I wrote winter in my post, and I am not sure what KRooney is thinking about “any season,” to which I do not agree given the short 2.5-mile approach and only 2700 ft elevation from J Notch Road to Jefferson when plowed.Interesting. I've always considered it one of the easier peaks. I mean, you can start your ascent at 3000 ft when the road is open and you reach treeline quickly. My first ascent of Jefferson started at the Great Gulf shelters and proceeded up the Six Husbands. Now that was interesting to a young hiker
I do remember seeing KRooney’s tracks diverting to the south near the top of the slide on Owls Head on a descent that winter for what I later learned they had established as the Brutus Rooney bushwhack, after walking right by their tracks at the base thinking that those tracks would not lead anywhere.
It was about that time when a friend and I brought two surveying altimeters to the summit ridge of Owls Head to confirm that the “old summit”sign was about 10-15 ft lower than the true summit another quarter mile to the north. My guess is that many now walk right by without noticing the tree with nails still embedded in it from the sign since removed, as have been signs from nearly all summits in the Whites, except for Zealand, of course.
I misspoke earlier when I suggested that the Hancocks in winter were approached as a multi-day trip from Lincoln Woods, as back then the plowing stopped on the Kanc at about where the entrance to Loon Mountain ski area is today. Back then the Underhillls and others climbed Owls Head in winter by ascending Lafayette and dropping down the Lincoln slide to Lincoln Brook, then after ascending and descending Owls Head slide had to ascend to Franconia Ridge again on the way out.
Six Husbands to Jefferson has been done in the winter and no question that is one tough route, especially during winter.
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