The Kinsmans 3/15/05

kltilton · Mar 23, 2005

The weather was looking pretty good when I woke up at 7AM in Plymouth, but it was a different story up in Franconia Notch. Driving up I-93 I could see that there was clouds and snow above 3000ft, but I’d run in worse conditions so I wasn’t concerned.

The Lonesome Lake Trail was well packed as usual, and the trip up to Lonesome Lake was pretty uneventful; a nice warm-up. The trail from the junction at the lake to the hut was filled in w/ drifted snow in spots, but manageable. I could see the hut across the lake so I knew that I would only be dealing with the snow closer to the Kinsman Ridge.

The Fishin’ Jimmy Trail was also well packed and deceiving at times. It dropped and lost quite a bit of elevation in spots, making me wonder if I was on the right trail if I wanted to climb the Kinsmans. After diving into a few gullies the trail got steep and speed hiking became the only option. After a few of those steep pitches the trail flattened out before hitting Kinsman Junction.

By now my head was in the clouds, literally, but the snow wasn’t coming down. The KRT was runnable in spots, but was also filled in with 6 foot snow drifts and low hanging spruce branches. There was a lot of snow here as many of the blazes were buried. I trucked my way up to the summit of North Kinsman in 1:10. The tracks pretty much stopped after the summit of North Kinsman, but I was determined to reach the South summit.

I reached what turned out to be a false summit, but after reading Dave Metsky’s trip report on his web page I knew that there should be a cairn on the summit, so I headed out, wet and cold, to find the pile of rocks. I found the summit in 1:35 and posed for a photo before I headed back home. The whole trip took me 2:43:38. No views but another great day.

Photos

adamiata · Mar 23, 2005

Nice trip report. I hiked the Kinsmans for my spring break the day before you in similar conditions. The trail was only broken out for a few hundred yards past North Kinsman, so you probably saw some of my tracks, though they were drifting over quickly in some spots.

I thought I'd reached the summit of South Kinsman but your pictures are making me think otherwise. I've attached a picture of what I thought to be the summit, does it look to you like the false summit you mentioned? I'm thinking I may have to go back to make sure I bag the South peak.

kltilton · Mar 24, 2005

adamiata,

That does look like the false summit that I found too. This is the photo that I saw on the White Mountain Server that made me keep going. It looks like the views are worth going back for though.

adamiata · Mar 24, 2005

Thanks for the info, ktilton. It was a good trip but I missed all the good views so I have no problem going back. Too bad I'll have to wait until next winter to get South Kinsman back on my winter 48 list. Oh well.

HikerBob · Mar 24, 2005

You know, I'd like to get the definitive answer to this as well. When Karen and I were up there back in July I swear the 'false summit', which is a small ledgy area off the trail to the left before the true (?) summit clearing with its larger cairn, appeared to be higher ground.

Photographs can be deceiving but THIS summit pic looks back up the trail and the false summit is in the scrubby hump in front of the distant Franconia Ridge.

The Topo! mapping software is based on old Topo maps and this is what is shows...

..the X highpoint is labelled with the mountains altitude and that sure looks like the earlier spot to me.

So, anybody have an authoratitive answer?

Bob

kltilton · Mar 24, 2005

HikerBob,

I believe the X on the map refers to the point that the surveyors used as a benchmark when surveying the area. Most of the time these points are at the highest point on a summit, but not always for unknown reasons.

I could not see the true summit from the false summit due to cloud cover, but something told me that I wasn't in the right spot. After 5-10 minutes I found the large cairn and figured I was there.