Nelson Crag Trail

Upper Nelson Crag Trail

This trail doesn't see a whole lot of action in winter, so I thought that yesterday's relatively mild forecast would be a good day to give it a shot.

The Old Jackson Road is well packed out and makes for a sunny and pleasant approach to the Crag Trail ( the side trails to the Crew Cut, etc., all look to be packed out as well). Arriving at the Nelson Crag trail, I was not surprised to see an untouched trail obscured by many snowy overhanging branches. Thankfully, there wasn't too much drifting in the woods here, so the trail trench wasn't too hard to find, but quite a bit of "ski-pole machete" work was required just to get through much of the trail ( making martial arts sounds seems to help). The trailbreaking was not too bad, sinking around 4-6", although some sugary steep sections required a bit of floundering.

I lost the trail just as it emerges from the trees at around 4100', but could see a cairn sprouting from the ridgeline, so I just scurried over the rocks and (thankfully) firm snow and ice to get back on track. I wore Kahtoola KTS crampons for the rest of the day from this point.

There are great views into Huntington Ravine from here, but the lighting was pretty horrid for taking pictures in that direction at this time of day, with no clouds to diffuse the light. The trail winds over a few humps to a point where the auto road appears on the right, and then rears up over a steeper hump on it's way to the actual summit of Nelson Crag. This slope is quite icy right now.

The winds were picking up as forecasted, in the 50 mph range according to the hourly reports, and making for a nice little ground blizzard effect. Curiously, I needed to use both my facemasks and goggles to keep my face from freezing, but was quite comfortable with thin pile gloves on.

From here to the summit of Washie, the trail is very wind-scoured and full of jagged rocks, and fully exposed to NW winds. Hopping over Ball Crag and intersecting the auto road, I opted to take the auto road the final short bit to the summit.

Bombing down the Lions Head was fun as always, and the steeper sections are in fairly good shape. It does seem like more people are using ropes to descend sections of this trail, which I suppose is a good thing considering how steep it is in places.

This is a great route for a nice day, and would be one heckuva adventure under more arctic conditions!

A few more pix.

WOW. really great pics as usual, Tim!

thank you for sharing.

Really great stuff Tim! Incredible!!

I spent yesterday skiing at Wildcat, and conditions were perfect for enjoying the view of Nelson Crag and everything else on the east side of Mt.Washington. In fact, conditions were perfect, period - the best day I've spent at Wildcat, going back several decades. That includes absence of any breezes - not common there - but starting around 2 pm, we could see gusts kicking up swirls of powder from the Boott Spur ridge line. Conditions were so clear I might have seen you, but can't honestly say I did. It didn't occur to me someone might be climbing that Trail yesterday. In Winter, I would limit myself to Lowe's Bald Spot, in that vicinity, so I liked your pictures of a hike I would not undertake.

Tim Seaver said:

The winds were picking up as forecasted, in the 50 mph range according to the hourly reports, and making for a nice little ground blizzard effect. Curiously, I needed to use both my facemasks and goggles to keep my face from freezing, but was quite comfortable with thin pile gloves on.

Click to expand...

Warm hands is a weird science. Great pictures and TR.

Paradox said:

Warm hands is a weird science. Great pictures and TR.

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Hermann Buhl used to carry snowballs in his bare hands to keep them warm.........if you try it....make sure you have adequate gloves/mittens for backup

Enjoyed your pics - thanks. From the last pic it looks like there was a pretty good rain event not too long ago, judging from all the ice & boilderplate to your right.

Nice Pics! I'm heading up Lions head saturday to try and summit. We'll see how the temps are.

Tim,

Nice trip report. Nelson Crag Trail can be quite a challange at times. Looks like you had good conditions. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

As always, Incrediable photos and a great trail report.

You always make the simply amazing seem like a walk in the park for you!

Which of course, it is!

Thanks!

I had to read to see what planet that was. That's a very powerful image. I can feel the bite of the wind, yet I sit here enjoying a honey porter and fire. Thanks for sharing!

happy trails

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Sastrugi

Really fine photos, Tim. Your sastrugi shots remind me that Dave Breashears needed some additional video footage for his IMAX Everest film a few years ago, which he took near the summit of da Wash.

http://nsidc.org/snow/gallery/sastrugi1.html