As our own personal celebration of President's Day, Huff and I, along with new party member Cotton, decided to run a day trip to Mt. Cardigan. New England had just experienced a coastal storm which dropped a few inches in Massachusetts as well as along the more eastern mountains in upper NE. I was hopeful that Mt. Cardigan, which sits between Alexandria and Canaan, NH, reaped the benefits of this storm.
Cardigan is a reasonably easy day trip, under two and a half hours from Boston, and the tour itself looked doable given we hadn't skinned in over a month. Our plan was to ascend Firescrew via the Duke Trail on the northern side of the mountain and traverse the ridgeline to the true summit of Mt. Cardigan. From there we would ski down the Alexandria ski trail, putting us back at our starting point. Total trip would be about 5.5 miles and ~1750 vertical.
When I awoke the morning of the trip, the howling wind gave me some reservations about the ridgeline tour. I hadn't done a whole lot of satellite scouting of the trip, but based on what I had read and a few images, the top of Firescrew and the subsequent trail to Cardigan seemed a bit exposed. Wind, combined with single digit temps had me a bit nervous about our current plan. After convening at our usual rendezvous to consolidate vehicles, we agreed that a single trip up and down Alexandria (the better of the two downhills) would be a bit more inviting.
The base of Mt. Cardigan is home to a fairly substantial AMC lodge, which hosts folks using the mountain year round. This made for a nice place to get situated, strap on our gear and warm up before hitting the trailhead. The temperature upon departure was a balmy 16 degrees Farenheit, meaning that even with the work of skinning a few extra layers might be necessary.
The trail begins with the pretty flat Holt Trail, which was packed down presumably from heavy use. My hopes of fresh powder started to wane as we moved along the hardpack toward the uphill trails. After crossing Bailey Brook, the path leads to a major trailhead. On a powder day, so I read, it's nice to ascend via the cutoff, leaving fresh tracks for Alexandria on the way down. Looking at the stuff beneath our feet, we knew this wasn't a problem and decided to skin up and scout the way we'd be coming down.
 |
| Grand Junction |
 |
| Huff and I assessing the "powder" |
The ascent up Alexandria was relatively straightforward given the conditions. Just after Grand Junction, the trail begins its ascent up the east side of Mt. Cardigan. Along the way there were a few spots of runoff ice which we duly noted for the trip back down. The trees thankfully sheltered us from the gusts of wind that blew every few minutes. Two thirds of the way up Alexandria the trail comes to a scenic vista known as PJ Ledge. From here you can get a nice view of Firescrew, which seems to have some skiable terrain on it's southern exposure. This is something I'd like to investigate more on a return trip.
 |
| Cotton and Huff with Firescrew in the background |
After PJ ledge the trail narrows a bit until just before the summit cone of Cardigan. Here there is an old Fire Cabin presumably to accompany the tower that sits atop the mountain. We decided this was a good place to layer up and sip some hot chocolate before hitting the exposed ridge.
 |
| Anyone home? |
As we expected, it was quite windy at the top. I'd wager the gusts were anywhere between 40-60mph with a prevailing wind of around 30, making it difficult to stand at times. We realized we'd made the right decision coming up the way we did given the wind and the rocky summit. After two or three minutes relishing the views, we stripped skin and got out of dodge, but not before I almost lost one of my mittens to the blustery weather. Fortunately I was able to chase it down before the wilderness claimed it for good.
 |
| Firetower atop a rocky summit |
 |
| View from the "top" |
While the snow near the peak appeared to be powder with a layer of breakable crust, it was simply frozen hardpack. Our skis scraped along the frozen ground as we made the best of the conditions. The area above the fire house has a lot of open space, which would make for a good couple laps on a powder day.
 |
| Cotton and Huff taking on the snowfields |
After traversing the narrow Clark trail to PJ Ledge, we enjoyed some nice turns along the Alexandria trail. Alexandria is rather fun, even in poor conditions; it's wide enough to string several turns together, and steep enough to make for good skiing. It's definitely on the list for a return trip when there's more snow.
After finishing out the cat track (the one reason to be thankful for hardpack - the final quarter mile would be quite the slog in deep stuff), we enjoyed lunch and a victory beer in the comforts of the AMC lodge, where the friendly staff offered us some brownies left over from the holiday weekend. Thanks guys!
| Distance: | 4.26 miles |
| Elapsed Time: | 2:55:13 |
| Avg Speed: | 1.5 mph |
| Max Speed: | 17.2 mph |
| Avg Pace: | 41' 08" per mile |
| Min Altitude: | 1,352 ft |
| Max Altitude: | 3,030 ft |
