| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2005-02-27 12:46:38 UTC-0500 |
| Description |
Franconia Ridge South February 26th, 2005 Christiaan, Eric, Polly, and Alex What a spectacular day on the ridge! We had a great hike across the southern half of the Franconia Ridge, enjoying the cloud-free views, very light winds, and thick snows. After another late Friday night shaking our booty to a salsa beat, we got up at 5am, and the four of us were on our way to NH by 5:45. A quick drive got us to Lincoln for the requisite Dunkin Donuts fillup around 7:30, and to the trailhead at the Flume gorge around 8am. We started out towards the Liberty Spring Trail at 8:30. At the junction with the Flume Slide trail, we paused briefly to reflect on the fact that the flume slide was again not broken, and remembered our previous attempt 2 weeks ago, which was turned back within 1/4 mile of the summit by waist deep snow. Pushing our luck, we decided to take the Flume Slide anyway! It's a long, slowly rising hike up the valley to the base of Mount Flume, and then one of the steepest hikes in the Whites, up the angled side of Mt Flume. Most of the trail had only 6 inches of light powder on it, with some deeper stuff near the top. Tough going on that slope, but nothing compared to last time. We bare-booted most of the way, until it became steep enough for crampons to be useful. At the junction with the Franconia Ridge Trail, Eric realized that his camera had fallen off of his pack and went back down the trail to look for it, with little hope of finding it in the deep snow. Christiaan, Polly and Alex continued the 100 yards to the summit. It was around 1pm, so we had some lunch and looked at the spectacular views in all directions. Eric returned without his camera, but with two other groups of hikers behind him. The trail from Mt Flume to Mt Liberty was unbroken, though a faint indentation was visible in most places to keep us on track. Eric led, wearing the only pair of snowshoes we had with us... oops. But the Gilbertson hiking machine cleared a good trail, while the rest of us tried not to post-hole too often behind him. Tiring work! On the summit of Mt Liberty, it was a little windier, but still beautiful. We paused for some photos and soon continued north towards Little Haystack Mtn. The two miles, while previously broken, was soft. We sank in often, making it a hard hike for the late afternoon, when we were tired already. We paused often to rest our feet and take photos of the golden late afternoon light filtering down through the snow in the trees. It was really a magical scene. Fueling up on chocolate and hot coffee from thermos, we made it to Little Haystack as the sun was getting low in the sky (around 3:30 or 4:00, I think). We were going slower than expected, and didn't want to be above treeline after dark, so we set aside our dreams of a Franconia Traverse, and decided to descend the Falling waters trail. We soon removed our crampons made a rapid descent, boot-glissading much of the way down. It got dark about halfway out, so we continued with headlamps to the trailhead at Lafayette Place. Now, of course, we were still 4 miles and two freeway exits north of the car... After asking several groups of hikers and one snow mobile for a ride, Christiaan finally lucked out and got a ride from two fellows who had pulled into the parking lot to look at their map. They dropped him off at the Flume, and he brought the car up to pick up the rest of the relieved group. Dinner at the Common Man in Lincoln was great as always, sitting next to their awesome fireplace. We introduced Eric to some european culture, and won over a fan of Belgian style mussels. On the way back to Cambridge, Eric and Polly slept in the back, while Alex tried in vain to keep himself awake... eventually drifting off into dreams of snowy peaks, drifted trails, and another wonderful day in the mountains! -Christiaan Adams 2/27/05 |