My friend Martin from England is a serious hiker and backpacker with many big UK walks under his belt. Having just finished hiking the 100 Mile Wilderness together (which as epic), I decided that I’d take him for a jaunt up Mt Washington …
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Backpacking the Desolation Loop in the Pemigewasset Wilderness
The Desolation Loop is a moderate 33 mile backpack through the eastern half of the White Mountain’s Pemigewasset Wilderness, bounded by the Bonds, Ethan Ridge, and Carrigan Notch. There are many excellent swimming holes and wilderness campsites along the route, which will appeal to more …
Read More »The Daniel Webster (Scout) Trail
After several years of compulsive peakbagging in the White Mountains, I’ve changed my goals and set out to hike many of the trails that I’ve never set foot on before. With over 1500 miles of interconnected trails, there are still many miles …
Read More »Wildcat Valley Ski Trail: The Back Way up Wildcat Ridge
The two most popular routes to climb Wildcat A and D are to hike up the 19 Mile Brook Trail from Carter Notch or to climb the Polecat Trail from the Wildcat Ski Resort. I took a very different route up to WildCat …
Read More »Heavy Lifting on Mt Liberty
What do bowling pins, 15 pound bags of rice and charcoal, cases of beer, TV sets, and water reservoirs have in common? They’re just some of the crazy ass things that hikers load into their packs to train for backpacking trips where …
Read More »Missing Cairns on Mount Moosilauke
Mount Moosilauke is the first big mountain that Appalachian Trail northbounders encounter when they climb through the White Mountains. The 10th highest four thousand footer in the White Mountain 48, it has a very different profile and personality than most of the other …
Read More »Winter’s End: Mount Moosilauke and the Wildcats
When my glasses froze over, I wasn’t sure whether I’d make it up the last 50 yards to the summit of Moosilauke. I could barely make out SG’s blue snowshoes in front of me and the wind was blowing so fiercely that …
Read More »Francona Ridge Loop: Mt Lincoln and Mt Lafayette in Winter
By the time you feel a hotspot, it’s often too late to do anything about it. That’s been my experience with hiking up steep mountains in winter. I knew we were just 300 feet below Franconia Ridge, so I said screw it, and …
Read More »Wrestling with Wildcats and Finishing the Winter White Mountain 4000 Footer List
“I think we’re headed the wrong way,” said Trey. Yep, we’d turned south instead of north when we got to the top of the Polecat Ski Trail on Wildcat Mountain, an ignominious start to our Wildcat Traverse, and further proof that ski …
Read More »Stopped in Our Tracks on Wildcat Mountain
Trey and I attempted to climb Wildcat A, B, C, and D on Friday but we were stopped in our tracks by chest high snow drifts and such deep powder that we were postholing up to our waist, even though we were …
Read More »A Winter Hike to Mount Garfield
The temperature was in the single digits when I woke on Saturday morning just before dawn. I’d decided to spend the weekend sleeping outside in my tent and -25 degree sleeping bag, while my friends slept all snug and warm inside of …
Read More »A Winter Hiking Trip to North and Middle Tripyramid Mountains
I led an Appalachian Mountain Club hiking trip to North (4180′) and Middle Tripyramid (4140′) Mountains last weekend. These are two 4,000 footers in the southern section of the White Mountains. linked by a 0.8 mile ridge. South Tripyramid (4100′), the third …
Read More »A Winter Hike to Mt Whiteface and Mt Passaconaway
My friend Trey and I climbed up Mt Whiteface (4060′) and Mt Passaconaway (4043′) on Sunday. We hiked the peaks starting from the Ferncroft trailhead in Wonolancet, hiking up via the Blueberry Ledge cutoff, the Blueberry Ledge Tr, the Rollins Trail, and …
Read More »A Winter Bonds Traverse
I completed a Winter Bonds Traverse two weeks ago,one of the toughest and most remote winter hikes in the White Mountains. I was accompanied by four other very strong hikers: Ron, Craig, Larry, and Garret, who hike together regularly and were nice …
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