J
Jay Meyer
Guest
Adrian K. and I managed to beat Sunday's storm on a quick trip up the rockpile via the Lion's Head Trail.
Trail conditions generally quite good. The Tuck's Trail has a lot of soft surface snow which requires a bit more effort on the way up but was a pleasure to slide through on our descent. The Lion's Head Trail is fully covered in deep snow, with a well-packed central trench and deep soft drifts on the side; the soft snow doesn't provide for very solid foot placements, and we were creating a lot of small sloughs on our way down (be kind to those below you) but for the most part it's easy going. Above treeline there is less snow than you might imagine; a lot of it must have blown away or melted in the past couple of weeks. The rocks are mostly filled in but you do need to pick your way through to stay on snow and in places there is a lot of hard ice which has refrozen from a thaw a couple of weeks ago.
Weather was interesting on Sunday. We knew a storm was coming in, so got an early start and tried to hustle to stay ahead of it. We actually got some obscured views of Boott Spur and across Pinkham Notch to Wildcat on our ascent, but those swiftly disappeared and by the time we were on the summit cone visibility was down to 100-200". Winds were not extreme (up to maybe 50 mph for a peak gust, 35-40 otherwise), and temperature was in the mid-teens.
We barebooted to the base of the steep on the Lion's Head Trail, used axes from there to treeline and above there switched back to poles but left the crampons.
Times: approx. 5 hrs. up, 1/2 hr. on top, 2.5 hrs. down.
Trail conditions generally quite good. The Tuck's Trail has a lot of soft surface snow which requires a bit more effort on the way up but was a pleasure to slide through on our descent. The Lion's Head Trail is fully covered in deep snow, with a well-packed central trench and deep soft drifts on the side; the soft snow doesn't provide for very solid foot placements, and we were creating a lot of small sloughs on our way down (be kind to those below you) but for the most part it's easy going. Above treeline there is less snow than you might imagine; a lot of it must have blown away or melted in the past couple of weeks. The rocks are mostly filled in but you do need to pick your way through to stay on snow and in places there is a lot of hard ice which has refrozen from a thaw a couple of weeks ago.
Weather was interesting on Sunday. We knew a storm was coming in, so got an early start and tried to hustle to stay ahead of it. We actually got some obscured views of Boott Spur and across Pinkham Notch to Wildcat on our ascent, but those swiftly disappeared and by the time we were on the summit cone visibility was down to 100-200". Winds were not extreme (up to maybe 50 mph for a peak gust, 35-40 otherwise), and temperature was in the mid-teens.
We barebooted to the base of the steep on the Lion's Head Trail, used axes from there to treeline and above there switched back to poles but left the crampons.
Times: approx. 5 hrs. up, 1/2 hr. on top, 2.5 hrs. down.
