should I say spindrift!) on the steep climb up East Osceola.
We started from the Kanc at a little before 10 AM on Saturday. The first 1.3 miles up the Greeley Ponds trail went by quickly and painlessly, and before I knew it we were both layering down due to unexpectedly warm temperatures. The forecast was for a warming trend from 0 to 10 F before noontime, but it was 15 when we started and it stayed there all the way to the summits. Not bad after being -33 on Mt Washinton the night before!
As I mentioned, going up East Osceola was steep. Real steep! I take a long time to get my climbing legs under me, but the push up to the knife-edge ridge on East Osceola took almost an hour and I was working my butt off to keep up. I was happy to finally gain the ridge and get some views to where the trail would take us. We passed a number of people once we finally got to the summit of East Osceola and bounced on down to the next col. I had been warning Dave about the chimney on this trail, and when we finally got there, the bypass on the right was much easier than I remembered it being. Dave methodically worked his way up the rocks, and I finally got a chance to wait for him for once. From there, it was smooth sailing to the summit area.
We took pictures at the clearing on the summit, then hunted around for 5 minutes looking for the correct trail to the "true" summit. Once we were satisfied that we had found the tippity top, we reversed course and headed back the way we had come. We were both warmed up and ready to make good time on the way back. The chimney slowed us down again, but after that it was up over East O and then the long adventure of glissading down what had taken me seemingly forever to climb. We were 40 minutes faster on the way back to the car, and we passed a lot of people that were taking short afternoon walks to the Greeley Ponds. Total trip time was 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Afterwards, we had discussed going for a run before the long ride south. We both decided that the Wilderness Trail would be a good option, so after a quick change of clothes, we set out on an out-and-back along the emerald-green Pemi. We turned around a little after the Osseo trail junction, and it was funny to see the looks on people's faces as they snowshoed or skied along and we just jogged on past without any need for traction on the flat and packed down trail. 7.6 miles hiked, 4 miles run... now that's my idea of a day in the Whites! 35 down, 13 to go!
On a side note, it was nice to run into Drew, MEB, Tom + Atticus, Jeff V., and Little Sister (I think), with Cath Goodwin pulling in while at the Lincoln Woods parking area before we got started in the AM. They were heading out for the long trip to Owl's Head. Hope they had a good time!
