Tripyramids

What is the best/easiest way up Tripyramids in the winter?

We did it last Winter from the Kanc via the Pine Bend Brook trail. Check out our Trip Report for a map and photos. It took us 3 hours to reach the North Peak - another 40 minutes to reach the Middle Peak - at a leisurely pace

There is a fairly "easy" bushwack route from the west. I did this as an AMC trip with Gene Daniell several years ago, I think Tom Sawyer was the co-leader. We went directly for the col between the North and Middle peaks. The woods were wide open, and although there were a couple of steep parts, overall it was a direct and short way to do them.

I did it from Livermore over Scaur and it took us allot longer than Bob and Geri. We left at 9am from the trailhead and reached North Tripyramid at 1:30pm, the snow was unbroken and we didn't have snowshoes but this is a long haul anyway from the Waterville side. Some of the best glissading IMO is off North Tripyramid, almost like a bobsled run!

I am a pretty close to book time hiker--the book says that the Livermore-Scaur Ridge is 12.1 7hr 35min. The Pine Bend is 8mi 6 hrs 50 min.
First off are my distances correct? Second since the times are about comperable if they are correct which of the two would be easier?
Thanks

I looked at both my Map Adventures map and teh AMC Guide - 26th edition which disagree slightly.

I believe it is 6.6 miles and 4:45 to hit both the North and Middle peaks starting at Livermore Road. 3.8 miles of this is on Livermore road so a gentle, but steady uphill- not many turns.

Via Pine Bend Brook it is 4.8 miles in 4:00 - this includes one steep section, but you get a great butt slide on the descent.

If you are a good XC skiier the Livermore Road route would be better. If not, I'd go for Pine Bend Brook as we recently did the Livermore road route and that walk on the way out is very long!

tycho_32 said:

I am a pretty close to book time hiker--the book says that the Livermore-Scaur Ridge is 12.1 7hr 35min. The Pine Bend is 8mi 6 hrs 50 min.
First off are my distances correct? Second since the times are about comperable if they are correct which of the two would be easier?
Thanks

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Is there a "winter booktime" that I am unaware of ? I often wonder why people reference booktimes in the winter when I would think the travell would change from one snowstorm to the next.
Perhaps a general rule of thumb like double the time below treeline and half the time above or something like that?

Winter 'book time'

There are as many ways to questimate winter travel times as there are hikers. For planning, & setting a turnaround time, I've found that increasing book time by 50 % on the ascent works well for me. To estimate the descent, (for returning on the same trail) I halve the ascent estimate, and refine that by halving the actual ascent time once on the hike. Being 'old school', I rarely do loops in the winter, unless I know the trail to be well traveled (e.g. meeting lots of folks coming the other way, or planning a popular route such as Franconia loop). For returing on long flat sections (e.g. North Twin Trail slog from last stream crossing after a long day, or walking on a FS road), halving would be optimistic, so I just use booktime for that section.
Ed

Kevin Rooney said:

My hats off to bobandgeri for reaching N. Peak in 3 hours - they must have been flying. I usually leave my pack on North, go over & back to Middle, and then have a bite to eat in the opening on North. I rate the Tri's as one of the tougher trips to do the winter, certainly in the top 10.

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We had perfect conditions that day - a well packed trail with no ice, easy stream crossings, and lots of sunshine. Guess that conditions can really make a differance, as we would rate that hike as an easier Winter hike - at least on that day, compared to others we have done.

dms said:

There is a fairly "easy" bushwack route from the west...The woods were wide open, and although there were a couple of steep parts, overall it was a direct and short way to do them.

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I have also done this bushwhack but with only one other person, a woman nearly done with the W111. Of course we had to break it out and it took over 10 hours, fortunately found well-packed trail at ridge.

I have also done PB, Sabbaday, and S Slide-Scaur, the latter is the most interesting but requires more breaking. I agree with KR that Pine Bend is the easiest but I think it's merely average for winter 4K - I can name 2 dozen that are harder.

And yes, there are over 2 dozen brook crossings on PB so you should either go when its cold and they're frozen or when it's warm enough that even if you get your butt wet you can continue - happened to somebody on a trip.

As for times, I used to figure an average of 1.3 mph on out-and-back snowshoe trips, that is 1 mph going and 2 mph returning. For trips where you had to switch to crampons, the time would grow greatly particularly with groups of beginners.

In "true" winter several years ago I did them via the Livermore Trail from the Kanc - up over a ridge and then down again before actually climbing the summits via Scaur Ridge; this adds to the elevation you have to climb - you'd be better off coming in from Waterville Valley if you go this way.

This year in early spring (packed and icy rather than deep powder) I did them via the Sabbaday Brook Trail, which is only steep near the top of the ridge but shouldn't be too bad if you have crampons or snowshoes, depending on the conditions.

I think all the routes from the north would be doable in winter without too much trouble.

Has anyone done the North and South Slides during the winter? I was thinking about taking a look at them. I figure that they would be about a grade WI 2 ice/snow climb.

bobandgeri said:

We did it last Winter from the Kanc via the Pine Bend Brook trail.

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This is how I did it too. It was well packed and even though it was a Sat. I didnt see a soul. I was lucky enough to see my first(and only) fisher chillin' on the rock wall at the very start of the trail.

Woody48 said:

Has anyone done the North and South Slides during the winter? I was thinking about taking a look at them. I figure that they would be about a grade WI 2 ice/snow climb.

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I have been up S Slide 4 times and it is not that bad, wore snowshoes sometimes but never crampons. Twice went down Scaur Trail and twice bushwhacked near slide.

Did N Slide once in Nov with a couple inches of snow and never felt like trying it in real winter although presumably real ice climbers would find it trivial.

RE N Slide:

My guess is that avy hazard would be the big issue in winter if the snow starts to cover the rocks. Otherwise it is likely to be mixed rock and ice scrambling.

I've been up it in fall with a bit of ice here and there.

There was a report here of a bunch of skiers that skied it last winter. You could search for it.

Doug

north slide

I just posted Trail Conditions for the North Slide. Short version: take the Scaur Ridge trail instead. Can't tell you what what the slide is like under lots of snow or ice, but right now (with a dusting over slick slabs) it's downright treacherous. I figure it will be much easier later in the season, when crampons and ice tools should have something to bite into.