Whiteface Attempt 3/30/2008

Today's hike is Mount Whiteface. My companion today is Van who I work with and who has been hiking for over 30 years. We stayed Saturday night at his cabin in Wonalancet which just happens to be the old Wonalancet Cabin owned by the AMC. We have both tagged the top of Whiteface before and it was easy enough for us to get to so we decided to do it today. The day was beautiful without a cloud in the sky.

We started on the trail a little after 9AM hoping that some friends of Van's had broken trail ahead of us. We didn't see their car at the trailhead so we figured on a beautiful day like today they probably went to the Presi's or Franconia Ridge. I don't blame them.

To the right is a picture of the sign showing where the Blueberry Ledge Cutoff Trail reconnects with the Blueberry Ledge Trail. This picture isn't as impressive as it looks as this sign is really only 3 feet tall. It's not uncommon in the White mountains to have trail signs hidden by snow.

The trail was flat as I remembered for a while, and soon we made it to the lower ledges where there are excellent views to the South. I could not help myself and I had to take a picture of the sky.

Soon after this point, the grade steepens and seems quite unrelenting. We met two hikers on the way down who had broken trail for us for the day. Not a lot of trail breaking was necessary as this is a popular mountain. They had given up at the col however and turned around.

Soon later we got to the point where we could see the false summit of Whiteface. The real summit is wooded and is the high point on the Rollins Trail heading to Passaconaway. I thought it was pretty cool to see the ledges with snow on them.

We did not stop long and kept moving and soon found where the other two hikers had turned around. It was evident why they turned around as the trail breaking got significantly worse with up to two foot snow drifts. Below is the picture I took of the Ledges of Whiteface.

Soon we got tired and had trouble finding the trail so we sat down at a place where we could get a view and ate lunch. We stood up, looked at eachother and knew it was time to go down. We did not have enough people to break trail easily and today was not about summits. It was more about getting some exercise in nature. We trompled down the mountain and as happened the whole trip, the snow was warm and balled up on our snowshoes. Van barebooted almost from the top and I switched on the south ledges. I stopped when Van switched to barebooting and took a picture of Chocoroua through the trees.

Overall this trip was great. The trip down wasn't as strenuous as the trip up and on a great day like today, who could complain.

South Moat 3/16/2008

I'm hiking solo again today. The forecast calls for possible rain or snow with winds picking up throughout the day so I picked a short hike today. South Moat and Middle Moat Mtns. I arrived at the trailhead on Dugway Rd after driving by it the first time at about 7:15 and hit the trail at 7:30. The crust of the snow at the base of the mountain was a little soft due to the warm weather the past few days and I was postholing a little for the first half mile or so even with my snowshoes. After about a mile I hit the bridge which goes over the Dry River. There was a lot of snow on the bridge, but it was flat so easy to cross.

I'm not even quite sure I would have needed a bridge today as the water is fairly low. I'm sure come spring though the bridge will be necessary.

I kept chugging along and eventually the trail gets much steeper. I put the heel lifters on my snowshoes up and took off. I had never had a reason to use the heel lifters as I feel they are really only useful on very steep ascents. They worked great however, and it saved my calves. The pictures showing how steep trails are never seem to translate, but here's my best shot.

I was pretty much in a cloud from about 1300' or so and higher. I was hoping the cloud would clear before I got to the top, but as you will see later, that didn't happen. I managed to lose the trail shortly after this about 2 miles or so in. I remember stopping for a rest next to a huge Red Pine tree and consciously looking at the yellow blaze painted on it. I couldn't find another blaze so I just started up what looked to maybe be a path. After about 100' of elevation I hit the top of the ridge and realized that I had in fact lost the trail.

I took out my map and my compass and figured the trail followed the ridge I was on roughly to the summit. I took about 100 paces towards where I figured the trail was and stumbled across a yellow blaze that was barely still in existence. Within 20 minutes or so I was in sight of the summit.

I continuted to hike to the summit where the trail suddenly got deeper due to the drifting snow. I sat down behind a rock for a minute and ate a cheese stick and drank the last of my crystal light flavored water. It would be regular water from here on out.

I then checked my GPS and it told me that I had hiked 2.2 miles. This seemed odd as I was at the right elevation for the summit and no matter what direction I walked in I was going down. I decided it was probably just wrong as GPS's can be and looked for the trail to Middle Moat.

I could not see middle moat, nor any sort of direction pointing towards a trail so I debated for a minute whether or not to continue. It was only .6 miles to the summit, but with visibility being poor, never having hiked these trails before, and my GPS possibly not working. I decided not to chance it and took the obligatory Summit Photo and headed down the mountain.

The hike down was quick and fairly easy. I passed a backcountry skiier and he broke out the trail better than I did i'm sure. I found a geocache by accident on the way up. I signed the register, but there was nothing to trade. All in all a great hike. I will have to do it again on a clear day though to get the views that everyone talks about.