hikerbrian
Active member
Headed up to Kinsman shelter on Saturday morning, opted to take snowshoes even though the snow at the trailhead was scant. Dropped our overnight gear at the shelter and continued up to North Kinsman on a broken trail. At the top, a group in microspikes had stopped as the snow was pretty deep above ~3000'. Our group of 4 continued the very enjoyable trip across the ridge to South Kinsman, breaking trail in our snowshoes in the most pleasant of conditions. Back to Kinsman Pond shelter for a relaxing afternoon of sipping hot chocolate with a touch of whiskey and butter. After dinner, it was such a pleasant night we just had to go for a little hike around the shelter to breath the fresh night air. Before long, we found ourselves about midway up N. Kinsman and opted to complete the peak. It was so darn pretty - only an occasional breath of light wind, probably high teens or low twenties, gorgeous, but no visibility. Hiked with just our red lights on, got to the top and turned off the lights completely. Absolutely still and quiet, almost pitch black except for a little bit of light somehow sneaking through the clouds and silhouetting the spruces covered in snow. After several minutes, we headed back down at a pleasant jog full of butt slides and boot glissades and in 10 minutes we were back at the shelter.
Sunday morning we were greeted once again with inside-of-a-ping-pong-ball visibility. Set off for Cannon via the Kinsman Ridge trail. Completely unbroken for almost the entire 2.4 miles across the Cannonballs. This was hard work. Straight up hard work. I'm guessing they've gotten a couple of feet at least in the very recent past. Lots of steep ups and downs. We were kicking steps with our snowshoes through thigh deep drifts, often sinking up to our knees in the unconsolidated snow. Would not have been passable without flotation. Upon summiting the last Cannonball we at last came upon broken trail and dropped our overnight packs at the first trail junction to make the out and back to the summit of Cannon. The girls in the group apparently were insufficiently challenged in the trip across the ridge and opted to partake in some acro-yoga in the wind on top of the summit observatory tower to burn off some excess energy. Kind of impressive, actually. Made quick work of the steep downhill back to our packs, shouldered our loads and then boot glissaded and jogged the few remaining miles back to the trailhead. A shame there was no visibility of any kind as it would have been stunning scenery, but still a great trip in otherwise beautiful conditions.
Sunday morning we were greeted once again with inside-of-a-ping-pong-ball visibility. Set off for Cannon via the Kinsman Ridge trail. Completely unbroken for almost the entire 2.4 miles across the Cannonballs. This was hard work. Straight up hard work. I'm guessing they've gotten a couple of feet at least in the very recent past. Lots of steep ups and downs. We were kicking steps with our snowshoes through thigh deep drifts, often sinking up to our knees in the unconsolidated snow. Would not have been passable without flotation. Upon summiting the last Cannonball we at last came upon broken trail and dropped our overnight packs at the first trail junction to make the out and back to the summit of Cannon. The girls in the group apparently were insufficiently challenged in the trip across the ridge and opted to partake in some acro-yoga in the wind on top of the summit observatory tower to burn off some excess energy. Kind of impressive, actually. Made quick work of the steep downhill back to our packs, shouldered our loads and then boot glissaded and jogged the few remaining miles back to the trailhead. A shame there was no visibility of any kind as it would have been stunning scenery, but still a great trip in otherwise beautiful conditions.
