I usually take a three day vacation in the Whites in between the solstice and the new year, and that was the plan for this year. I had originally planned on hiking Madison on Wednesday, and other peaks I need for the winter NH4K list Thursday and Friday. Weather concerns, however, caused me to scale back my plans, and then gear failure caused me to scale back even more. I ended up hiking only one day, Wednesday. It was on mountains I'd already hiked in winter, but for that one day, at least, I had a real good hike.
I knew a storm was arriving late Thursday, but didn't know there would be enough snow to make driving hazardous on Wednesday morning, so I got to the trailhead later than I thought I would, but early enough to get to Middle Tripyramid, which, as some of you know, is one of my favorite mountains. If I calculated correctly, this was my twelfth time on Middle Tripyramid, and my tenth on North.
I went out and back by Pine Bend Brook Trail. At the trailhead I met another hiker also about to do the same hike, and she said, "Are you Cumulus?". It was Early Bird, whom I'd met last July when we both were doing trail magic for the GMC. We hiked together for a while, but eventually she got ahead of me. We cross paths again just north of the Sabbaday Brook Trail intersection when I was headed south and she was headed north.
The trail was well packed snow. I was on snowshoes all day, but they weren't really necessary, and in fact many of the people I met didn't have them (although some sort of traction was needed). It didn't snow while I was on the trail, but it was cloudy and viewless until I got back to North Tripyramid on the return trip, when it cleared up enough to see some of the surrounding mountains.
Unfortunately, in between my second time on the North summit and the part of the trail which follows the ridge my right snowshoe came apart. The crampon part of it was still securely attached to my boot, but the floatation part was not connected to it. I didn't really need it, since the trail was so packed down, but with a snow storm arriving Thursday this convinced me to cancel the rest of the trip and drive home early Thursday before the storm.
So it wasn't what I'd planned, or even what I'd originally revised my plans to, and I didn't bag any peaks for any list I'm working on, but I had a good full day in the mountains, and summited one of my favorite peaks, so it was definitely worth the trip.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 49/115 (38/67, 11/46, 0/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 39/48; NEHH 84/100
LT NB 2009
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
I knew a storm was arriving late Thursday, but didn't know there would be enough snow to make driving hazardous on Wednesday morning, so I got to the trailhead later than I thought I would, but early enough to get to Middle Tripyramid, which, as some of you know, is one of my favorite mountains. If I calculated correctly, this was my twelfth time on Middle Tripyramid, and my tenth on North.
I went out and back by Pine Bend Brook Trail. At the trailhead I met another hiker also about to do the same hike, and she said, "Are you Cumulus?". It was Early Bird, whom I'd met last July when we both were doing trail magic for the GMC. We hiked together for a while, but eventually she got ahead of me. We cross paths again just north of the Sabbaday Brook Trail intersection when I was headed south and she was headed north.
The trail was well packed snow. I was on snowshoes all day, but they weren't really necessary, and in fact many of the people I met didn't have them (although some sort of traction was needed). It didn't snow while I was on the trail, but it was cloudy and viewless until I got back to North Tripyramid on the return trip, when it cleared up enough to see some of the surrounding mountains.
Unfortunately, in between my second time on the North summit and the part of the trail which follows the ridge my right snowshoe came apart. The crampon part of it was still securely attached to my boot, but the floatation part was not connected to it. I didn't really need it, since the trail was so packed down, but with a snow storm arriving Thursday this convinced me to cancel the rest of the trip and drive home early Thursday before the storm.
So it wasn't what I'd planned, or even what I'd originally revised my plans to, and I didn't bag any peaks for any list I'm working on, but I had a good full day in the mountains, and summited one of my favorite peaks, so it was definitely worth the trip.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 49/115 (38/67, 11/46, 0/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 39/48; NEHH 84/100
LT NB 2009
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
