4000 Footers

I led an Appalachian Mountain Club hike on Sunday to two White Mountain 4000 footers named Mount Tom (4051′) and Mount Field (4340′) in Crawford Notch. These peaks are fairly easy to climb and the trails leading to them are usually well …

I climbed Galehead (4024′) and South Twin (4902′) Mountains last weekend together with 10 other hikers from the Appalachian Mountain Club. This was a long hike, just over 14 miles in length in winter conditions, and with sunset at 4:15 pm, we hiked …

I am feeling sore all over today. I’m surprised because our bushwhack over to Southwest Twin Mountain turned out to be easier than we expected. Still bushwhacking is much more strenuous than regular trail hiking and we had a long hike out …

When I left The Perch on the 3rd morning of my Great Gulf and Northern Presidential loop, the wind had died down but I was still hiking in near white-out conditions with 1 cairn visibility. After quiting at 4pm the previous evening …

JoeC and I led a Carter Loop hike for the Appalachian Mountain Club hike on Sunday, climbing up to the Appalachian Trail/Carter-Moriah Trail via the Imp and North Carter Trails. From there, we headed south bagging Middle Carter (4610′) and South Carter …

Many New England hikers consider Mount Jefferson (5712′) to be the toughest peak to climb in the White Mountains. Most of the routes to the summit require miles and miles of above-treeline exposure on a rocky ridge that is constantly blasted by …

Most of  the gear I took on my Presidential Range winter backpacking trip last week performed splendidly with a few exceptions. Here’s a quick blow-by-blow account of the highs and lows, and a link to the the gear list I brought on …

One of the sure signs of spring in the White Mountains is when the snow bridges over the streams collapse and stream crossings become ‘much’ more exciting. But winter will linger on for another month or two in New Hampshire’s mountains despite …

We made it to the Applachia trail head at the base of Mount Madison about 6 hours behind schedule on Friday night due to bad winter driving conditions on the road from Boston. Still, we decided we wanted to camp on the …

Climbing Mount Carrigan (4700′)  in winter is an ambitious quest requiring 14 miles of hiking or snowshoeing and 3900 feet of elevation gain. Route finding and bushwhacking skills are also useful, as the trail reroutes resulting from Hurricane Irene washouts are poorly …

Mount Osceola (4340′)  and its subordinate peak East Osceola (4156′) are always a challenging climb in winter.  Scarred by avalanche slides and ice encrusted cliffs, it is hard to comprehend how rugged these mountains are until you need to carry full winter …

I have always admired the long sweeping ridge between Mount Washington (6288′) and Mount Monroe (5372′) and wondered what it would be like to hike it in winter. While I have hiked the route a half dozen times during the warmer months …

My friend David and I popped up to New Hampshire mid-week to hike two winter 4,000 footers, Mount Field (4340′) and Mount Willey (4285′) in Crawford Notch. While I’ve climbed these peaks many times, I’d never climbed them during the winter peakbagging …

The anvil-shaped spire of Mount Garfield stands an isolated sentinel at the north-western end of the Pemigewasset Wilderness with excellent views of the other peaks that ring the 182 square mile forest. Blasted by winds, its rocky summit provides meager protection to …