hikersinger
Member
Final route & conditions:
- Appalachia/Valley Way to AMC Madison Spring hut (packed powder all the way)
- Osgood trail up to Mt. Madison summit and back to hut (some drifts, packed granular, a little rock hopping)
- Gulfside to Airline, up to Mt. Adams summit (some drifts, packed granular, some rock hopping)
- Lowe's Path to Gulfside [same as above]
- Gulfside toward Jefferson (deeper snow drifts)
- did entire trip in microspikes, no real need for snowshoes or crampons
- started 08:30, returned about 16:30
A year to the day since Adventurous and others, BIGEarl and Trail Trotter, and ThomasC hiked the northern Presi's in conditions very unfitting of winter, a friend of mine (BKutuk) and I looked to repeat Adventurous' bold and glorious trip from Madison all the way down to Adams. I was originally planning on Madison, Adams, and Jefferson, but Baha was hoping we could add Washington and Monroe if we made good time.
We certainly knew the conditions this year were to be starkly different, however, so our expectations were set quite a bit lower. If we could make it all the way to Monroe, more power to us; otherwise, we had many outs and would be realistic. Well, we had to be realistic alright.
The hike up Valley Way to the hut was simple and uneventful, packed powder all the way up, until we encountered a bit of snowdrift along the flatter stretch before the hut. Partly sunny at the bottom, but ended up with lower visibility by the time we were in sight of the hut. No real wind until we came up above treeline, when we encountered what must have been at least 20-30mph sustained winds.
We looked in vain for the shelter under the hut where we could stash our packs, but it must have been covered by drifts (didn't help that we didn't know where the entrance was). We assume it wasn't the tiny building just northwest of the hut proper?
We left our packs along the eastern side of the hut and ascended Madison. Nearly all the way up we encountered strong winds, must have been 30-40mph sustained, with higher gusts. The summit and surrounding area was extremely windy as expected, with basically no visibility. Videos:
[video]https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151528257018729[/video]
[video]https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151136084539567[/video]
We descended back to the hut, a quite comfortable place compared to the summit cone. Had a bite to eat, then continued via Gulfside to Air Line, and up to the Adams summit. It was pretty tiring work, attempting to keep your balance while staying on trail. Not much exposed rock, and little snow drift once you get beyond the area around the hut. We enjoyed some pretty nice views at the junction of Air Line and Gulfside, though the wind there was extremely strong since it was coming up the ravine.
The Adams summit was similar to Madison condition-wise; didn't linger long there. Headed down Lowe's Path, where we almost veered a bit off-trail due to low visibility. Found our way to Gulfside, where we continued south. For a short time the going was relatively easy, despite snow drifts of up to 1.5 feet; cairns spaced relatively close made the route easy to follow in the low visibility.
But perhaps 400-500 feet along Gulfside, the cairns appeared to just stop, with nothing in front of us but a field of snowdrift, with lower scrub on either side. Visibility no more than 100 feet or so. We continued for a bit, but couldn't find our way. We ventured to the right of the trail, then used GPS with terrain/trail maps on my phone to realize we were off-trail. We got back on trail, but soon got off-trail again as we tried to find the next cairn.
Returning back to the trail one more time, we decided to continue straight down what we thought was the trail until we could find a cairn. But not long after, we came to the realization that without our map it would be risky to continue. (The map had blown right out of my pocket earlier - it was a photocopy inside a clear plastic page protector I kept in my pants pocket.) Snowdrifts along the trail were making the going slow and laborious, and continued high winds and very low temperatures were making it hard to avoid frostbite on fingertips as we checked the GPS map. It was obviously getting silly.
So we decided to turn around and return the way we came, since we still had those bearings -- it was the only "known" in what had become a large unknown in front of us.
We got back down to the trailhead by 4:30, safe and sound, with just a bit of very mild frostbite on fingertips and a bit of cold burn under my eyes (goggles were icing up so I'd take them off and wind would cause my eyes to water, and the water would freeze along the top of my balaclava).
A great experience, despite the adversity above treeline. Learned lots! Photos I could manage to take, here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151141016844567.1073741825.570654566&type=1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528116018729.1073741828.564193728&type=3
Erik Bertrand
"hikersinger"
- NH 48 3-season (Fall 2012)
- AMC member
- Zeacliff Trail co-adopter (2012-present)
- working on the NE 100 3-season, and NH 48 in winter
- Appalachia/Valley Way to AMC Madison Spring hut (packed powder all the way)
- Osgood trail up to Mt. Madison summit and back to hut (some drifts, packed granular, a little rock hopping)
- Gulfside to Airline, up to Mt. Adams summit (some drifts, packed granular, some rock hopping)
- Lowe's Path to Gulfside [same as above]
- Gulfside toward Jefferson (deeper snow drifts)
- did entire trip in microspikes, no real need for snowshoes or crampons
- started 08:30, returned about 16:30
A year to the day since Adventurous and others, BIGEarl and Trail Trotter, and ThomasC hiked the northern Presi's in conditions very unfitting of winter, a friend of mine (BKutuk) and I looked to repeat Adventurous' bold and glorious trip from Madison all the way down to Adams. I was originally planning on Madison, Adams, and Jefferson, but Baha was hoping we could add Washington and Monroe if we made good time.
We certainly knew the conditions this year were to be starkly different, however, so our expectations were set quite a bit lower. If we could make it all the way to Monroe, more power to us; otherwise, we had many outs and would be realistic. Well, we had to be realistic alright.
The hike up Valley Way to the hut was simple and uneventful, packed powder all the way up, until we encountered a bit of snowdrift along the flatter stretch before the hut. Partly sunny at the bottom, but ended up with lower visibility by the time we were in sight of the hut. No real wind until we came up above treeline, when we encountered what must have been at least 20-30mph sustained winds.
We looked in vain for the shelter under the hut where we could stash our packs, but it must have been covered by drifts (didn't help that we didn't know where the entrance was). We assume it wasn't the tiny building just northwest of the hut proper?
We left our packs along the eastern side of the hut and ascended Madison. Nearly all the way up we encountered strong winds, must have been 30-40mph sustained, with higher gusts. The summit and surrounding area was extremely windy as expected, with basically no visibility. Videos:
[video]https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151528257018729[/video]
[video]https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151136084539567[/video]
We descended back to the hut, a quite comfortable place compared to the summit cone. Had a bite to eat, then continued via Gulfside to Air Line, and up to the Adams summit. It was pretty tiring work, attempting to keep your balance while staying on trail. Not much exposed rock, and little snow drift once you get beyond the area around the hut. We enjoyed some pretty nice views at the junction of Air Line and Gulfside, though the wind there was extremely strong since it was coming up the ravine.
The Adams summit was similar to Madison condition-wise; didn't linger long there. Headed down Lowe's Path, where we almost veered a bit off-trail due to low visibility. Found our way to Gulfside, where we continued south. For a short time the going was relatively easy, despite snow drifts of up to 1.5 feet; cairns spaced relatively close made the route easy to follow in the low visibility.
But perhaps 400-500 feet along Gulfside, the cairns appeared to just stop, with nothing in front of us but a field of snowdrift, with lower scrub on either side. Visibility no more than 100 feet or so. We continued for a bit, but couldn't find our way. We ventured to the right of the trail, then used GPS with terrain/trail maps on my phone to realize we were off-trail. We got back on trail, but soon got off-trail again as we tried to find the next cairn.
Returning back to the trail one more time, we decided to continue straight down what we thought was the trail until we could find a cairn. But not long after, we came to the realization that without our map it would be risky to continue. (The map had blown right out of my pocket earlier - it was a photocopy inside a clear plastic page protector I kept in my pants pocket.) Snowdrifts along the trail were making the going slow and laborious, and continued high winds and very low temperatures were making it hard to avoid frostbite on fingertips as we checked the GPS map. It was obviously getting silly.
So we decided to turn around and return the way we came, since we still had those bearings -- it was the only "known" in what had become a large unknown in front of us.
We got back down to the trailhead by 4:30, safe and sound, with just a bit of very mild frostbite on fingertips and a bit of cold burn under my eyes (goggles were icing up so I'd take them off and wind would cause my eyes to water, and the water would freeze along the top of my balaclava).
A great experience, despite the adversity above treeline. Learned lots! Photos I could manage to take, here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151141016844567.1073741825.570654566&type=1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528116018729.1073741828.564193728&type=3
Erik Bertrand
"hikersinger"
- NH 48 3-season (Fall 2012)
- AMC member
- Zeacliff Trail co-adopter (2012-present)
- working on the NE 100 3-season, and NH 48 in winter
