Mt. Whiteface - 5/20/15

It was another really nice Wednesday afternoon in the mountains.  Needing all individual peaks requiring individual hikes this months, Whiteface was my next target. The temperatures were comfortable to start, but once some elevation was gained, a cool breeze dropped temperatures low enough to see my breath.  This seemed strange because it was really sunny and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  It was a fun and fast climb to the summit, reaching it in just over an hour from the Ferncroft parking lot.  It had been a long time while since I ascended the Blueberry Ledge Trail, and it was just beautiful and peaceful to have this pretty trail to myself on this crisp and clear May day.  After a snap shot on the summit, and another very short break near the ledges, I was down the mountain with quickness, finishing the hike in two hours and forty nine minutes.  Next, I would be off to hike Mt Carrigain.

Trail Junction on the Blueberry Ledge Trail

View southwest-ish from the ledge on Mt. Whiteface  

Easterly view with Mt. Passaconaway and Chocoura

Whiteface Summit 

Whiteface Summit - 9th Round

Highlights:

Whiteface - 9th Round
Crisp air, beautiful clear views
Did not see another person.

Trail Conditions:
The route was free of snow and ice all of the way to the summit, and water bars have been raked out recently. Down low, moose droppings were spotted.

No snow or ice remaining on this route 

Recent trail work (waterbar cleaning) 

Moose activity

Hike Stats
Trails: Blueberry Ledge Trail, Rollins Trail

Distance: 7.4 miles

Elevation Gain: 3,066 ft.

Actual Book Time: 2:49
Garmin Adventure Link
Photo Album Link

Sandwich Range Traverse - 4/26/15

Had a really nice hike on the Sandwich Range this weekend, joined by Rich aka "Greenleaf" for the occasion.  It has been one of the most challenging months (in terms of my goals) in the last few years of hiking for me, having reached 34 4,000-footers in the month of April.  I was pleased to have such a pleasant day on the range.  It was pretty quiet and peaceful, and the trail stories from the AT, PCT, and others from Greenleaf were intriguing all along the way.

Pine Bend Brook

Making the way up the steep section on Pine Bend Brook

Temperatures were overall pretty comfortable. We would switch from t-shirts to light jackets several times.  The clouds were just above the summits of the Tripyramids so it was cool when we hit the ridge in the morning.  The clouds dissipated somewhat from there, despite a forecast of possible rain in the afternoon, and from the point of reaching the South Tripyramid Slide until the end we had mostly good views when you see them and just a few random sprinkles along the way.

View from North Tripyramid 

View from Middle Tripyramid 

View from the South Slide 

View from Passaconaway

It's always nice to meet those who follow my blog on the trail. Pleasure to meet Greg and Erica. Thank you for following and sharing your compliments. Happy Trails!

Highlights:
Tripyramids - 9th Round
Whiteface & Passaconaway - 8th Round
"Gridded" out April on Passaconaway.

Trail Conditions:
The entire length of the hike had a very stable monorail, slowly deteriorating. There were lots of post holes to avoid, but the hard surface made it mostly pleasant. We bare-booted to the steepness on Pine Bend Brook, then used microspikes all of the way until we reached bare ground on the Dicey's Mill Trail near the Tom Wiggin Junction. There were a few other miscellaneous bare spots along the way. Snowshoes got a ride on the back all day.

Hike Stats

Trails: Pine Bend Brook Trail, Mt. Tripyramid Trail, Kate Sleeper Trail, Rollins Trail, Dicey's Mill Trail

Distance: 15 miles

Elevation Gain: 5,443 ft.

Actual Book Time: 7:56
Garmin Adventure
Photo Album Link

W48-in-1: Sandwich Range Traverse - 12/22/12

To say that the first hike of the winter was a challenge, would be an understatement. This one had its good and bad, and  little bit of what winter hiking is all about. It was snow showering for all thirteen and half hours, and my water was frozen pretty quickly. This was a solo Sandwich Range traverse over the Tripyramids, Whiteface, and Passaconaway on December 22nd.  I was hiking the Tripyramids for the first time solo, and Whiteface and Passaconaway for the first time in winter.

Thanks to my dad for the ride from Ferncroft, where I left my car, to the Kanc. Just steps after the trail head sign for the Pine Bend Brook Trail, snowshoes were necessary, as there was a crust layer with at least 3 inches of snow underneath. As I went further, it got deeper under the crust (it was this way and sometimes deeper all hike long). The first mile, I was getting the feel for the snowshoes again, because I knew I'd have them on all day. No one had been up the trail, as I suspected would be the case.

Pine Bend Brook Trail

The Pine Bend brook crossings were not much of an issue, except for getting the feel again of hopping over rocks with a foot of snow on them with your snowshoes. I entered the Sandwich Range Wilderness, and all I could think of was that the Sandwich Range Wilderness was going to kick my ass today, but I kept on going - I didn't really have a choice. The trail steepens shortly after crossing the wilderness boundary. At this point, it was like hitting a wall in terms of having my pace. It took me a little over 3 hrs to reach North Tripyramid.

Brook crossing on Pine Bend Brook Trail

Entering the Sandwich Range Wilderness

It's nice when the trail has a section broken up with junctions. It felt like a matter of minutes, and I had gone .8 miles, and arrived at the summit of Middle Tripyramid. Middle Tripyramid was my 45th solo 4000 footer. There wasn't much of a view. I started to settle for a break in the trees, but after a minute or so, my hands said otherwise. I got moving again, and took it later. The rest of the way over to South Tripyramid and down to the slide opening was uneventful, and rather gentle compared to the steep part of the ascent.

Looking down Tripyramid's south slide

As I started to cross the south slide, I realized that the conditions were pretty unstable. About 10 steps in, my snowshoe made a top crust piece about 2 manhole covers wide fall down the slide a good distance. The granular underneath gave me a mini avalanche show as it built up on its way down. It was quite interesting and difficult. A misstep here would have easily resulted in a slide all of the way down into the trees. I shuffled my way carefully over to the left to meet up with the Kate Sleeper sign.

Kate Sleeper trail sign

I knew the next part of this hike was going to be VERY difficult with the recent damage, but the Kate Sleeper had no issues all of the way to the East Sleeper junction. I noticed the trail damage immediately behind the junction sign, but before venturing forward, I quickly went up and bagged East Sleeper in the winter, why not right?

Sleepers, East Peak

You can see in the background of the photo about the massive damage sustained in the area from recent storms. Picture a narrow trail with huge trees crossing everywhere. As I started into the area after East Sleeper, doing my best to stay with the trail, it looked like there was no trail, and it was all completely open. The place was obliterated, and just when I thought I was doing well, I was almost doing a lap around the back of East Sleeper. While it didn't come quickly at all, I was able to get my path back on track. This became a bushwhack from hell, with an increasing amount of nervousness every minute. I nearly lost one of my 32oz water bottles, and my snowshoe got caught between two blowdowns, nearly hyper-extending my knee. Once I found the trail again, it didn't get an easier, and I was literally crawling on hands on knees and walking across trees about 5 feet off the ground in snowshoes. I was relieved as I could ever be when I saw brownish snow, which was the Downes Brook running underneath the snow cover. Unfortunately, I have no photos or video from this ordeal. It required 100% of my attention, and I didn't want to risk losing anything.

On the ascent to the Rollins Trail, I battled a few more blowdowns and some hangers. I was excited to hit the Rollins Trail. I actually took a break of about 10 minutes here to re-gather myself, and I threw on my North Face down vest on under my new Arc'teryx Theta AR hard shell. I was plenty warm now, and was gearing up for some night-time winter hiking. After the nice break, I took another quick stop on my way past the summit of Whiteface while the sky still had some blue in it. This was my first time to the summit of Whiteface in winter.

Mt. Whiteface summit

Shortly later, the headlamp became necessary; I had strapped it on at the last break. I had just picked up a new Black Diamond Scope headlamp, which was great. It was the only light aid I needed the rest of my way. The Rollins Trail is really narrow. It's easy to follow when there are no blowdowns, but I did encounter one really rough section, and then it was difficult to find the narrow trail on the other side. This was the last section of ridiculous blowdowns I experienced. The only other problem on the rest of the Rollins Trail were heavy hanging trees and twigs iced in place. Despite this, I was in pretty good spirits because of a sweet winter evening view of Passaconaway, to which I was headed. The moon was present off and on behind the clouds, and the lights shone below in Wonalancet, which meant I would be back at my car soon.

Mt. Passaconaway seen from the Rollins Trail

The moon provided a slight extension to daylight

After what felt like a really long time, I finally made it to the junction with the Dicey's Mill Trail. What I saw was the most welcome sight all day, human tracks. I decided to leave my pack at the junction and go up to Passaconaway lightweight. I had tracks leading the way, but still this 700 foot gain is never easy. As I ascended, the wind was picking up, which made me be on high-alert for any cracking sound. About half way up, I heard the crack I dreaded. It was a safe distance off the trail, but it was loud. I don't think it sent the tree crashing, but it was enough to send chills right through me, despite me being complete;y warm in my new jacket. I passed the brief opening, which was completely dark with white snow barreling through. In just a few feet I was passing the sign directing me to the completely enclosed summit. Both of my waters were completely frozen at the junction, so I drank a sip of my Gatorade which I had stuffed in my down vest near my stomach for the jaunt to the summit. After my refreshing sips of unfrozen Gatorade, I descended back to my pack as quickly as I could.

Sign for Passaconway summit

This is when I did the Spot check-in, "All ok on the trail." The Spot stayed attached to my pack as it sat at the junctions, but seemed to report my location as if I was doing circles in a very small radius. It may have seemed like I was lost if you were following, but I had informed home base that I was leaving the pack there.  This is and the not-so-perfect track is all a drawback of the Spot, which does not work well in the trees. The new smartphone apps produce far better tracking maps. 

Now, all I had to do was follow the Dicey's Mill Trail and the tracks before me down to Ferncroft. To the person who hiked Passaconway last, thank you. You made the end of this brutal hike much more pleasant. Right after passing the junction with the Tom Wiggin trail, which is about halfway down, the wind picked up ferociously through the area, blowing the snow more, and putting me back on high alert for falling trees. As I looked up, sometimes the moon would be there, and at another time I would see some stars, and the faint outline of the mountains against the sky. This was a really intense, but beautiful atmosphere.

Dicey's Mill Trail brook crossing (crossed the rocks on the right in this photo) 

Ferncroft Road

Thirteen and a half hours later, it was still cold and it was still snowing. Through that, I broke trail for most of the 16.7 miles all done in snowshoes. I picked up two new winter peaks, and my first four peaks of this winter 48 goal. I'll just call this first winter hike the ultimate winter hiking preparedness course. Instead of a second hike this weekend, I got to watch the Pats and bring you the nitty gritty details from this challenging ordeal. I'll be back at it later next week!

Hike Stats
Trails: Pine Bend Brook Trail, Mt. Tripyramid Trail, Kate Sleeper Trail, Rollins Trail, Dicey's Mill Trail, Blueberry Ledge Trail

Distance: 16.7 miles

Elevation Gain: 5,250 ft.

Actual Book Time: 13hrs 30min

The Tripyramid's, Sleepers, & Whiteface - 9/16/2012

It was another awesome day in the White Mountains on Sunday - perfect for a White Mountain 48 finish for my friend Mike, and a hike I had been looking forward to for a while, the Sleepers Peaks. On top of those two factors, there would be more to make this a unique adventure. My brother and niece were going to hike up Whiteface from Ferncroft and meet us on the summit! So, this one is a little different. This was the first time my brother's hiked a peak with out me! Truly a unique and awesome day...here we go! (Above photo is the view from the South Slide of Tripyramid)

With 45 done, three 4000 footers remained for my friend Mike, who writes and has been shaping up his blog, The Outhouse. The plan was a traverse of the Sandwich Range from Pine Bend Brook Trail, to Whiteface and to Ferncroft, where we would get a ride back from my brother. We started our hike at 8am sharp, and we were blitzing up the Pine Bend Brook. In fact, at the end of the Pine Bend Brook Trail, we noticed we just did it at 3.2mph. What a great start and beautiful trail.

Pine Bend Brook Trail head on Kancamagus Hwy 

First unobstructed view back on the way up Pine Bend Brook Trail

We arrived to a vacant, North Tripyramid summit. It was cool, crisp, and the air was feeling like fall. The sun rays coming through the trees provided sporadic warmth when not moving. North Tripyramid was my 21st summit of my 3rd round of the 48, and it was Mike's 46th peak.

While the Tripyramid's may not be on many peakbaggers' favorites list, this entire area in the Sandwhich Wilderness has some of the prettiest trails I see. If you enjoy beautiful scenery just as much as peakbagging, the Tripyramid's deserve a bump up your to-do list. Not before long we were on Middle Tripyramid, taking in the pretty nice views that the summit offers. Mt. Tecumseh and Waterville Valley are seen to the Northwest, and Chocura is seen in the near distance in the view east. This called for a decent break, and that we did. Middle Tripyramid was my Trailwright 72 peak on this hike, which completes the peaks in the Sandwich Wilderness for that list. More importantly, it was Mike's 47th peak, and with that only a few miles stood in the way of the completion of his journey to 48.

Mt. Chocura, from Middle Tripyramid summit 

Middle Tripyramid summit 

South Tripyramid summit

We made it to South Tripyramid where we stopped briefly for photos, but we continued on quickly, descending the tricky trail down to the top of the slide. The view from the slide was tremendous, and one of the highlights of the day to come out onto it. The Kate Sleeper Trail was just down to the left. A cairn in the middle of the slide is a good indicator, but the Kate Sleeper sign is small and dark, so not necessarily visible right of the bat. We took a last glimpse of the view before diverging left.

South Tripyramid slide 

South Tripyramid slide 

Kate Sleeper Trail sign 

Thumbs up - 3.3 miles to Mike's 48 

Still some slide to contend with on Kate Sleeper Trail

As we started on the Kate Sleeper, we thought we'd be in the tress for the rest of the way, but there was another slide section to cross, and THEN into the trees, where, for a short distance, the trail hugs the steep slope until it fattens out. From this point, the Kate Sleeper Trail was everything I though it would be, just as nice of a trail as the Tripyramid Trail and Rollins - just awesome woods! Following the map and contours closely, we approached the approximate area for the summit of West Sleeper. There were a couple of very lightly tread paths leading left off the trail, which we followed to a seemingly well-beaten circle patch that felt like the summit. A GPS-mapping app put the summit within just a few feet, so we were there - West Sleeper - pretty cool. This peak is found on the NH 100 highest list.

The Sleepers, West Peak summit

Continuing on the beautiful trail, we came to a sharp turn left shown on the map, and then shortly after, a sign for the spur to East Sleeper. This was a cool moment, because East Sleeper has been on my to-do for a while now, on the NE 100 highest list. The "short" spur path seemed rather long (sort of like Zealand feels like a long .1!), but finally we made it to the marked summit.

The Sleepers, East Peak - New England 100 Highest Peak

Now, with 5 named peaks done and in the bag, the excitement grew as Mike's finish grew near, now only a little over a mile away. We took a solid break at the Downes Brook Trail junction, which I might add was a beautiful spot in the middle of the woods with moss covered rocks and lots of greenery. Snickers and snacks in us, we were now less than a mile away from the finish. The ascent from Downes Brook Trail to Whiteface is gradual, but very pleasant. We reached the Rollins Trail and went left.

At this point, we were keeping an eye out for my brother and niece. We were able to exchange texts as we were at Downes Brook, so I knew they had reached the summit already from the Blueberry Ledge Trail, and would be up there somewhere. As we neared the summit, we came across them hanging out waiting for us. How cool is this? Bill and his daughter, just hangin' and napping above 4000 feet.

Hangin' in the trees, waiting for us on Mt. Whiteface

After a quick moment for them to wake up and pack the hammock, we all joined Mike as he took his last steps to the summit of Whiteface and completed the 48 Four Thousand Footers. Quickly, we were in celebration mode, busting out a few ice-cold beers (and apple juice), and then some sips of Scotch and Whiskey! It was a whole bunch of fun, and it was so cool to have my niece witness someone finishing the 48, because the more we hike, the more she wants to do them all.

Mike's 48th and final peak 

Cheers, Mike, to a successful completion of an incredible journey 

Man oh man. After the celebration, came the toughest decision of the day - should we bag Passaconaway? The decision was yes for about 15 minutes, but then it was no, then yes, but then ultimately no, as we decided to descend the Blueberry Ledge Trail together as planned. Mike got Passaconaway last weekend, but had to abort his finish due to rain. I would have liked to get it, but one of the main reasons I gave in was so that Mike would see and experience the views of Whiteface, his final peak. So that was that, we were all on our way down together, as planned, on the Blueberry Ledge Trail. This would turn out to the best idea, as you will see why from the photos below.

Mt. Washington & Presidentials from Whiteface ledges 

Kiara's 4th NH 4000 footer, and 5th in New England! 

Ferncroft area as seen from the ledges 

Descending a portion of the ledges 

Consumed wholly by the summit celebration and difficult decision we were involved in, I forgot that I had a surprise gift (until Mike reminded me by talking about getting his patch!). Most who reach their 48th peak will wait until they get their patch from their submitted application to the AMC, however as we breaked by the Blueberry Ledge Trail cut-off, I took the opportunity to once again congratulate Mike on his completion and I presented him with a surprise official AMC 4000 footer patch.

Presenting Mike with an official patch for completing the 4000 footers 

Completely surprised! 

After the continued celebration and further enjoyment of the remaining ledges, we descended into the trees and down to Ferncroft, where the iconic view of Whiteface and Passaconaway behind the farm was matched with a picture-perfect blue sky. I truly enjoyed this hike for one particular reason, and that was because of the amount of experiences that were talked about along the way. Both of us reminisced on some of the best moments we each had while hiking the 48, including a couple of hikes together. Bill even had his own memories to share on the way down. More people are hiking the 4000 footers of the White Mountains these days, but one thing will always remain true, and it is that the journey is never the same from person to person. The peaks can be done in just days, years, or for some, a entire life time. The route taken is never the same. The elements change by the hours up here, thus making each day, each peak, a different experience for everyone. If you are thinking about the hiking the 48, don't think of it as a list. but a journey, because whether done in a year or a life-time, it will always be a lifetime experience that remains fresh in your memory every day.

Congratulations to Mike on completing his 48! Mike's blog is The Outhouse. He just switched his older blog over to Wordpress and is the process of making updates. If you're looking for another blog for hiking or climbing trip reports and photos, feel free to check it out. He is on Facebook too!  Happy Peakbagging!

Hike Stats

Trails: Pine Bend Brook, Kate Sleeper, Rollins

Distance: 12 miles (Pine Bend Brook to Whiteface Summit, and to Ferncroft) (Blueberry Ledge Trail to Whiteface and back is 8.4mi round trip)

Elevation Gain: 3,250 ft (traverse)

Book Time: 8hrs 40min