Southern Presidentials in Winter

[Mike Henrick]

A little day hike I did in New Hampshire: http://imgur.com/a/31hGv

[Jake D]

Nice. white Whites ;)

[Bob Moulder]

Schweeeeet!!

That was an unusually spectacular day. Congrats on the great timing!

I almost never feed wildlife, but I've been known to give up a peanut or 2 for the gray jays. They'll follow you around all day.

[peter tooke]

Beautiful – beautiful place, beautiful day – getting up there is on my must do list this winter but a 6 hour+ plus drive from NYC, so forecasting the weather just a tad trickier. But I will try to make a couple of times.
Now for a little mind picking: What was your entire itinerary/route? And time from start to finish? Be nice to get an idea as I've only done a bit of winter trekking but I've read that Pierce is a good moderate climb to start with.
Also, may I ask what snowshoes you wore and how you liked them?

Thanks-

pete

[Jake D]

not the OP but for the traction choices.. most folks in the whites bring snowshoes and microspikes. The popular trails get packed out nicely and microspikes are way easier to walk in as long as you are not stomping through. (then please please switch to snowshoes)

for me my MSR Evo Tours are great.. the heel lift is amazing for going uphill without killing your calves.

[Mike Henrick]

Glad you all liked them!

Answers:
I took the crawford path (AT) up and back. Jackson was an optional side trip but we got a later start and made a bit slower time than expected. Also heard from some other hikers that the blow downs on that trail were terrible from the last storm.

We started out in microspikes (must have for the whites) but the packed trail softened at around 3500 feet so we switched to snowshoes. Sadly a group of 7 postholers wrecked the trail from Pierce to Eisenhower and we did our best to repair it, only to pass more postholers on the way out. It's really inconsiderate to post hole since you make these ankle breaking traps instead of smoothing out a nice path. We left the highland visitor center at 9 am and got back at 4:15, I think it was a 9 mile round trip. Overall the southern half of the crawford path is very nicely graded for the whites, almost no steep parts. Definitely a great first hike if the weather is good but if it's cold and winds are above 20 mph you better have some solid systems to prevent frostbite on your face. You'll be exposed for most of the way between Pierce and Eisenhower.

I use MSR denali evo something or other's but recommend the lightning ascents if you're looking – they shed sticky snow better and seem to have equal grip.

[peter tooke]

Thanks, just the information I wanted and much appreciated. Sounds like a good itinerary for getting my winter shoes wet (not)… just received a pair of MSR's new Revo explorers from Santa, so will give these a try soon down here in NY when I can find some snow…

happy new years all

[Author]

Posts