White Mountains

I am really good at finding summit signs and canisters on trail-less bushwhack peaks. I have an uncanny ability to find herd paths, clear water sources, and even parking spaces in Harvard Square. I’m not sure if it’s attitude or karmic alignment …

It was fine day for a hike, blustery with 40 mile per hour winds, but plenty of sunshine. My destination was Zealand Mountain in the Pemigewasset Wilderness, approaching from the north along the Zealand Trail and The Twinway and returning via the …

I’m leading a challenging day hike in the White Mountains on Wednesday May 2, 2012 (you can still sign up) and thought I’d publish my trip plan to show you what goes into planning a hike like this as an Appalachian Mountain …

I took my last official winter climb this past Saturday up Mt Hight and Carter Dome, two 4,000 footers in the Carter Range. Both of these peaks are located  just across Pinkham Notch from Mt Washington and we were treated to clear skis, …

Winter camping and backpacking is a ton of fun, but you do need to learn some new skills to do it safely and comfortably. That was our focus on a winter backpacking instruction trip that I helped co-lead this past weekend. We …

I co-led a second AMC trip last weekend up Mount Cannon, another 4,000 footer in Franconia Notch. This was a Boston Chapter Winter Hiking Program Trip and we had a big turnout as usual, with about 18 hikers and 7 leaders attending. …

This was the big one: Franconia Ridge, including a pair of five thousand footers, Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette. All of the White Mountain hikes and training I’ve been doing this winter have been in preparation for this traverse, one of the …

Last Saturday, I co-led another AMC Boston instructional trip, a winter bushwhack up Mount Kancamagus, a New Hampshire 100 highest peak with an elevation of 3,763 feet. The point of this trip was to provide a gentle introduction to bushwhacking and expose …

My friends Alex, Jessica, and I climbed North and South Hancock on Sunday, two 4,000 footers on the southern border of the Pemigewasset Wilderness that are often hiked together. The two peaks are linked by an adjoining ridge, so it’s possible to …

I co-led an instructional trip on winter hiking over the weekend up Mount Waumbek, a White Mountain 4,000 footer, in New Hampshire’s north country. All the trip participants had gone through the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Winter Hiking Program that I helped teach …

Last weekend I climbed two 4,000 footers, South and Middle Carter Mountains, in near perfect weather. I repeated that same route yesterday, but we added in two bushwhacks, one to Mt Lethe, and another on lower down on the mountain across the …

I bagged another two winter 4,000 footers over the weekend on a 10 mile hike over the Carter Range in the eastern White Mountains in New Hampshire, with a respectable 3600 feet of elevation gain. This hike was a homecoming of sorts: …

Winter peakbagging wouldn’t be challenging if you successfully bagged the peaks you were after every time. That was the case last weekend, when seven of us took a crack at Mount Tripyramid, a rugged and distinctive 4,000 footer  in the Sandwich Range …

My friend David and I went on a very tough bushwhack yesterday, climbing West Field Mountain (3,617ft) on the western side of Mount Field. This didn’t look like a difficult bushwhack on paper, quite the opposite, but the brush was so dense …