NorthShore
Member
This was mostly a ski as opposed to a hike, but it was an interesting day for me and I was in the mood to write a trip report.
I’m not an accomplished back country skier and this seemed a good way to challenge myself without getting too crazy. The route was a loop from Pinkham Notch consisting primarily of Old Jackson Road (OJR), the Auto Road, and the Connie’s Way ski trail. I used waxless skis, no skins. I don’t own and have never used skins but I can see how they would be useful and more comfortable on steeper climbs.
Old Jackson Road from Pinkham was firmly packed and bare-bootable if you stayed in the snowshoe track. For skiing, it’s a bit tricky to herringbone up the steep section because of the narrowness of the packed hiking trail, but it was an interesting way to gain over 600 feet in elevation for this novice. Shortly before the end of Old Jackson Road there is a cutoff shortcut to the Auto Road, but I stayed on the trail to the end. I had to take my skis off for a couple of ledges and hiked the last couple of tenths of a mile past the Raymond Path and Nelson Crag trail junctions to the auto road at about 2700 feet. There is a nice little evergreen forest just before reaching the end of OJR.
I met a fairly large group of hikers crossing back over the Auto Road after having visited Lowes Bald Spot. From there it is about 1.5 miles and 800 vertical feet down the Auto Road to intersection of Connie’s Way. The road is frozen hard in a washboard pattern from the snow cats used by the Auto Road/ Great Glen Trails people, but still provided a good long downhill ski to Connie’s Way. There was a narrow frozen track down the middle of the road that was either formed by a very long schuss on skinny skis or more likely by something dangling from a tractor that gouged it. Either way I noticed that I had to be careful to cut assertively across it on my turns or it had a habit of grabbing a ski and not letting it go. I wasn’t in any mood to schuss the auto road. I started a little tentatively in a snow plow, but soon realized I could make halfway decent parallel turns and quick stops despite the free heel (stuff I take for granted on my Alpine skis).
Toward Connie’s Way there were some bare spots on the Auto Road that weren’t difficult to go around; everywhere else I was on this loop there was full snow cover, but not necessarily enough to cover up obstacles, especially on the ski trail back to Pinkham.
For someone who is a better skier than me, Connie’s Way might be more fun than I had for the first mile and a half from the auto road. There were some old frozen ski tracks, but probably not recent and the snow was very hard, often with a breakable crust. There was enough snow for the deep postholes from one or more Moose that were everywhere, but not enough on the trail to be a real problem. There was not enough snow to cover the brush on the sides of the narrow trail and that was more of a problem. There wasn’t room to turn on the downhills or to make a wide enough “V” on steeper uphills without getting my skis hung up in brush. A few times when I opted to sidestep up or down my tails broke through the crust which then wanted to hold them tight. I was alone and didn’t want to get hurt, so I got very cautious and I noticed it was taking a long time. A couple of times I took the skis off and walked over difficult sections but soon got to areas where I was clearly better off with the skis back on. I think I should have been more eager to get the skis off for short sections earlier.
In addition the Moose postholes, there were lots of other tracks following the ski trail, including more than one coyote, at least one of which seemed quite large from the footprints. I wasn’t sure if someone had skied there with their dog, but I did see some hairy scat at one point. Aside from the tough time I had on the ski trail, which I attribute both to my skill level and to difficult conditions, it passes through some interesting terrain, hemmed in under cliffs to the right in places and with an ever changing view of the Wildcat ski area frequently visible on the left. Once roughly abreast of the ski area the trail got a lot friendlier and the last mile and a half back to Pinkham was a much nicer ski, but the mile and a half before that was slow and tiring for me. It will be nice to get out on some soft snow…if there is such a thing anymore.
I’m not an accomplished back country skier and this seemed a good way to challenge myself without getting too crazy. The route was a loop from Pinkham Notch consisting primarily of Old Jackson Road (OJR), the Auto Road, and the Connie’s Way ski trail. I used waxless skis, no skins. I don’t own and have never used skins but I can see how they would be useful and more comfortable on steeper climbs.
Old Jackson Road from Pinkham was firmly packed and bare-bootable if you stayed in the snowshoe track. For skiing, it’s a bit tricky to herringbone up the steep section because of the narrowness of the packed hiking trail, but it was an interesting way to gain over 600 feet in elevation for this novice. Shortly before the end of Old Jackson Road there is a cutoff shortcut to the Auto Road, but I stayed on the trail to the end. I had to take my skis off for a couple of ledges and hiked the last couple of tenths of a mile past the Raymond Path and Nelson Crag trail junctions to the auto road at about 2700 feet. There is a nice little evergreen forest just before reaching the end of OJR.
I met a fairly large group of hikers crossing back over the Auto Road after having visited Lowes Bald Spot. From there it is about 1.5 miles and 800 vertical feet down the Auto Road to intersection of Connie’s Way. The road is frozen hard in a washboard pattern from the snow cats used by the Auto Road/ Great Glen Trails people, but still provided a good long downhill ski to Connie’s Way. There was a narrow frozen track down the middle of the road that was either formed by a very long schuss on skinny skis or more likely by something dangling from a tractor that gouged it. Either way I noticed that I had to be careful to cut assertively across it on my turns or it had a habit of grabbing a ski and not letting it go. I wasn’t in any mood to schuss the auto road. I started a little tentatively in a snow plow, but soon realized I could make halfway decent parallel turns and quick stops despite the free heel (stuff I take for granted on my Alpine skis).
Toward Connie’s Way there were some bare spots on the Auto Road that weren’t difficult to go around; everywhere else I was on this loop there was full snow cover, but not necessarily enough to cover up obstacles, especially on the ski trail back to Pinkham.
For someone who is a better skier than me, Connie’s Way might be more fun than I had for the first mile and a half from the auto road. There were some old frozen ski tracks, but probably not recent and the snow was very hard, often with a breakable crust. There was enough snow for the deep postholes from one or more Moose that were everywhere, but not enough on the trail to be a real problem. There was not enough snow to cover the brush on the sides of the narrow trail and that was more of a problem. There wasn’t room to turn on the downhills or to make a wide enough “V” on steeper uphills without getting my skis hung up in brush. A few times when I opted to sidestep up or down my tails broke through the crust which then wanted to hold them tight. I was alone and didn’t want to get hurt, so I got very cautious and I noticed it was taking a long time. A couple of times I took the skis off and walked over difficult sections but soon got to areas where I was clearly better off with the skis back on. I think I should have been more eager to get the skis off for short sections earlier.
In addition the Moose postholes, there were lots of other tracks following the ski trail, including more than one coyote, at least one of which seemed quite large from the footprints. I wasn’t sure if someone had skied there with their dog, but I did see some hairy scat at one point. Aside from the tough time I had on the ski trail, which I attribute both to my skill level and to difficult conditions, it passes through some interesting terrain, hemmed in under cliffs to the right in places and with an ever changing view of the Wildcat ski area frequently visible on the left. Once roughly abreast of the ski area the trail got a lot friendlier and the last mile and a half back to Pinkham was a much nicer ski, but the mile and a half before that was slow and tiring for me. It will be nice to get out on some soft snow…if there is such a thing anymore.
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