| Summary | None |
| Owner | Aaron Yahr |
| Creation Date | 2009-02-18 07:16:43 UTC-0500 |
| Description | Presidential Semitraverse
Feb. 16, 2009 Matt B and Aaron Y Pinkham Notch to Crawford Notch via Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, Pierce, and Jackson 15 mi, 5600 ft It began with Petek’s idea to hike a president for President’s Day. I was thinking along the lines of multiple, but then Eric G surfaced and proposed an assload of presidents. So we ended up with two groups- one doing a full traverse and one doing Washington to Jackson. Matt and I started just before 715a from Pinkham Notch. After the recurrent -10F temps during winter school, single digits felt hot as we kept a decent pace up Lion’s Head. By the time we reached the alpine garden, the sky was completely undercast. Not a cloud above us as we could see clear to the Washington summit, Boott Spur, and the top of Tuckerman’s. It was bright enough for sunburn, but too windless for a hood or facemask- an unfortunate combination for my now red face. As we reached the base of the summit cone we got our first views to the west- a dense sea of clouds at around 4000-5000 ft with Franconia Ridge sticking out in the distance. We hit the still calm and sunny summit before 11a and checked the register to find we were already over an hour behind the full traverse group. So much for running into them on the ridge. We then hiked down to Monroe for our final views of the day. The remainder of the ridge walk was spent almost entirely in the clouds or fog, with visibility occasionally dropping down to hundreds of feet. Ironically, the windiest spot of the day wound up being atop the “unexposed” Mt Jackson. After enduring less than eventful slog from the Mizpah Hut to Jackson, we were rewarded with various forms of glissading down to Crawford. By 6p we were off and greeted at the Highland Center by the full traverse group bearing plates of hot, scrumptious meatballs. -AY |