Following the brutal January doldrums, we finally got back on track with a string of classic winter storms. A brief discussion for a day trip landed on Mt. Moosilauke. We collected some info from various sources, and decided it would be a decent trip to attempt given the accumulations around the area and our interests in a new-to-us tour.
Moosilauke is draped in a long tradition of skiing, verging back on the Dartmout Outing Clubs early days. If you're interested in reading more about it, both the DOC and Goodman's book have a nice summary of the rich ski culture surrounding the mountain. It's so well known, that a less-than-outdoor inclined Dartmouth alum excitedly said to me "That's Dartmouth's mountain!" at the mere mention of it's name. From our perspective, this seemed like a reasonable day tour, and despite it's 10+ mile distance, the total vert would be more than manageable.
In order to access the mountain in the winter, one must park either at the entrance to the Ravine Lodge road or at the base of the Carriage Road. Either way, there's a decent flat run in before you start hitting contours. Having parked and geared up at the Ravine road, we headed out on the 1.5 mile in-route toward our objective. It was obvious from the line of cars, as well as the well packed skin track that we weren't the first to have this idea after the recent storms.
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| Ravine Road |
Our initial plan was to ascend via Snapper to the Carriage Road, then skate the ridgeline to the true summit of Moosilauke. The DOC does a great job of maintaining the area and trails are well labeled. Several signs from the Ravine Lodge point climbers in the correct direction. The Lodge itself is a thing of beauty, and though it is not open in the winter season, looks to be a great place to spend a night. Almost makes me jealous of Dartmouth students...almost.
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| Posing with Moosilauke in background |
Our trip up was rather uneventful. The trail from the footbridge at the base of the mountain is fairly narrow, but had decent snow cover and was otherwise pleasant. Snapper spits you out onto the Carriage Road, which is a bit wider (and thus better for the downhill). From there the ascent travels up the eastern side of the South Ridge until summit hopping to the peak. As we neared the top it was obvious the wind was moving pretty quickly above tree line. Though most of the ridge was sheltered by short evergreens, the snow revealed numerous signs of wind-induced movement over the past few hours.
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| Carriage Road action shot |
We opted to layer up and throw on our hoods just before hitting the treeline. The summit snowfields apparently offer some decent skiing in a good season. It was obvious from the get go that the windward side was pretty well scoured of any snow - mostly frozen hard stuff and rocky obstacles remained. In scouting the lee side, I managed to find some of the vagrant snow and sufficiently bury myself about waist deep in a pile of it. Unfortunately, the varying wind patterns and exposed trees didn't leave much room for carving up the cone, so we opted to summit and get out of dodge.
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| Gnarly summit |
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| Cotton and Huff. It was windy. |
As with any trip, good planning is important. We had agreed to take our aforementioned route up with the hope of descending via Gorge Brook trail. Despite the best of intentions, some outdated maps and faulty information from some other travelers led to a rapid change of plans. Turns out, we missed the trailhead at the summit by about 10m (see GPS below). Given that had at least scouted our previous route on the way up (and knew where it was!), we headed back down the way we came.
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| Just missed it. |
The ski down was pleasant, although far from noteworthy. The Carriage Road is almost wide enough to put some turns together, but it never quite gets there. Quick feet and the occasional snowplow are the name of the game. Once on the Snapper, it's true survival skiing. I kept Cotton just barely in sight ahead of me in an effort to prevent any impact if he stopped short around a corner. Despite the narrow path, it was a fun trip down to the Ravine Lodge. We realized we'd need to skin back up to make the trip back to the car easy. In the transition, we ran into a couple and their nice puppy, who apparently had lost his leash on the trek uphill. Fortunately, Huff keeps 30 feet of paracord in his pack at all times and was able to fashion a leash for them. Unfortunately, he didn't offer to have the dog pull us back to the car in return. Needless to say, they were grateful nonetheless.
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| This looks familiar... |
While the ski trails may not rival some others we've explored, certainly this is a great trip. And we learned a few lessons: double check to make sure you have updated maps (USFS are apparently more current than USGS) and you can't rely on others to guide you to the trail. If one considers it more of a ski mountaineering objective, it's well worth the effort - a trip up Moosilauke puts you above 4000ft on a classic New England summit with incredible views in all directions. Hopefully next time there's a bit more snow to enjoy once we're up there.
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