grouseking
Well-known member
One of the biggest spur of the moments hikes happened today. I was sitting at the Cranmore Mtn bed and breakfast with my girlfriend and we were trying to figure out what to do. Secretly she wanted to ski, and I secretly (well not so secretly) wanted to hike. Then I found out that the trailhead for Kearsarge North was about 2 min from the hotel. It was too good to miss. So while she went skiing, I took a hike! IN THE SNOW!
I started hiking at about 9:00am. The Kearsarge trail is well...much too rooty for me, especially down low. The heavy snow that was falling covered up the roots from time to time, making for occasionally treacherous going. But I was in a great mood; the snow is falling heavily, and I was attempting my first solo winter mountain hike. I had my stabilicers on throughout the trip and today was the first day I really got to test them out. I learned a great deal from them, and what the limits are.
For instance, today was kind of a tough day to be hiking anyways. The ice factor was bad enough to warrant traction, but not bad enough for crampons. The problem was, the ice was pretty hard, and stabilicers didn't always cut it. But I did my best, and worst case scenerio (besides one small fall) all my slip-sliding was done carefully and in a very methodical manner.
Anyways, the hike up was fairly uneventful, until, something happened that has never occurred to me before during the winter. I heard what kind of sounded like a transformer blowing. But then I came to realize, it was thunder! At first I kind of brushed it as some sort of explosion , but the more I thought about it the more I realized that the muffled noise of the thunder was caused by all the snow falling because thats what happens during thundersnow....it noise gets muffled out. But no matter, I knew that something like 90+ percent of lightning strikes during thundersnow occur in the clouds, so I wasn't too concerned. If I had heard more thunder, I might have turned back.
The snow had been falling very heavily during the convective burst that included the clap of thunder, and then it really picked up for a few minutes after. I'd say it was coming down at 2-3 inches per hour. But sadly, as I neared the summit, the heavy snow actually changed over to sleet. I was really upset because I hate hiking in sleet. I hit the top around 11:30am...a good 2.5 hours after I started...quite good for me. I hurried into the firetower to warm up for a minute. I made a necessary call to let my girlfriend know I was safe, and decided to scram after just a few minutes of hanging out. I wasn't in the mood to hike in sleet so I just wanted to get that over with. Also, the thunder was kind of in the back of my mind...
The hike down was actually a lot of fun. I thought it was going to be slippery...and it was to a point. But my stabilicers saved the day. Even though they didn't catch a perfect grip onto a lot of the ice, it was just enough to do some slow controlled sliding down the rocks. My one fall came when I was below the ledges...I tripped over a root, and then jumped onto what I thought was solid ground, but it ended up being about 4 inches of thick ice over a big rock. Nothing could break that ice, not even an ice axe.
Other than that, the walk out was fun, and very swift. I was back at the car by 1:13pm, which means it took me an hour less to descend than to ascend.
I know there are amazing views on this peak, but this was a perfect first solo winter hike for me. I'll be back during the summer!
Here are the Kearsarge North pics
grouseking
I started hiking at about 9:00am. The Kearsarge trail is well...much too rooty for me, especially down low. The heavy snow that was falling covered up the roots from time to time, making for occasionally treacherous going. But I was in a great mood; the snow is falling heavily, and I was attempting my first solo winter mountain hike. I had my stabilicers on throughout the trip and today was the first day I really got to test them out. I learned a great deal from them, and what the limits are.
For instance, today was kind of a tough day to be hiking anyways. The ice factor was bad enough to warrant traction, but not bad enough for crampons. The problem was, the ice was pretty hard, and stabilicers didn't always cut it. But I did my best, and worst case scenerio (besides one small fall) all my slip-sliding was done carefully and in a very methodical manner.
Anyways, the hike up was fairly uneventful, until, something happened that has never occurred to me before during the winter. I heard what kind of sounded like a transformer blowing. But then I came to realize, it was thunder! At first I kind of brushed it as some sort of explosion , but the more I thought about it the more I realized that the muffled noise of the thunder was caused by all the snow falling because thats what happens during thundersnow....it noise gets muffled out. But no matter, I knew that something like 90+ percent of lightning strikes during thundersnow occur in the clouds, so I wasn't too concerned. If I had heard more thunder, I might have turned back.
The snow had been falling very heavily during the convective burst that included the clap of thunder, and then it really picked up for a few minutes after. I'd say it was coming down at 2-3 inches per hour. But sadly, as I neared the summit, the heavy snow actually changed over to sleet. I was really upset because I hate hiking in sleet. I hit the top around 11:30am...a good 2.5 hours after I started...quite good for me. I hurried into the firetower to warm up for a minute. I made a necessary call to let my girlfriend know I was safe, and decided to scram after just a few minutes of hanging out. I wasn't in the mood to hike in sleet so I just wanted to get that over with. Also, the thunder was kind of in the back of my mind...
The hike down was actually a lot of fun. I thought it was going to be slippery...and it was to a point. But my stabilicers saved the day. Even though they didn't catch a perfect grip onto a lot of the ice, it was just enough to do some slow controlled sliding down the rocks. My one fall came when I was below the ledges...I tripped over a root, and then jumped onto what I thought was solid ground, but it ended up being about 4 inches of thick ice over a big rock. Nothing could break that ice, not even an ice axe.
Other than that, the walk out was fun, and very swift. I was back at the car by 1:13pm, which means it took me an hour less to descend than to ascend.
I know there are amazing views on this peak, but this was a perfect first solo winter hike for me. I'll be back during the summer!
Here are the Kearsarge North pics
grouseking
