Mt. Lincoln - 1/16/10

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marty

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With more moderate temps, Rols and I decided that we would do something that would get us up high and above the treeline. Our thoughts to do Washington vanished when we saw the forecasted high winds, so we decided on a very worthy plan B: Haystack and possibly Lincoln via Falling Waters.

We met around 6:15 and geared up. Some friendly dude stopped by to chat. Turned out it was Mtnpa (Mike). Great to see you again, my friend :cool:

The trail was in great shape, except for some blowdowns. Crossings were bridged over and the upper falls was almost fully ice covered, as this photo with Rols would suggest:

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We then found some "Falling Waters" that froze, at a location just above and to the left of the falls:

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We went on the ice directly above the falls and snapped this west facing shot toward S. Kinsman, etc.:

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We got to Little Haystack and met the wind. Temps were probably in the teens, but the wind was blowing hard. The mountains were in and out of the clouds. I did snap a photo of a partially clouded Lincoln from Little Haystack:

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We decided to go for Lincoln, put on our Kahtoola Steel Crampons :cool: and bundled up for the exposed ridge walk. Winds were strong and gusty, probably exceeding 40 mph. We kept moving at a quick pace for the most part, but I did stop for one photo when the Pemi and other mountains to the east were out of the clouds:

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We made it to the Lincoln summit, where the winds were actually not too bad for the most part. Pulled out my camera and my batteries and spares were all dead :rolleyes: No, they were not Alkalines. I just screwed up. BAD MARTY! More missed photo ops. I will post more photos if Rols sends me some of his........

We then headed back and the winds were even stronger in a couple of spots. We got knocked around a bit in places, but kept our balance. Winds must have been near 50 mph in one place. We then got back below treeline, put on our snowshoes and descended to the Shining Rock junction for lunch. We then went to Shining Rock (highly recommended), returned to Falling Waters and descended in warm temps and softer snow.

It was a great hike and a nice challenge to tackle Lincoln in high winds. Always great to hike with Rols!

Regards,
Marty
 
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Nice trip report, Marty. Falling Waters is such a great Winter route and any day on Franconia Ridge is a good one. A fair number were out enjoying the route. The day was even made better by having Marty's good companionship. It was my first trip on Kahtoola steel crampons. I was very pleased with their performance. They had the same bite as my Grivel G10 but I liked the shorter points on the rhime covered rock.
 
two more pix!

Thanks for the kind replies, Mike and Rols!

Here are two more pix, courtesy of Rols:

The first is a photo of Lincoln in the clear:

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This one is me on the Lincoln summit, with the clouds engulfing us, feeling good in my Kahtoola Steel Crampons :cool::

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Marty
 
Good to see you Marty. How did your date go? :cool:

Beautiful day on the ridge. I headed across to Liberty. Sheltered from the wind the whole way, even on the summit.
 
my goodness Marty those are some beautiful photos, and Rols you too do not escape my kudos for your work too! :cool: look forward to hiking with you both before we know it.
 
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