White Mountains

Slides, short for landslides, are common landscape features in the White Mountains and Adirondacks. These landslips occur when heavy rainfall weakens the soil on higher angle slopes, letting loose a slurry of water, mud, and boulders, that barrel down the hill like …

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 …

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 …

“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 …

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 …

Hiking the New Hampshire 3,000 footers is a quite challenging peakbagging list and there is a very small but tight-knit community of hikers who have completed or are working on it. It also requires a lot of off-trail navigation (bushwhacking) which is something …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

I finished the Trailwrights 72 peakbagging list last week on Mt Guyot, one of my favorite 4,000 footers in the White Mountains. I still have 36 hours of trail work to complete to get the Trailwright’s patch (72 hours are required), but …

I spent my first winter overnight at a self-service Appalachian Mountain Club Hut earlier this season and had a really good time. The AMC keeps several of their White Mountains huts open in winter at reduced rates and on a self-service basis, …

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 …