Whitewall Mt 6/25

[Barbarossa]

Anyone interested in a bushwhack on Saturday? Leave Zealand Rd at the crack of dawn and head south! If things go well, there are two other unnamed peaks on the same ridge.

Pace: On the slow side of medium

What could be more fun than getting lost in the woods?

 

[bill bowden]

whitewall

You've picked one of the neatest bushwhacks in the White Mountains. saturday looks dreadfully hot however. As a suggestion: take the A-Z trail from its intersection with the Zealand trail up toabout 2550 feet then turn right and walk up a fern-filled birch forest almost to the summit of Whitewall. The summit itself offers panoramic open views of the Pemigewasset wilderness. There's a very crude route which will take you to a cairn on the top of the whitewall cliffs and you can then walk along the clifftop with great views again. there's an easy descent to the Ethan Pond trail (boggy near the trail) and a very steep potential descent in a gully/chimney down the cliffs (it was too scary for me, but I'm a wuss).
the route over to the other two peaks is majorly boggy with 3 small ponds and extensive areas with insect eating bog plants. The direct route to the higher peak (West Field NHHH) from the boggy area is very steep and thick with big rocks. We reloaded and approached from the west for an easier approach to a viewless summit. There are/were registers on the summits of west Field and whitewall but none on the unnamed third peak.

Good luck, let us know how you make out

 

[Brian]

Chimney decent on Whitewall

Bill,

Could you tell me where this chimney is? We have made an ascent up the cliffs just to the south of the slide from the Zeacliff trail junction. Its a nice scramble on reasonably trustworthy rock (given that most of the rock is loose and junky). Its a nice thrill for those of us who are not technical climbers but not so thrilling that you need to belay yourself with ropes for protection. We have called the bare summit "Mackreth Knoll" and have done the ascent twice up this route and come down the slide (we have never bothered to bushwhack to the real summit and don't really have any desire to). If this chimney is on the south end of the cliffs that would make for a nice loop hike over nice open rock at the top. Sounds really great. Maybe that chimney is more solid than the chute we use. Maybe we should not be so lazy and check out the rest of the cliffs...we have never ventured beyond their beginning at the Zeacliff junction!

Brian