The Baldplates (Grafton Notch State Park) - Friday, March 30th, 2012

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roadtripper

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The girlfriend and I bailed on our plans to ski @ Sunday River and instead went out and hiked the Baldplates last Friday.

Conditions:
Conditions were variable. The first 1/2 of the hike was 1-3 inches of snow with no ice. After that, it was 2-5 inches of snow with some sections with VERY thick ice underneath. We wore stabilicers but really should have brought Microspikes. We made the summit of West Baldplate fairly easy enough, but when we tried to scoot over to East Baldplate, we realized that the Stabilicers wouldn't cut it. The trail heading down from West Baldplate was steep and EXTREMELY slippery. One could almost argue that crampons were needed.

No mud anywhere, which was nice. River crossings all OK.

The Baldplates are definitely an under-appreciated pair of mountains. They aren't 4,000-footers, so they don't get much attention. However, the views are outstanding and there are many great camping opportunities in the area (the Baldplate Shelter/Lean-to is awesome). We'll be back in the summer to check out the views from East Baldplate.

- Roadtripper
 
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