onrhodes
New member
My friend Erik and I hiked Madison and Adams on Sunday. The weather could not have been more perfect for this time of year.
We left Concord, NH at 6:15 and quickly got to Appalachia. Not too many cars in the lot at this time. It was a brisk 10 degrees too.
We quickly change and got on our way up Valley Way. The trail is pretty rock solid. I had my snowshoes strapped to the pack, but they were completely unneccessary all day. Hindsight tells me I should have left them at the car.
Erik and I are both recovering from colds that have leveled people in both our offices. He was still a bit stuffy and I was just tired. Our pace was good, but not as fast as normal. We were both amazed when at one point stopping for water two people passed us. 1 guy in a t-shirt and a girl wearing nothing up top but a sports bra. It had to easily be 15 degrees, and here is this girl wearing just a sports bra.....totally crazy in my mind.
We had to stop just above treeline to put on crampons. The wind was only around 10 MPH or so. The hike up Madison was very quick and relatively easy. The views were execeptional too. Had some coffee to warm up and ate a quick lunch.
After a quick descent back down to the hut we were trying to decide which way to go. We decided on the short route via Star Lake. This was probably a numb (read dumb) idea in hindsight. The trail was wicked steep. Luckily the snow was wicked hard. We could see cracks in the snowpack at points though. I just kept imagining a sudden cracking noise and then sliding down the mountain. This was more my morbid thought process then any chance of it really happening. I liked this route because it was hard, very hard. Probably the hardest of all the hikes I have every done in the Whites (so far). Being so difficult was what made it so much fun though.
Once up on Adams we had more great views. It was tempting to consider Jefferson too, but that was out of the question given our promise to spouses to be home by 6pm.
The descent down Airline was slick. We wanted to take off the crampons at times, but every time it seemed like a good idea, it just got icy again. Even into the treeline, the trail was so steep we decided to keep using crampons all the way back to the car.
This was by far the most beautiful winter hike I have done to date. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that winter hiking is much easier to some extent then summer. All the snow makes the grades much more consistent, so making good time is easier. The downhills are way faster too, at least for me.
This was a total time of 7:30 including about an hour worth of stopping. We both were pretty beat the last 2 miles out, but once back to the car I felt pretty good with some food in me again.
I'll post a link later to some of my pictures. I have yet to download them.
I've also got a video to do too.
-Pete
We left Concord, NH at 6:15 and quickly got to Appalachia. Not too many cars in the lot at this time. It was a brisk 10 degrees too.
We quickly change and got on our way up Valley Way. The trail is pretty rock solid. I had my snowshoes strapped to the pack, but they were completely unneccessary all day. Hindsight tells me I should have left them at the car.
Erik and I are both recovering from colds that have leveled people in both our offices. He was still a bit stuffy and I was just tired. Our pace was good, but not as fast as normal. We were both amazed when at one point stopping for water two people passed us. 1 guy in a t-shirt and a girl wearing nothing up top but a sports bra. It had to easily be 15 degrees, and here is this girl wearing just a sports bra.....totally crazy in my mind.
We had to stop just above treeline to put on crampons. The wind was only around 10 MPH or so. The hike up Madison was very quick and relatively easy. The views were execeptional too. Had some coffee to warm up and ate a quick lunch.
After a quick descent back down to the hut we were trying to decide which way to go. We decided on the short route via Star Lake. This was probably a numb (read dumb) idea in hindsight. The trail was wicked steep. Luckily the snow was wicked hard. We could see cracks in the snowpack at points though. I just kept imagining a sudden cracking noise and then sliding down the mountain. This was more my morbid thought process then any chance of it really happening. I liked this route because it was hard, very hard. Probably the hardest of all the hikes I have every done in the Whites (so far). Being so difficult was what made it so much fun though.
Once up on Adams we had more great views. It was tempting to consider Jefferson too, but that was out of the question given our promise to spouses to be home by 6pm.
The descent down Airline was slick. We wanted to take off the crampons at times, but every time it seemed like a good idea, it just got icy again. Even into the treeline, the trail was so steep we decided to keep using crampons all the way back to the car.
This was by far the most beautiful winter hike I have done to date. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that winter hiking is much easier to some extent then summer. All the snow makes the grades much more consistent, so making good time is easier. The downhills are way faster too, at least for me.
This was a total time of 7:30 including about an hour worth of stopping. We both were pretty beat the last 2 miles out, but once back to the car I felt pretty good with some food in me again.
I'll post a link later to some of my pictures. I have yet to download them.
I've also got a video to do too.
-Pete
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