On March 8 I climbed Galehead and South Twin from Gale River Rd to finish a single- season winter round of the White Mountain 4000 footers. I started hiking on Jan. 25 with Owl’s Head and East Osceola/Osceola. I will be posting a list of the days/mountains with www.48in1winter.com so I won’t go into detail about the combinations. With the generally good weather I was able to combine peaks together efficiently to finish in a total of 18 hiking days. Procook131 and I teamed up for Cabot/Waumbek on Feb. 13 and also for a Zealand/Bonds traverse on Feb. 27. Otherwise, I was climbing solo. I am familiar with the Whites with almost two non-winter rounds completed over the last couple of years, but as most of us know, winter is different.
You’re probably wondering why someone would start a winter round at the end of January. It is because I completed a single-season winter round of the Adirondack 46 on Jan. 21. I live in the Adirondacks and started hiking Dec. 21st as usual. With the mild weather (which could have ended any time), I just kept going to an earlier than expected finish (my fastest ever). With time on my hands, or is it my feet (?), I thought this might be a good opportunity to work on my NH 48W list. I really had no plans to finish this year; I was just going out there to have fun. But when the weather continued to be so cooperative, I thought I might have a chance. There are a number of past and present hikers in the NY and NH hiking communities who were/are capable of completing both lists in a single season, but I don’t know if anyone has actually done it. I would be interested to hear if anyone knows of any single-season double list finishers. I expect it has been done before.
In 2009 I posted a comparison of non-winter rounds of the Whites vs. Adirondacks. The current attachment View attachment comp 46W+48W.pdf is a comparison of some highlights of my two recent winter rounds. As I concluded for the summer rounds, the overall degree of difficulty of climbing the Whites and Adirondacks in winter was very similar. The Whites involved more miles (274 mi vs. 256 mi) yet it was possible to do them in less time (118 hours vs. 126 hours) resulting in faster overall hiking rate. Although there are many contributing factors, I think the generally more moderate grades and better constructed trails in the Whites are important. In addition, the Adirondack herdpaths (and many of the marked trails) are rougher and slower to hike in any season. I have not shown altimeter data (because of inherent errors in winter altitude calculation), but it agrees with the summer data showing the Whites to have greater total ascent by about 13%. The bottom line is that, summer or winter, I can hike faster in the Whites than I can in the Adirondacks, and I conclude again:
The Whites are harder than the Adirondacks . . . but they’re easier!
You’re probably wondering why someone would start a winter round at the end of January. It is because I completed a single-season winter round of the Adirondack 46 on Jan. 21. I live in the Adirondacks and started hiking Dec. 21st as usual. With the mild weather (which could have ended any time), I just kept going to an earlier than expected finish (my fastest ever). With time on my hands, or is it my feet (?), I thought this might be a good opportunity to work on my NH 48W list. I really had no plans to finish this year; I was just going out there to have fun. But when the weather continued to be so cooperative, I thought I might have a chance. There are a number of past and present hikers in the NY and NH hiking communities who were/are capable of completing both lists in a single season, but I don’t know if anyone has actually done it. I would be interested to hear if anyone knows of any single-season double list finishers. I expect it has been done before.
In 2009 I posted a comparison of non-winter rounds of the Whites vs. Adirondacks. The current attachment View attachment comp 46W+48W.pdf is a comparison of some highlights of my two recent winter rounds. As I concluded for the summer rounds, the overall degree of difficulty of climbing the Whites and Adirondacks in winter was very similar. The Whites involved more miles (274 mi vs. 256 mi) yet it was possible to do them in less time (118 hours vs. 126 hours) resulting in faster overall hiking rate. Although there are many contributing factors, I think the generally more moderate grades and better constructed trails in the Whites are important. In addition, the Adirondack herdpaths (and many of the marked trails) are rougher and slower to hike in any season. I have not shown altimeter data (because of inherent errors in winter altitude calculation), but it agrees with the summer data showing the Whites to have greater total ascent by about 13%. The bottom line is that, summer or winter, I can hike faster in the Whites than I can in the Adirondacks, and I conclude again:
The Whites are harder than the Adirondacks . . . but they’re easier!
