NorthShore
Member
More photos at : http://www.herdpath.com/tripreports/20110223Tom-Field.html
These were the first two NH winter 4000 footers for my son Sean and me. I’ve done some winter peaks in New York, and we've both done plenty of 3 season summits, but for Sean this was truly a first for him. The weather was perfect with deep blue cloudless skies and despite the forecast for high winds on the summits that was printed out at the Highland Center, the winds were rather tame.
Our route was to be a counter clockwise loop taking in Tom, Field, and maybe an out and back to Willey. We got a late start (a little after 10:30), and decided that Willey wasn’t going to happen. We had given my wife a relatively early cutoff time for when she should start worrying about us and I had no intention of cutting it close to that time.
The Avalon trail from the Crawford depot up to the junction with the start of the A-Z trail was firmly packed and a fairly easy trek. Once or twice I stepped slightly off the trail and stumbled a little as one foot sunk unexpectedly deeper into the snow.
Sean seemed a little out of it and I asked him if he was feeling ok. He said he felt fine but wasn’t having fun. I offered to turn around but he said we should continue. He said it wasn’t a big deal and he knew that I was looking forward to reaching a summit. I made a mental note that we could easily turn back to the car rather than going on to Field after Mt Tom.
The A-Z trail from the Avalon junction up to the col between Tom and Field is much steeper after an initial descent into an apparent stream crossing (now buried deeply in snow). On the short downhill section we met a couple who were poking around searching for a pole basket that had been swallowed up by the snow. We spoke briefly and they said that they were intending to hike to Zealand hut and back.
There is a lot of side hilling for a while on that part of the A-Z and the wind had blown some snow onto the trail making for softer footing. To me this was more difficult hiking than the smooth path up Avalon and I mentioned this to Sean. To my surprise, he replied that he was enjoying the side-hill section of A-Z much more than Avalon. There were some interesting sights along the way, including a foot sized hole through a snow bridge penetrating several feet to unfrozen water, a giant "snow mushroom", and some silver dollar sized ice crystals forming on what I thought to be unfrozen water (but which in retrospect may have been clear ice).
Once we turned to the north on the Mt Tom Spur trail the forest quickly turned to closely spaced balsams (or were they spruce?) that were coated in powdery snow. We stopped for some photos on the southerly overlook with views toward Mt Carrigain and the Hancocks thinking it very close to the summit, then moved on for a longer walk than we realized toward a clearing nearer to the true summit where we had some lunch which we shared with the gray jays. Sean enjoyed this and we took some photos and video of the panhandling birds. There was a couple there who was hiking the same loop and said that they were getting very close to finishing their winter 4000s. We proudly admitted that this was our first.
We only met a handful of people for most of the day (until around Mt Avalon on the way back) and got to speak with most of them. It may be a coincidence, but more so than during the summer it seemed that most were working a list. I am pursuing the Catskill 3500s in NY, but not the 48, although I’ve hiked about 20 of the 4ks.
We next went over to the true summit and enjoyed the views towards North and South Twin and the Bonds before heading back to the A-Z trail. This part of the trip went very quickly down the packed trail, although we stopped briefly along the way where I pointed out to Sean an obvious spruce trap right next to the trail (is it still a trap if it is obvious?). Sean had never heard the term before and I poked my ski pole as far down into the tree as I could reach without hitting bottom to demonstrate the concept. We also briefly met the couple that had been looking for a pole basket when we passed them earlier. The basket remains unrecovered. Perhaps the side trip to Mount Tom meant that they had abandoned the plan to hike to Zealand, although we didn’t discuss it. There was a third hiker with them at this point, a woman who had de-layered down to a tee shirt (the temperature was in the teens), but they may have been only temporarily together.
Back at the A-Z trail I asked Sean if he wanted to go back and he said that he wanted to hike Field also, so we went right on A-Z and then left (south) at the junction with the Willey Range trail.
The Willey Range trail was well packed, but somewhat softer than what we had been on previously...at least the MSRs were a little quieter than they had been, but not much. We were both amused that a couple of the trail signs were down around our feet in the snow. We met a woman hiking the loop solo in the opposite direction who was carrying a sheet of plastic for sledding the descents.
After the final short steep climb to the summit and some time enjoying the views west toward the Bonds and Franconias, as well as northeast toward the Presidentials, we set off down the Avalon trail in search of some good butt sledding. All in all, my son seems to slide a lot more efficiently than I do and needs less of a slope to keep moving, but there were a couple of good long runs that we both enjoyed. Using the snowshoes as rudders to steer was also fun. A couple of times I walked behind him while he continued to slide down a marginally steep enough slope. Ah, youth!
We arrived back at the Highland Center at 3:30 (about 5 hours total time including several stops). Sean declared that the gray jays and the butt luge had made the day a fun one after all.
Ed
These were the first two NH winter 4000 footers for my son Sean and me. I’ve done some winter peaks in New York, and we've both done plenty of 3 season summits, but for Sean this was truly a first for him. The weather was perfect with deep blue cloudless skies and despite the forecast for high winds on the summits that was printed out at the Highland Center, the winds were rather tame.
Our route was to be a counter clockwise loop taking in Tom, Field, and maybe an out and back to Willey. We got a late start (a little after 10:30), and decided that Willey wasn’t going to happen. We had given my wife a relatively early cutoff time for when she should start worrying about us and I had no intention of cutting it close to that time.
The Avalon trail from the Crawford depot up to the junction with the start of the A-Z trail was firmly packed and a fairly easy trek. Once or twice I stepped slightly off the trail and stumbled a little as one foot sunk unexpectedly deeper into the snow.
Sean seemed a little out of it and I asked him if he was feeling ok. He said he felt fine but wasn’t having fun. I offered to turn around but he said we should continue. He said it wasn’t a big deal and he knew that I was looking forward to reaching a summit. I made a mental note that we could easily turn back to the car rather than going on to Field after Mt Tom.
The A-Z trail from the Avalon junction up to the col between Tom and Field is much steeper after an initial descent into an apparent stream crossing (now buried deeply in snow). On the short downhill section we met a couple who were poking around searching for a pole basket that had been swallowed up by the snow. We spoke briefly and they said that they were intending to hike to Zealand hut and back.
There is a lot of side hilling for a while on that part of the A-Z and the wind had blown some snow onto the trail making for softer footing. To me this was more difficult hiking than the smooth path up Avalon and I mentioned this to Sean. To my surprise, he replied that he was enjoying the side-hill section of A-Z much more than Avalon. There were some interesting sights along the way, including a foot sized hole through a snow bridge penetrating several feet to unfrozen water, a giant "snow mushroom", and some silver dollar sized ice crystals forming on what I thought to be unfrozen water (but which in retrospect may have been clear ice).
Once we turned to the north on the Mt Tom Spur trail the forest quickly turned to closely spaced balsams (or were they spruce?) that were coated in powdery snow. We stopped for some photos on the southerly overlook with views toward Mt Carrigain and the Hancocks thinking it very close to the summit, then moved on for a longer walk than we realized toward a clearing nearer to the true summit where we had some lunch which we shared with the gray jays. Sean enjoyed this and we took some photos and video of the panhandling birds. There was a couple there who was hiking the same loop and said that they were getting very close to finishing their winter 4000s. We proudly admitted that this was our first.
We only met a handful of people for most of the day (until around Mt Avalon on the way back) and got to speak with most of them. It may be a coincidence, but more so than during the summer it seemed that most were working a list. I am pursuing the Catskill 3500s in NY, but not the 48, although I’ve hiked about 20 of the 4ks.
We next went over to the true summit and enjoyed the views towards North and South Twin and the Bonds before heading back to the A-Z trail. This part of the trip went very quickly down the packed trail, although we stopped briefly along the way where I pointed out to Sean an obvious spruce trap right next to the trail (is it still a trap if it is obvious?). Sean had never heard the term before and I poked my ski pole as far down into the tree as I could reach without hitting bottom to demonstrate the concept. We also briefly met the couple that had been looking for a pole basket when we passed them earlier. The basket remains unrecovered. Perhaps the side trip to Mount Tom meant that they had abandoned the plan to hike to Zealand, although we didn’t discuss it. There was a third hiker with them at this point, a woman who had de-layered down to a tee shirt (the temperature was in the teens), but they may have been only temporarily together.
Back at the A-Z trail I asked Sean if he wanted to go back and he said that he wanted to hike Field also, so we went right on A-Z and then left (south) at the junction with the Willey Range trail.
The Willey Range trail was well packed, but somewhat softer than what we had been on previously...at least the MSRs were a little quieter than they had been, but not much. We were both amused that a couple of the trail signs were down around our feet in the snow. We met a woman hiking the loop solo in the opposite direction who was carrying a sheet of plastic for sledding the descents.
After the final short steep climb to the summit and some time enjoying the views west toward the Bonds and Franconias, as well as northeast toward the Presidentials, we set off down the Avalon trail in search of some good butt sledding. All in all, my son seems to slide a lot more efficiently than I do and needs less of a slope to keep moving, but there were a couple of good long runs that we both enjoyed. Using the snowshoes as rudders to steer was also fun. A couple of times I walked behind him while he continued to slide down a marginally steep enough slope. Ah, youth!
We arrived back at the Highland Center at 3:30 (about 5 hours total time including several stops). Sean declared that the gray jays and the butt luge had made the day a fun one after all.
Ed
