chas
New member
Sunday was an absolutely perfect day to climb, hardly any wind and mild temps combined to make for a very enjoyable trip. I set out at 8:30am from the cog parking lot with the primary goal of summiting Washinton and would try for Monroe as well if conditions looked good, and I felt like I wasn't too tired. It was my first time on the Ammonoosuc trail having only climbed Washington before from the Pinkham Notch side and the plan was to go up via the Ammo trail, over the summit, and down the Jewell trail back to my car.
The climb up the Ammo was interesting, a basically flat trail that turns very steep with little transition between the two (yikes!). I put the crampons on just before the pool and kept them on all the way past the hut and up Monroe. They were a definite necesity on the steep sections of the Ammo trail but I could have made the climb of Monroe without them. Took them off and went all the way up to the summit of Washington and down the Jewell trail back to the car with bare boots. There seems to be more snow and ice on the Ammo, I guess it gets less sun that the Jewell trail. I did see some snow on the Jewell trail when I got down to the higher scrub but it wasn't steep enough to bother with crampons and the lower sections of the trail are very dry.
It was a fun day to be up there. I saw only five others on the summit of Washington and a few more down in the Great Gulf, they were skiing a chute there, looked VERY steep! Someone was inside Lake of the Clouds hut washing windows. The Cog railroad is gearing up for operation too, they had one train running and halfway up the mountain. The smoke from that thing was incredible.
A few pictures can be seen HERE, they will give an idea of how little snow is left up high.
Chas.
The climb up the Ammo was interesting, a basically flat trail that turns very steep with little transition between the two (yikes!). I put the crampons on just before the pool and kept them on all the way past the hut and up Monroe. They were a definite necesity on the steep sections of the Ammo trail but I could have made the climb of Monroe without them. Took them off and went all the way up to the summit of Washington and down the Jewell trail back to the car with bare boots. There seems to be more snow and ice on the Ammo, I guess it gets less sun that the Jewell trail. I did see some snow on the Jewell trail when I got down to the higher scrub but it wasn't steep enough to bother with crampons and the lower sections of the trail are very dry.
It was a fun day to be up there. I saw only five others on the summit of Washington and a few more down in the Great Gulf, they were skiing a chute there, looked VERY steep! Someone was inside Lake of the Clouds hut washing windows. The Cog railroad is gearing up for operation too, they had one train running and halfway up the mountain. The smoke from that thing was incredible.
A few pictures can be seen HERE, they will give an idea of how little snow is left up high.
Chas.
