The joys of winter hiking.

[Neil]

Last year was my first winter hiking season and I managed not only to stay alive and keep all of my fingers and toes but I had a helluva lot of fun and bagged about 10 ADK high peaks to boot.

1-Favourite moment: sitting atop Phelps with Hillman1 in the brilliant sunshine yucking it up for over an hour.
2-Toughest: 15 hours of non-stop travelling in the Sewards to only get Donaldson in chilly weather (Hi Rik! I hear you now! LOL).
3-Coldest: Minus 25C at noon on Colvin with Spaddock last January. Brrrr.
4-Craziest: OK it wasn't solar winter but 3 of us took off on a crazy trek up Calkins to summit Seward for Eric's 46th last April. How does 4 feet of rotten spring snow sound?
5-Warmest: February on Allen. Short sleeve shirts on the summit in blazing sunshine. Oh yeah!

What are your memories?

 

[carole]

What are your memories?

Do you want my whole book or just a summary of the copywrited material?

 

[sapblatt]

Please keep the stories coming...I am looking forward to my first winter of hiking!!! I have done a lot of the rotten snow crap...looking forward to the cold!!

 

[Tom Rankin]

Last year was my first winter hiking season and I managed not only to stay alive and keep all of my fingers and toes but I had a helluva lot of fun and bagged about 10 ADK high peaks to boot. What are your memories?

Well, so far, I've got 21 up there and 2 'down here' (Slide and Hunter).

Cascade should have been very easy (and it was the warmest), but read
this!

Coldest so far was Whiteface, about -20 F when we started.

2 most exhilirating:

Helping a friend
Gothics

Toughest - Dix/Hough with a hip flexor problem!

 

[MEB]

I am so looking forward to winter hiking!

Here are some of my highlights from last year.

Favorite: Spending over an hour on the summit of Bondcliff with my sister.
Toughest: Skimom's #48 on Carrigain...it snowed all day long and we had to break trail the whole way!
Coldest: Waumbek in January. -17 at the trailhead.
Craziest: Carrigian again...it took us over 7 hours to summit that day!
Warmest: Whiteface in January. I think it topped out around 50 degress or so.

-MEB

 

[dr_wu002]

I am so looking forward to winter hiking!

Here are some of my highlights from last year.

Favorite: Spending over an hour on the summit of Boncliff with my sister.
Toughest: Skimom's #48 on Carrigain...it snowed all day long and we had to break trail the whole way!
Coldest: Waumbek in January. -17 at the trailhead.
Craziest: Carrigian again...it took us over 7 hours to summit that day!
Warmest: Whiteface in January. I think it topped out around 50 degress or so.

-MEB

Nice! You voted for one of my hikes!!!!!! But that was an easy day.

Favorite: Moosilauke with Tom W (Dalraida) on a beautiful, weekday in Feb. Going down the Carriage Road on our Swiss Bobsleds.
Toughest: I don't know.
Coldest: Waumbek in January (with MEB). -17 at the trailhead.
Craziest: BW'ing Clough with Eric (Barbarossa). We decided to hike in the nood. It was cold and I had frostbite everywhere.
Warmest: Easy -- BlackHead/Dome in the Catskills with JayH. Temp's reached almost 100. The parking lot was frozen in the morning but was red mud in the afternoon. It got everywhere and the mud is still all over in my car.
Nicest: Carrigain, all by myself on a beautiful day. Little Mt. Pemigewasset in a snow storm. Hancock in January -- first VFTT Hike, met Dalraida & SK.

-Dr. Wu

 

[poison ivy]

I too can't wait for winter -- Glissades, here I come! Still have plenty of 4Ks to do for winter... I've only done 15 so far... I end up turning around a lot more in winter than actually standing on summits.

Highlights:
Favorite: Hancocks ... my favorite glissading peaks. Garfield is a close second because I had my best winter views there on the last day of winter last year.

Toughest: Hale, believe it or not. HikerBob & I took turns breaking trail through snow so sticky it was balling up under our skis on Zealand Rd. And this was just supposed to be our warm-up hike... we wisely canceled our plans for the following day after that nightmare.

Coldest: -15 degrees at Crawford Notch trailhead... only snowshoed up to Mt. Willard and called it a day. One of my friends has refused to hike with me since... guess it was too cold for a first hike!

Warmest: Definitely Whiteface in January... I will never forget poor bpschroder wearing his toaster pants in 50 degree weather without a single complaint.

Craziest: I try not to do too many crazy things in winter. Probably the craziest thing I did was drive up to NH two days in a row for winter hikes (Pierce on a Saturday and Hancocks on a Sunday) in order to pick up different hiking companions back in Mass.

- Ivy

 

[Chip]

It wasn't the coldest (it was about 20 that night) or most difficult (relatively short hike to where we based) but my fondest winter memory (so far) is from my youngest sons first winter outing early last March after a good snowfall.
I fell asleep after playing cards, watching him play his game-boy - warm, dry and quite happy in my "good" bag.

 

[paul ron]

Told you so!

Isn't that what everyone has been tellin ya all these years?

 

[mavs00]

Pictures worth a 1000 words......

2005 Winter High - Running into a half naked Post'r boy on the summit of Algonquin in late December.

2005 Winter Low - Running into a half naked Post'r boy on the summit of Algonquin in late December.

BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SteveHiker]

it all sounds very cool. So who's going to take me out on my first one?

don't all put your hands up at once!

 

[Rick]

After a hiatus of about 6-7 years from doing any winter peaks (except Wachusett numerous times, Mondanock in February and Moosilauke in winter conditions), I am soooo looking forward to getting out this winter. I have 16 ADKs done for my winter round and am looking to crank up the heat this year to work on a dozen more.
Things I cannot wait for are things like
the drop dead silence of a bitter cold morning,
The sounds of tree trunks cracking (exploding) in bitter cold,
The tast of Yukon Jack and Cherry Jello at night,
(and then again in the morning turning my oatmeal bright red )
Getting up to pee 4 times between 7:45 PM and 6AM
The Bitter wind on Marcy and Whiteface freezin my eyelids together
Giant 15' snowshoe strides as you foot glissade down steep trails
No PEOPLE, No BUGS and No MUD!!!!

 

[dr_wu002]

2005 Winter High - Running into a half naked Post'r boy on the summit of Algonquin in late December.

2005 Winter Low - Running into a half naked Post'r boy on the summit of Algonquin in late December.

Tim, I know I've seen that photo before. And ah yes, I have!

-Dr. Wu

 

[spaddock]

Winter was a blast last year. Hoping to be recovered for this winter's fun!

1-Favourite moment: cross country skiing down Whiteface with Neil & Dom fastest decent ever.
2-Toughest: Upper Wolfjaw, first peak after an ankle sprain, plan was to do Lower, Upper, Gothics, and Armstrong, packs were heavy, got down to -22C overnight and only got the one.
3-Coldest: Minus 25C at noon on Colvin with Neil last January. Brrrr. But the sun was fantastic!
4-Craziest: Doing Couch and Santa in a Day after doing Tabletop/Phelps the day before and having fresh snow.
5-Warmest: I don't remember a warm one.


-Shayne

 

[mavs00]

Tim, I know I've seen that photo before. And ah yes, I have!

-Dr. Wu

My children still occasionally wake up screaming Can you -BLAME EM-

Actually it was an altogether fitting and great time to bump into ARM again, and meet the infamous Post'r Boy. Let alone Frodo, Chickedee the rest of the gang.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

1) Dunno what was my favorite. Maybe doing Saddleback to Lower Wolfjaw in a few hours, one BEAUTIFUL day.
2) Toughest. Easy. That was the day I woke up from sleeping in my car, and I was sick. Miriam came along and said, "I want to do the Sewards, but want someone to come with me. Lets go." Advice: Don't do the Sewards when you are throwing up.
3) Coldest. Dunno, because I never measure temperatures. Also, windy +10F can be a killer, while calm -20F can be nice. Coldest I ever felt was probably commuting by bicycle, not hiking.
4) Craziest? Maybe sking up Whiteface with my 15 year old son, under a full moon with Wayne R, to complete his midnight full moon hikes.... Or maybe starting a winter hike at 2:00AM, to finish just before the limit... or maybe... Uhhh, can't tell about that one in a public forum.

 

[bobandgeri]

Last Winter was our first year - we did a bunch of Winter hikes - 20 of them! We are looking forward to hopefully finishing the other 28 this Winter.

SteveHiker - Maybe you would like to join us on Dec 21 and hike Mt Pierce!

Sapblatt - You hiked last Winter - remember Moriah ???? We do :> :> :>


Favorite: Francoina Ridge on Feb 5 with Sherpa John on the Guy Waterman Memorial Hike. A photo I took was published in a newspaper.

Toughest: Skimom's #48 on Carrigain. It snowed 15 inches during the day, not counting the 3+ feet of untracked snow already on the ground

Coldest: Seema's #48 on Moosilauke. It was -13 at the start - but warmed up quickly.

Craziest: Waumbek - we started our hike at 12:30 AM on the last day of Winter - just because!

Warmest: Franconia Ridge on Feb 5th - had to have hit 50.

Nicest: Seema's #48 on Moosilauke - we got to hike with Adam (13) and Beth (10) Sikes. The fun they were having was contagious!

 

[Jay H]

Favorite: One winter I did a solo hike to Slide Mountain from Denning, fresh tracks, up the Curtis Ormsbee... Beautiful!

Toughest: Vly and Bearpen one March/April(?) Temp was cold but it rained instead of snow.. nothings worse than a cold rain in winter.

Coldest: I have no idea, I have a thermometer on my backpack but not my day pack so typically I don't know the coldest temp... I know the coldest temp I've ever biked to work in was 4degF. Had two layers of pants and used ski goggles over my eye and my head gaitor of course..

Craziest: I'm not crazy so I can't really say I've hiked in crazy weather but I've biked to work in a good 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow on the roads.. I was afraid of getting creamed by some idiot in an SUV that day. Off road, the trails were a good 6" of fresh powder and it was hard to make progress with my spiked tires. My studded Nokians need ice. not snow! I don't have tire chains for my bike yet.

Warmest: Ha, I might have to add Dr. Wu's and I's hike on Blackhead, I agree that was crazy warm, but as I don't have a thermometer, I don't know if that was the warmest... and I'm sure there are some warm days in December where it's calander winter...

Jay

 

[Nadine]

Last winter was the first time I ever summitted a 4k peak in the winter. I 've dabbled in backcounty ski mountaineering the last few years, but never really got into winter hiking. So my tally was Katahdin and Hamlin last febuary. I hope to bag a few more peaks this winter, If I can hook up with some other interested folks.

Most memorable: All 10 of us summitting Katahdin and Hamlin
Craziest: Sleeping on Chimney Pond in my +20 bag (after sneaking by the ranger cabin)
and skiing Anxiety Attack Couloir in the Grand Montets, Chamonix.

 

[MattS]

Last winter was my first winter hiking and I quickly became addicted. Thanks AMC Winter Hiking Program! I hiked several times and hit four 4000'ers in NH (Passaconaway, Washington, and the Kinsman).
Best Hike/Most Memorable: All of them!
The other day I was looking over at my winter hiking boots and noticed how lonely they were, but I assured them that they would soon have some fun.




Matt