Caps ridge in Winter

skiguy said:

Road warrior mentality. I lived even farther South into my early 20's and started driving North on my own when I was 17-18 years old. Much of the time at night as the roads were less busy. Which made the driving much of the time easier. Not that there wasn't some epic stories I could tell. Back in '75 or so driving the Kanc was interesting much of the time. I remember driving multiple times on the Kanc from Lincoln to Conway or visa versa in a snowstorm and maybe seeing one other vehicle and that was usually a logging truck. Coming out of the woods after 4 or 5 days and finding your car totally buried in snow was a real joy too.

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Winter is definitely the worst. Had many nightmarish rides up and back in the snow. Maybe the worst was 4-5 years ago when I did Isolation for the "list". I got out of the woods almost 3 hours later than planned thanks to an epic fail Engine Hill bushwhack. I was driving a Hyundai Accent at the time and I knew I was heading back into snow at home. By the time I got to Worcester it was full on blizzard conditions. I live on top of a hill and could not find a route I could climb to get to my street because of the winding curves. Spun out and had to retreat down over and over. Circled back and forth on various routes until finally I just got on the gas, drove on the wrong side of the road against traffic and just went for my street, narrowly avoiding the snowbanks as I fishtailed across. I think the 3h 45m ride home took 6 1/2 hours that night. Good times....

Glad that worked out for you, BtH. Zippy just posted on NETC that he removed several blowdowns today that you crawled under on Jewel yesterday. Maybe this loop hike will finally become popular this winter.

Dr. Dasypodidae said:

Glad that worked out for you, BtH. Zippy just posted on NETC that he removed several blowdowns today that you crawled under on Jewel yesterday. Maybe this loop hike will finally become popular this winter.

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It comes down to the parking. Of course Dr. “D” you remember the days when the base road was not plowed.

skiguy said:

It comes down to the parking. Of course Dr. “D” you remember the days when the base road was not plowed.

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Oh, for sure. The shortest winter route to Jeff back in the day was from Rte 2.

At the end of January 1972, three of us made a moonlit, south-to-north traverse of the Presi’s from Crawford’s to Appalachia, with the headlights of snow machines running the Mount Clinton Road visible below. An added bonus was a lunar eclipse for our time between Mt. Washington and Edmand’s col, where there were two pair of Alaskan snowshoes stuck in a snowdrift next to the old, steel inverted culvert, refuge shelter. We lingered long enough to make some wolf howls through the entry tunnel and kept going to arrive at a crowded Gray Knob cabin in time for breakfast. We then descended to Appalachia, arriving about 9 am.

We had begun our traverse about 3 pm, spent a couple hours hunkered down in the Lakes basement refuge room waiting to see if a cloud bank would lift, and when it did boogied on up to the old MWO building on the summit where we arrived about midnight and encountered a hiker with hypothermia who had ascended from Tucks. We banged on the inner door of the MWO to raise the two observers who dragged the hypothermic guy inside for warming and then continued on our way north. So 18 hours for a winter Presi traverse is really slow by today’s standards, but we did a lot of postholing as we went sans snowshoes, which were really heavy in those days.

Dr. Dasypodidae said:

We had begun our traverse about 3 pm, spent a couple hours hunkered down in the Lakes basement refuge room waiting to see if a cloud bank would lift, and when it did boogied on up to the old MWO building on the summit .

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Nothing like the ever present rarified air of “The Dungeon”. Haven’t been in there in decades with no plan to return anytime soon.

Great job, OP. I've done that a couple of times in opposite direction. But not in full-on winter or even in the new climate-affected winter. I am curious to know how long it would take in winter conditions to go up Caps Ridge though. Usually that is 1:30 in non-winter conditions for those like me who take baby steps but otherwise do not stop for rests. I am slow but I do not stop.

NHClimber said:

Great job, OP. I've done that a couple of times in opposite direction. But not in full-on winter or even in the new climate-affected winter. I am curious to know how long it would take in winter conditions to go up Caps Ridge though. Usually that is 1:30 in non-winter conditions for those like me who take baby steps but otherwise do not stop for rests. I am slow but I do not stop.

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I have not hiked UP Caps Ridge in winter conditions, as I have been unwilling to make the long walk up J Notch Road since doing that to make an easy bushwhack to Mt Dartmouth about 25 years ago. But, I like skiguy’s suggestion to xc ski up to J Notch. I do not think that the scrambling on the Caps would be any more difficult going up than going down in winter, and perhaps easier. I also think that 1.5 hours up Caps Ridge to the summit of Jeff is fast is any season.

I do not think that the dungeon in winter is an option these days as it fills with ice close to the ceiling from lake overflow, I think.

Dr. Dasypodidae said:

But, I like skiguy’s suggestion to xc ski up to J Notch. I do not think that the scrambling on the Caps would be any more difficult going up than going down in winter, and perhaps easier.

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Years ago there used to be an annual xc ski marathon between Great Glen and Bretton Woods. They switched directions every year. The course used the Jefferson Notch road. The year I did it was GG -> BW. I remember going up to the notch from Rt 2 in ~1 hour and 15 minutes and then from the height of land down to the BW hotel in about 45 minutes. That was (trying to) racing though. I didn't have the 10 essentials...

NHClimber said:

Great job, OP. I've done that a couple of times in opposite direction. But not in full-on winter or even in the new climate-affected winter. I am curious to know how long it would take in winter conditions to go up Caps Ridge though. Usually that is 1:30 in non-winter conditions for those like me who take baby steps but otherwise do not stop for rests. I am slow but I do not stop.

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Building off of Dr. D's comments, the problem we encountered was that the trail was not broken out, nor was the Boundary Line Trail or the Jefferson Notch Rd, and we didn't have a lot of snow! My feet sank with every step on the road, or my microspikes dragged on the top of the snow, and it takes its toll after a while. There just wasn't a lot of snow on the Caps Ridge Trail, high or low, but even sinking a few inches step and after wears one down (or at least, it did for me). Whereas, Jewell was a highway.

OldEric said:

Years ago there used to be an annual xc ski marathon between Great Glen and Bretton Woods. They switched directions every year. The course used the Jefferson Notch road. The year I did it was GG -> BW. I remember going up to the notch from Rt 2 in ~1 hour and 15 minutes and then from the height of land down to the BW hotel in about 45 minutes. That was (trying to) racing though. I didn't have the 10 essentials...

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That was an interesting course. I did it twice back to back years so I went both ways. Certainly a waxing challenge with a race ski due to the elevation changes. I’ve done the route up Jefferson Notch from the base road up the caps numerous times. Always with AT gear so skins sure beat the heck out of blue extra or what ever it might be. As a note I really prefer going up Jefferson and then across the ridge and then ski down the Cog swath. I have also traversed over and then down Monroe Brook. Throw in a decent of Airplane gully on the way by and it makes for a full day. Lots of variations on skis but just like all Winter travel you take what you can get when it comes to the conditions. And no never skinned the caps. That’s a carry usually with crampons.

Dr. Dasypodidae said:

I do not think that the dungeon in winter is an option these days as it fills with ice close to the ceiling from lake overflow, I think.

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I guess that says something about climate change.

XC skis up Jefferson Notch Rd sounds like a good idea. Snowmachine is an option but seems not epic enough. Plus, there is a lot of sled traffic on that road and I wouldn’t want to leave a machine in the parking lot all day unattended. I bet the going is slow up the ridge even in moderate snow conditions for the reasons B the Hiker noted above.