Tom, Field, & Avalon 2/24/2008

This is it, my first winter hike of 4000'ers. I left the house at 4:45am and arrived in Crawford Notch at about 7:30. I had never been to this area before and it's winter so parking was a little difficult. I parked over at the base of the Mt. Clinton Road after speaking with a nice gentleman at the AMC's Highland Center. Parking here adds about .6 miles to today's hike. On the way in, I took a picture of the first peak of the day, Mount Tom. It's amazing how blue the sky is in these photos.

I started my hike at about 7:45 and found the trails well broken out. I passed the Willard Trail in just a few minutes and already was breaking a sweat. It's a nice day and no chance of really cold temperatures so I didn't worry about the sweating. I just slowed down a bit and tried to keep a good pace. I was the first on the mountain, but Soon found there were some Winter Campers just past the junction with the A-Z Trail. I headed towards Mt. Tom first and followed the A-Z Trail all the way to the Tom Spur.

The Tom Spur wasn't much of a problem and I soon found myself upon the views of the Pemigewasset Wilderness. Besides the Gray Jay's I was all alone at my 7th 4000' summit. This is also winter 4000' #1 for me. The views were great and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Mt. Washington is easy to see as it is only about 9 or 10 miles away.

---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------

I then got back on the trail after a brief snack in the trees. It was a little windy on the west side of the Mountain. I didn't take the time to layer up as I figured that keeping myself moving would keep me warm. I soon found that the wind was just as strong on the Willey Range Trail which caused the trail to be windblown for about half the trek over to Mt. Field. Breaking trail wasn't too bad as I only had to do it off and on for half a mile or so.

I reached the top of Mt. Field (4000' #8 Winter #2) and looked at more of the spectacular views of the Pemi.

I told my wife I would turn around by noon, and I reached Field at 11:45 so instead of heading over to Willey, I headed down the Avalon Trail to Avalon Mtn. I got a later start then I was banking on this morning. I didn't realize the drive up would take so long. So far though, the drive was well worth it. I had a beautiful day out in nature with the views of the whites. Not much can make a day like this better.

I followed the Avalon trail to the Avalon Spur path. The trip down was tough on my knees and honestly I could have barebooted it, but I didn't want to chance postholing the trail for everone else who would be following me today.

I got on the Avalon spur path which is by far the steepest part of the day. I almost put on my heel raisers on my snowshoes but I decided against it. I have never actually used the Heel Raisers anywhere, and this would have been the perfect place to test them out. Next time I get the opportunity I will give them a shot just to see how well they work.

Once on top of Avalon you could see the Crawford Notch. Considering this whole hike is so close to the notch, this is the first view of the day of the Notch itself.

I can then look to the right and see Mt. Willey and wonder what the view would be like there. I'll definitely be doing Willey soon. There is so much history in this area that it is hard to not think about it all, but I decided to keep going down. There is a lot of good butt-sliding on the way down, but I decided to stay on my feet for the most part. The trail was well traveled and was just icy enough to rip my pants.

Once down I hiked the .3 miles back to the car and headed home. This was a great hike and for my first winter peaks, I could not have picked a better day. The temperature was 41 as I drove through North Conway and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I will definitely be back to visit.