Mats Roing
New member
Gang members:
Arm
MEB
Drewski
Melanie
Mats
Start and finish at 7 Dwarfs Motel TH
Photos can be seen at http://www.matsroing.com/ - look for "7 Dwarfs" gallery:
It was a tropical 8 degrees at 7:30am when three cars met up at the empty parking lot by the trailhead. Drewski, MEB and Melanie were going to go up Hale via Old Firewarden Trail and then come back down the same way. Arm and I had our eyes on the loop which includes Zealand and Twins. So the five of us started towards Hale together. Some confusion in the early stages since Arm and I took the trail instead of the road and we didn't know who were ahead when we arrived at the summer trailhead. Soon enough we found each other again and the trail had seen a shot deer (Drewski analyzed a fur sample) been dragged down the trail for the first 1/4 mile.
The brisk temps prevented us from taking too long breaks and a mile up the road Drewski shouted to me and Melanie that we missed the intersection and we turned around and followed the wise man up the trail. Don't remember all the conversations we had, but I don't think we had too many fist fights
After some shots of Mt. Washington and the crew we made it through the last Krumholz to the summit opening and the gigantic cairn. A lemon cake was consumed in honor of three birthdays: Arm, Meb and me who are born within 9 days (ignore the years). After a variety of gymnastic excercises including handstands with double boots and push-ups (see pix), we bid farewell and Arm and I continued on Lend a Hand trail, while Drewski, MEB and Melanie went back down to the cars at 7 Dwarfs. Lend a Hand hadn't seen any traffic for a while since the snow layer was untouched. We stopped and filled up water at a place which looked a bit more promising than the well on Carrigain
Slight excitement to cross the creek after taking the right turn up towards Zealand. At 2,800 feet a big Papa Moose and Mama Moose crossed the trail 100 feet in front of us. We continued up Twinway towards the Zeacliff which Arm went around to enjoy while I was sitting on a ledge chewing almonds trying to figure out if that storm of the century MattL talked about was going to materialize. On towards Zealand and Zeacliff Pond looked mighty frozen on our left as we passed. Weather still good and we went up the little staircase towards the first knoll which we determined was about the same height as Hale or maybe little higher. Great visibility here and also increased snow depth....no one had been on Twinway for a while it seemed.
Mt Zealand finally showed up and we continued down the saddle towards Guyot after volunteering for the mandatory pushups on the summit. Snow depth continued to get deeper and the going was getting slower. It took about 1hr20 min to make it to to Guyot from Zealand.....and that was fast compared to what was ahead of us....we hadn't even got halfway to South Twin before the headlamps went on. Why didn't we bring snowshoes Knee-deep in snow we continued our quest for South Twin. Arm mentioned something about the 20-mile stretch between Guyot and South Twin. It was after 5pm when we finally stood on the summit.....we saw footsteps in the snow for the first time since Hale! It continued to snow although it was clear visibility to all lit-up towns below.
Elated to see a somewhat stamped out trail to north Twin, we continued down to the col where we took another break to drink and eat.....trying to figure out how many 1,000 calories we were going to be in the hole today. After grunting up the little obstacles close to the North Twin Summit, the last summit of the day was made Our hopes to make it back increased drastically....and the descent started.....wondering how Little River would look like......around 8pm we came down to the river and we weren't excited of what we saw.....none of us had ever seen so much water in it before.....after 10 minutes of analyzing different routes we both made it to the "middle island". I went down with my right leg a bit over a foot....not too bad......but the next section looked worse.....only option was to go over a single log 4 feet above deep icy water......unclipped the packs in case we were going under.....I didn't take any photos from guyot until after we crossed Little River......we were in survival mode. A big relief after we made it across.......it still felt like a long way back to the summer trailhead and then to the car after close to 14 hours on the trail. Our stomachs screamed for meatball subs and pizza so we drove to Lincoln for replenishment Oh soo good......and then a shower and a bed....nirvana here we come!
Thanks Arm, MEB, Drewski, Melanie and the White Mountains for one of those trips that will be remembered
Arm
MEB
Drewski
Melanie
Mats
Start and finish at 7 Dwarfs Motel TH
Photos can be seen at http://www.matsroing.com/ - look for "7 Dwarfs" gallery:
It was a tropical 8 degrees at 7:30am when three cars met up at the empty parking lot by the trailhead. Drewski, MEB and Melanie were going to go up Hale via Old Firewarden Trail and then come back down the same way. Arm and I had our eyes on the loop which includes Zealand and Twins. So the five of us started towards Hale together. Some confusion in the early stages since Arm and I took the trail instead of the road and we didn't know who were ahead when we arrived at the summer trailhead. Soon enough we found each other again and the trail had seen a shot deer (Drewski analyzed a fur sample) been dragged down the trail for the first 1/4 mile.
The brisk temps prevented us from taking too long breaks and a mile up the road Drewski shouted to me and Melanie that we missed the intersection and we turned around and followed the wise man up the trail. Don't remember all the conversations we had, but I don't think we had too many fist fights
After some shots of Mt. Washington and the crew we made it through the last Krumholz to the summit opening and the gigantic cairn. A lemon cake was consumed in honor of three birthdays: Arm, Meb and me who are born within 9 days (ignore the years). After a variety of gymnastic excercises including handstands with double boots and push-ups (see pix), we bid farewell and Arm and I continued on Lend a Hand trail, while Drewski, MEB and Melanie went back down to the cars at 7 Dwarfs. Lend a Hand hadn't seen any traffic for a while since the snow layer was untouched. We stopped and filled up water at a place which looked a bit more promising than the well on Carrigain
Slight excitement to cross the creek after taking the right turn up towards Zealand. At 2,800 feet a big Papa Moose and Mama Moose crossed the trail 100 feet in front of us. We continued up Twinway towards the Zeacliff which Arm went around to enjoy while I was sitting on a ledge chewing almonds trying to figure out if that storm of the century MattL talked about was going to materialize. On towards Zealand and Zeacliff Pond looked mighty frozen on our left as we passed. Weather still good and we went up the little staircase towards the first knoll which we determined was about the same height as Hale or maybe little higher. Great visibility here and also increased snow depth....no one had been on Twinway for a while it seemed.
Mt Zealand finally showed up and we continued down the saddle towards Guyot after volunteering for the mandatory pushups on the summit. Snow depth continued to get deeper and the going was getting slower. It took about 1hr20 min to make it to to Guyot from Zealand.....and that was fast compared to what was ahead of us....we hadn't even got halfway to South Twin before the headlamps went on. Why didn't we bring snowshoes
Knee-deep in snow we continued our quest for South Twin. Arm mentioned something about the 20-mile stretch between Guyot and South Twin. It was after 5pm when we finally stood on the summit.....we saw footsteps in the snow for the first time since Hale! It continued to snow although it was clear visibility to all lit-up towns below. Elated to see a somewhat stamped out trail to north Twin, we continued down to the col where we took another break to drink and eat.....trying to figure out how many 1,000 calories we were going to be in the hole today. After grunting up the little obstacles close to the North Twin Summit, the last summit of the day was made
Our hopes to make it back increased drastically....and the descent started.....wondering how Little River would look like......around 8pm we came down to the river and we weren't excited of what we saw.....none of us had ever seen so much water in it before.....after 10 minutes of analyzing different routes we both made it to the "middle island". I went down with my right leg a bit over a foot....not too bad......but the next section looked worse.....only option was to go over a single log 4 feet above deep icy water......unclipped the packs in case we were going under.....I didn't take any photos from guyot until after we crossed Little River......we were in survival mode. A big relief after we made it across.......it still felt like a long way back to the summer trailhead and then to the car after close to 14 hours on the trail. Our stomachs screamed for meatball subs and pizza so we drove to Lincoln for replenishment Oh soo good......and then a shower and a bed....nirvana here we come!Thanks Arm, MEB, Drewski, Melanie and the White Mountains for one of those trips that will be remembered
