Jazzbo
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2005
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Saturday 12/16/06, 7.6 miles RT, 2250’ elevation gain.
Nothing too exciting to report, but thought viewers might like to see pictures of trail conditions, so I’ll be brief. So here it is …. We experienced some slush and ice going over Kancamangus Pass, but it was well sanded and salted. It did look like it might be icy so we took it slow. Bill, Darrell, Mary Ann and I met at Champney Falls TR and got off at 9:00 at our usual blazing pace. We met Forest Gnome at the TR who was going out on a solo bushwack of his own. More on this later….
The trail was in good condition. We only observed two blowdowns on entire route. The first was high in air so no problem at all and second was easily walked under by stooping a bit. We expected serious ice around the summit cone so we came equipped with crampons and trekking poles for traction. It turned out the trails had teaser stretches of ice motivating some of us to don stabilicers which worked well. Ice patches were getting longer making some of usfigure it was only going to get icier so two of us put on crampons, but on gaining the summit ridge we only experienced minor ice such that stabilicers or bare boots would have been better choice. There were some stretches of water ice on the upper third of the trail (in the switchbacks) to the summit ridge where it was nice having the crampons.
The weather was cool, but never freezing. Winds were brisk on the summit, just hard enough to knock you over if you weren’t careful on the steep ledges etc. The summit for the most part was in the sun. Views were excellent. There were lots of clouds around obscuring views in some directions, but we could see plenty in the other directions and all agreed we picked a great day to do Chocorua. We saw maybe 7 or 8 other parties over course of the day, but nothing like crowds you normally see up there.
We managed to return to the TR by 3:30 or so. We had a jolly good time. We were pleased to see Forest Gnome arranging some moose antlers in the back of his pickup truck. Forest Gnome regaled me with some stories of his moose studies. I took two pictures of him with one of his prize antlers which are quite flattering (even if his eyes are cloased in one of them). I'm posting them here. I hope he likes them.
Pics are here.
Nothing too exciting to report, but thought viewers might like to see pictures of trail conditions, so I’ll be brief. So here it is …. We experienced some slush and ice going over Kancamangus Pass, but it was well sanded and salted. It did look like it might be icy so we took it slow. Bill, Darrell, Mary Ann and I met at Champney Falls TR and got off at 9:00 at our usual blazing pace. We met Forest Gnome at the TR who was going out on a solo bushwack of his own. More on this later….
The trail was in good condition. We only observed two blowdowns on entire route. The first was high in air so no problem at all and second was easily walked under by stooping a bit. We expected serious ice around the summit cone so we came equipped with crampons and trekking poles for traction. It turned out the trails had teaser stretches of ice motivating some of us to don stabilicers which worked well. Ice patches were getting longer making some of usfigure it was only going to get icier so two of us put on crampons, but on gaining the summit ridge we only experienced minor ice such that stabilicers or bare boots would have been better choice. There were some stretches of water ice on the upper third of the trail (in the switchbacks) to the summit ridge where it was nice having the crampons.
The weather was cool, but never freezing. Winds were brisk on the summit, just hard enough to knock you over if you weren’t careful on the steep ledges etc. The summit for the most part was in the sun. Views were excellent. There were lots of clouds around obscuring views in some directions, but we could see plenty in the other directions and all agreed we picked a great day to do Chocorua. We saw maybe 7 or 8 other parties over course of the day, but nothing like crowds you normally see up there.
We managed to return to the TR by 3:30 or so. We had a jolly good time. We were pleased to see Forest Gnome arranging some moose antlers in the back of his pickup truck. Forest Gnome regaled me with some stories of his moose studies. I took two pictures of him with one of his prize antlers which are quite flattering (even if his eyes are cloased in one of them). I'm posting them here. I hope he likes them.
Pics are here.
Last edited:
, sorry, but I had to do it. You understand, right 
