Firescrew, Mt. Cardigan

This is a rather delayed posting of a trip we took back in March on Mt. Cardigan. Having visited the area last year and taken on the prime packed powder (tongue-in-cheek) on the Alexandria Trail, this year we opted for the Duke trail, which heads up the more northerly Firescrew peak. Visions of this route from the trip last year indicated that, given enough snow, there was potential for some open, snow-field skiing. Fortunately, Mother Nature had granted us with a fair amount of snow. Unfortunately, it had gone through a nice melt-freeze and covered the entire snowpack with a skating-rink of ice. Nevertheless, we managed to summit and enjoy a pleasant lunch in the warm spring sun before slipping down the mountain. Here are some pics from our trip.

Shoulda packed the hockey equipment... 

Great view of Cardigan peak.
Good skiing in the right conditions.

Huff enjoying some recovery nutrition.

Cardigan looks to be a go-to spot in the future. It's within a reasonable driving distance and easy on the legs going up, with some solid skiing if there's powder. Looking forward to several weekend mornings here in the coming year.

Mt. Moosilauke

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gnarly summit

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.

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.

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.  

Summary:

Thunderbolt

Given the recent fortune of fresh snow falling throughout Massachusetts, the usual suspects made a game-time decision to head out to the Berkshires and sample what Mt. Greylock had to offer. The recent storm left the Boston area shut down, with some suburbs getting over 2 feet of light-weight fluff. Native Vermonter Huffman commented on the ridiculousness of the city's shutdown, but I didn't hear him complaining about his "forced" day off.

Unfortunately, the western part of the state didn't luck out quite as much, recording approximately 8 inches of good stuff.  With the recent fluctuations in weather, we weren't exactly sure what to expect as far as snow cover was concerned.  Nevertheless, with Cotton's newlywed bride Pearl offering us a place to stay at her family's house, it was hard to pass up on the adventure.  Better yet, we were graced with a fantastic dinner and some fine local ales to fuel our legs the night before our first official tour of the season.  Proximity to mountains and delicious food - can one ask for better hospitality?

The pre-dawn departure was met with brutal cold.  I think we recorded a -17F while driving up to N. Adams from Canaan. Otherwise the weather couldn't have been better (I say this only partly tongue-in-cheek), the sky was clear and the sun was shining.  I sniped a quick shot through the car window of the sunrise, which never ceases to impress me.

While I've backpacked around Greylock a few times, I've never visited it in the winter, and was excited to revisit one of my first explorations into outdoor adventure.  Additionally, the history of the trail and it's ski culture speaks for itself.  The Thunderbolt Ski Runners maintain the trail and host an annual race, which involves both a hike to the summit and a timed race downhill.  From what I read, the course record of just over 2 minutes was set in the first half of the 20th century, and stands to this day.

By the time we parked and geared up, the weather had warmed up to a balmy -6F, and we were off.  Our early morning departure may have been cold, but the lack of skintrack in front of us was a worthy reward.  Some remnants of a visitor from the true powder day one day earlier were enough to guide us up the trail, along with some questionable map reading by yours truly.

The trip up is rather pleasant.  The start of a trail is just that, a trail about one person wide, and follows along the bank of Hoxie Brook before ascending the eastern face of the mountain.  Once the vertical starts to kick in, the trail opens up to a comfortable 20ish feet of skiable width.  Thinking back to my first trip out to Cannon last year, my legs and lungs were in much better shape for this season.  Turns out experience matters.  Nevertheless, we didn't meet the 2 hour ascension time that "someone in shape" can accomplish this tour.

Brrrrr

We enjoyed a beer and the classic mountain meal of hard meats and cheeses in the warming hut up top.  This is a nice feature, espcially on a cold and windy day. There are even two wood stoves with which to make a cozy atmosphere, if one was so inclined.  A DCR worker stopped in to drop off some trash bags and we chatted with him for a bit, then deskinned and headed down the way we came.

As far as the down goes, Thunderbolt has a lot to offer.  Wide enough to string together turns, with many changing pitches and bends.  It's a lot of fun, even if you're competing with the limited snowpack and numerous hidden obstacles as we were.  We were graced with some powder turns met with the occasional scrape of a rock underfoot.  At least two of us lost a ski to a root at some point on the way down, but it's a small trade-off for the fresh snow.  During the descent, we passed at least 15 (or 57, if Huff is counting) people who were on their way uphill.  Guess we picked the right time to hit the trailhead.

Nice panorama by Cotton

Thunderbolt will certainly require another (or multiple) visits this season, especially if we are graced with a bit more snow.  Thankfully, Pearl has extended an invitation for us to return, so hopefully we can realize this goal.  Thanks again to our hosts for a great time and some needed coffee for the ride home.  Unfortunately, as I write this we're staring in the face of another January thaw.  Only in New England can we have subzero temps followed by a 50 degree weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed it doesn't last too long.

Winter is Coming

We're three days away from the start of winter and Mother Nature (or should I say Ullr) has dropped over a foot of snow on New England already. Winter is definitely making its mark early. To celebrate, we took a quick trip up to Wachusett and enjoyed the fresh, albeit groomed, snow. It was a nice reminder of what moving uphill is like.

Looking forward to a great winter, stay tuned...

Easter Pilgrimage

It's spring in New England, but the snow is still holding on up north.  We decided this would be a good weekend to head up to Mt. Washington given the forecast of balmy 40 degree weather and stable snowpack.  While both Huff and Cotton have made the trek up to Tuck's previously, this was my first time in the ravine despite more than two decades of skiing in New England.  Needless to say I was excited to finally make it to what can only be described as a mecca of East Coast skiing.  I say this because every year thousands of folks make the trip up to Tuckerman Ravine, most lugging their equipment on their backs, to enjoy what the area has to offer.

Beautiful day

This weekend was no exception.  We got an early morning start, meeting well before sunrise to make the three hours drive up to the base of the TR trail.  By the time we arrived, the parking lots were already over flowing onto Rt 16.  Masses of people were readying their gear to hike, climb, and ski the ravine.  I had read previously that Tuck's is somewhat of an anomaly when it comes to the backcountry experience - it's not exactly solitude, but then again this is part of the allure.

Crowded ascent

Arriving at a packed Hojo's, we scoped the avy assessment for the day.  Generally, the theme was stay left - Hillman's Highway, the Left Gully and the Left Chute were all preferable risk-wise.  After some discussion, we decided to head into the bowl and check out the Gully.  Back on our skins, we sat in a traffic jam of a dozen kids hiking in with their father trying to get up the slope into the basin.  Luckily they were polite enough to let us sneak through.  Did I mention it was packed?

Safety was out in full force at the Hojo's

When we finally reached the floor of the ravine, we were greeted by a seasoned rescue volunteer.  He did a quick hand test on the snowpack below us, then joked to himself how it was meaningless given our location.  The highlight of our conversation came when he literally applauded our idea of hiking Left Gully with his mittens.  Despite his old-man humor, was nice to get confirmation of our route.  We hurried to beat a large group of people who were likely headed a similar direction and headed uphill.

Left Gully

Pretending my legs aren't on fire

The bootpack up was a bit of a slog.  The snow was actually fresh, which was a great sign for the way down, but made the climb up a workout.  We were also working in a line of folks all headed in the same direction which was both slowing us down and speeding us up, depending on their pace.  As we were making the ascent, I kept noticing spots of brown liquid on the ground below me.  Huff and I eventually realized that his beer had burst open in his pack and he was leaking stout all down his backside.  Fortunately, this was the only mishap of the day, unfortunately, it meant I was going to have to share my beer come lunchtime.  At the top, the weather shifted from pleasant 35 degree warmth to wind and cold, so we made quick work of getting our skis together and heading back down.

 At the top

One group, about 30 minutes ahead of us, ended up getting the first tracks, but there was plenty to go around. The snow for most of the run down was pleasant powder, allowing us to carve some nice turns along the way.  As if to remind us that this is New England, though, every once in a while we'd hit some slick hardpack and have to quickly find our edges again.  I tried to snap a couple action shots of the group with my less than adequate point and shoot.

Huff carving up the fresh

Cotton

We took a break for lunch, enjoying some salami and stout (is there a better ski meal?).  We ate to the backdrop of crowds on the ravine floor cheering on the folks sledding down the headwall.  Obviously everyone was having a good time.  After lunch, the wind picked up a bit, and we decided to get moving and hit the southern Chute variation before heading back down to the car.  We hiked about two-thirds the way up to a reasonable spot to switch our gear around, then enjoyed one more run in the powder before taking the Sherburne run-out.

Sun setting on a great day.

We were blessed with spring corn the rest of the way down, with a few bumps to remind us of the day's climb.  By the time we reached the car, we were in 50 degree t-shirt weather again.  All in all, a fantastic trip.  Good snow, good weather, and a fun crowd.  Likely our best day out this season, but hopefully not the last.

Distance:		7.89 miles
Elapsed Time:		5:59:03
Avg Speed:		1.3 mph
Max Speed:		22.5 mph
Avg Pace:		45' 30" per mile
Min Altitude:		1,995 ft
Max Altitude:		5,214 ft

Windblown on Mt. Cardigan

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

Quick Jaunt up Mt. Monadnock

Given the hot and cold winter we've been having (and I mean this both figuratively and literally), there hasn't been much opportunity in the past few weeks for touring.  Having had enough of the pent up city life, Huff and I opted to do a winter hike to the top of Mt. Monadnock in Jaffrey, NH.  Monadnock is just over 3000', making it a reasonably large mountain for it's southern location.  The added incentive is that it's only an hour and change from Massachusetts, making it an easy day trip.

Given the recent thaw(s) here in New England, most of the snow surrounding the mountain had melted.  There was still a bit of ice, especially frozen runoff on a few of the trails, but we were able to ascend a route that didn't require cramp-ons or spikes

Icy trail after the recent melt

The hike took about ~3 hours round trip, including our stop below tree-line for lunch and obligatory hot chocolate.  We were fortunate that we got to the summit when we did; during our descent the clouds, and worse, wind rolled ruining the beautiful 24 degree day we had to start.  Nonetheless, I was able to snap a few pics of the views.

View looking back from around halfway

From the summit looking NNW

Happy we're not at work.

Distance:		3.60 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:55:41
Avg Speed:		1.2 mph
Max Speed:		7.4 mph
Avg Pace:		48' 49" per mile
Min Altitude:		1,388 ft
Max Altitude:		3,141 ft

As if to prove I wasn't kidding about this winter, we're currently in the midst of a blizzard expected to drop over two feet of snow on Southern New England.  Hopefully this makes for some good touring this weekend and beyond.