the captain

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THE WINTER WONDERER

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Hudson N.H.
planning on climbing the captain this weekend we are heading in sawyer river trail, snowmobile trail, logging roads to the base and then the bushwack. has anybody gone in this way and if so what was your experience, thick brush, water crossings, ect. Any input would be great thanks.
 
planning on climbing the captain this weekend we are heading in sawyer river trail, snowmobile trail, logging roads to the base and then the bushwack. has anybody gone in this way and if so what was your experience, thick brush, water crossings, ect. Any input would be great thanks.

There is a water crossing right at the start which ended one trip quickly when I broke thru the ice to my waist :) , this can be avoided by a longer hike from Lily Pond down the ski trail

If you use the FOOT BRIDGE on the USGS map there are no other significant crossings

The bushwhack is mostly steep or thick or both :)
 
There is a creek in the col between South Hancock and the Captain that you may be able to use to make it to the Carrigain pond area. The back and top of the Captain is a one giant spruce trap. :eek:

It is a tough one depending on the conditions. :D
 
I've gone that way, but never in winter. Hamtero has it right, after the open area filters out, head slightly to the left and follow the brook going up the left side of the Captain. It's still going to get thick near the top but that is the best approach in winter.

If you would rather go to the right (towards Carrigain), head up early to avoid the cliffs, then swing around to Carrigain Pond.

Good luck!
 
It's fairly easy going from Carrigain Summit to Carrigain Pond. The Captain is a short -- and very gnarly -- 0.3 mi or so from there. The area around the pond sucks... stay to the South of the pond.

I've come in both from Carrigain Bowl and Desolation. The Desolation route is bad. Coming in from Carrigain Bowl will depend on what route you chose and what the conditions are like. When we came in from the Bowl, we kept to the West of the Captain and ended up in the very awful Hancock-Captain col. I understand, however, that there's a flume that when dry is an easy route to the summit. I've been out there twice and never summited although that's more due to me being a loser than not capable of summiting. I haven't been out there enough times to know what every route is like. Have fun! It can be discouraging at times but it's cool.

-Dr. Wu
 
Coming from the Bowl on the west side toward the Captain is a route that has been flagged by pink tape. It saved us coming out of there in summer once :( The area is a nightmare, especially with a large wide frame backpack that catches every branch. The col between Hancock and the west side of the Captain is the worst place this earth has to offer. Picture huge boulders, millions of downed trees, and every single spruce and fir at the same age of growth. Also, going from the south, there is a large cliff, with a flume which has been previously mentioned that can be very dangerous. It drops off at least 50 feet down, and hurting yourself out here is instant trouble. I came in from the north up Carrigain Branch, which is horrible as well. A distance of .1 or .2 can take 30 minutes. Very pretty area, just difficult. -Mattl
 
From the South (Carrigain Bowl): 2 options: approach The Captain from the Left or Right. As Frodo and Hamtero said, if you swing to the left of the Captain you end up in the Hancock/Captain col and you basically have to get lucky about picking a route. Some parts are ok other parts are horrible. There is a creek in the col but as I recall, on the right side (E) of the creek the trees are, in my opinion, impenetrable. I've never seen trees that I felt like I couldn't even push through if I tried.

Approaching The Captain from the right side of the Bowl: you'll have to start slabbing along the bulk of Carrigain early on to avoid the cliffs... I don't know what the woods are like there and I suspect that this is not a common route. However, the area just South of the pond but North of the cliffs is actually ok. On one failed attempt we headed South from the pond but were stopped by the cliffs... and then essentially followed the (imagined) Wilderness Boundary to Carrigain Summit. The woods were fairly tame. The areas North, West and East of the pond, however, is horrible.

Don't approach from Desolation unless you're planning on a long day. There are some very grown up logging roads that will be impossible to follow in the snow. Although maybe following Carrigain Brook, if it's frozen, could be a viable option. The woods surrounding, in that entire area, is pretty terrible.

NH_Mtn_Hiker did a few hikes from Hancock to The Captain -- do a search for those trip reports.

Approaching from Carrigain is easy but a little tricky probably in terms of navigation... if you wander off course you might end up somewhere bad. However, going from the Captain (or the pond) as I mentioned already is pretty easy.

-Dr. Wu
 
The Captain in winter? I really hope you know what you're doing. Here's a hint, if you have to ask, then you have NO IDEA what you're getting into.

I approached it from the bowl to the south, and in winter it will likely take you over 3 hours just to get to the first real bushwhacking this way. Then, it can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to summit the last mile or so. There is a slide on the eastern side that may be helpful, but I expect it to be covered in serious ice at this time of year.

Carrigain Pond is a very nice area. The woods to the south of it are -relatively- open. Going from the Captain and Carrigain Pond to Carrigain's summit was far easier than trying to gain the Captain's summit from the southern bowl.

My advice would be to summit Carrigain first, and make a beeline from Carrigain to the Captain. This way, you could follow a trail most of the way and avoid breaking trail as much as possible. Then, you could reverse direction and follow your own snowshoe tracks back out. Bring a couple headlamps, it will be a long day. Also, if you think summiting Carrigain first would take too much effort and extra elevation gain, then I would say you're probably biting off more than you can chew. This is one of the nastiest bushwhacks in New England.

Finally, Dr. Wu is pretty much spot on with his advice, and winter adds a whole new dimension of difficulty.
 
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My advice would be to summit Carrigain first, and make a beeline from Carrigain to the Captain. This way, you could follow a trail most of the way and avoid breaking trail as much as possible. Then, you could reverse direction and follow your own snowshoe tracks back out. Bring a couple headlamps, it will be a long day. Also, if you think summiting Carrigain first would take too much effort and extra elevation gain, then I would say you're probably biting off more than you can chew. This is one of the nastiest bushwhacks in New England - certainly harder than East Scar Ridge.
I would add that when going down from Carrigain towards the pond, pick your line carefully.... if you hang too far to the right (north) you'll hit thick, nasty stuff and also the pond is lined with cliffs on its Eastern shore. Hang too far to the left (South) and you risk missing the prominent cliffs on the Southern face of the Captain and now you're in the bowl.

Despite it being potentially more difficult, going in from the Bowl might be a safe bet. It's a long-ass hike on Sawyer River Road mind you but if you actually make it to The Captain, just bee-line to Carrigain. At least you'll be back on trails.

Are you guys doing this as a dayhike or a multi-day thing? if multi-day, people camp at Carrigain Summit and you can drink out of the privy errrr... well near the top.

-Dr. Wu
 
Years ago we did the Captain in the summer via sawyer river trail (when the sawyer river road was washed out for an extended period). We ran up the valley via the old logging road that roughly followed the stream until it stopped at a grown up logging yard. We then slabbed the valley to the right to avoid the cliffs we could see. Sounded like a good plan until we discovered that the cliffs that you can see turn into tree covered very steep slopes for quite a bit into the tree cover to the east side of the valley. We eventually worked our way up and over the steep spots by a combination of scrambling and pulling ourselves up with the local vegetation. we then worked our way to the pond and beelined from the pond to the summit. We did not locate a definable register but did cover the summit area for long enough to consider that we had crossed the high point at some time. This entire route went from darn thick spruce and fir with frequent blowdown to extreme thick almost impassable.

When we came down, we went through the woods in between two of the cliffs just east of the summit and eventually ended up following the stream bed out until we could switch back to the logging road. This route coming down was less thick while in the woods and kind of fun walking down the stream bed. Going back up that route in between the cliffs would be real steep and it would be easy to accidently end up as the base of a cliff.

Doing it in the winter is going to be a feat as the woods may be one big spruce trap. I havent done the route along the ridge from Carrigan but I dont see how it could be much worse. At least you will cover most of the mileage on a packed out trail.

Good luck, bring overnight bivy gear and realize that any rescUe response is going to take awhile due to the remoteness (unless they are cutting in the area this winter)!
 
I approached it from the bowl to the south, and in winter it will likely take you over 3 hours just to get to the first real bushwhacking this way. Then, it can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to summit the last mile or so. There is a slide on the eastern side that may be helpful, but I expect it to be covered in serious ice at this time of year.
I have been partway up the slide twice, it was easy snow but the slide leads too far R (E) so you want to leave it before the top to go to the pond and peak.

I'm not quite sure why anybody suggests coming from Carrigain, the extra distance and elevation gain is extreme particularly on the return and you still have the hard terrain from the pond to the summit. You can ski to the end of the logging road in the bowl shown on the AMC map to near the base of the slide, then a steep and somewhat thick climb to near the pond, then terrible to the summit. Easy walk back out logging road even in the dark. I have never been from Hancock col.

There is a 6' boulder near the SW corner of the summit with a register on top which is the highest thing within 50 feet horizontally, trees too thick to see farther. I can't be sure that there isn't a similar boulder lurking elsewhere, or that the far corner of the summit isn't higher if it slopes gradually up.
 
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