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Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 13:57:24 -0500 (EST) From: Deb Fraser Subject: Winter-like PresiTraverse Attempt Report Trip report: Winter-like Presidential Traverse Attempt During the Weekend of Leonids in November 2001 ---------------------------------------------- This is the long report of a small, unofficial trip to the White Mountains of NH from Nov. 16 to 18, 2001. The five participants were (in alphabetical order): Christine Aussibal, Hector Briceno, Deb Fraser, Christian Holtze, and An Nguyen. The plan was to do the Presidential Traverse from south to north as a 2.5 day winter-like backpack. Although not officially winter yet, the conditions were pretty much that of winter, hence we shall use the term "winter-like". The adventure started at the Student Center loading dock as so many adventurous hikes have started there. It might have been a bit misleading that two of us where in short sleeves, one even in shorts leaving for a winter hike, but this just shows how rugged our team was. We packed our two cars, had dinner at the Student Center and hit the road. On the drive up, we stopped near Woodstock for gas and coffee, and while feeding the cars with gasoline, we indulged in some homemade fudge that evoked our interest as it was displayed in the most appetizing manner. They even had Pumpkin! It was like sweet pumpkin pie. Loaded with fuel (gas, caffeine, and sugar), we continued our way up to the northern end of the Presidential Range to spot one car, some (Christian) thinking about how tough we were (what could be so hard about hiking at this time of year?) and others (Deb) about how crazy we were. Christian was surprised when we came to the Appalachia parking lot and found that there were already had 4 or 5 cars and various other tough people making preparations before a cold night in the rough wilderness. He was disappointed that we were not the only ones. At that point, Hector's car had to wear his backpack for the short drive to Crawford Path, while five people and loads of gear were squeezed inside. On the way to our actual starting point, Hector displayed a very considerate behavior for a hobby astronomer: switching off the headlights in the middle of Route 2, he managed to decrease light pollution drastically. Only momentarily at the passengers' encouragement, thankfully! And Christian noticed a patch of snow by the side of the road about the diameter of a hubcap, and got excited: "Did you see that snow!? Let's go skiing!" This suggestion was to become a common theme throughout the weekend. We arrived near the start of Crawford Path on the south end, and at 11:30 pm, we were all set: headlights on, bent over under the heavy weight of our backpacks we started a chilly night hike. Did you know that Crawford Path is the oldest consistently used trail in America? Yep, there is even a sign there that says so. First it was quite cool, but we gradually warmed up as we got moving. We faced the first patches of snow with: "Wow, let's go skiing!", but as we continued up the mountain, the footing got much more slippery with wet ice, we had a few minor spills among the group, and our pace slowed. We warmed up quite significantly with the exercise, fooling Hector: "It's much warmer up here, I think we've hit a temperature inversion." After two hours of hiking, Christian started to feel the decisive signals from his stomach that it wouldn't take long until starving to death. We were all getting quite tired by this point. But we did not stop. Hector was keeping us on pace to cover at least 2000 ft elevation gain, so we should more easily make our stretch the next day in daylight. It wasn't looking so good for finding a camping spot, but then at about 2:20 am Hector found this cozy spot in the woods off the trail that just seemed made for us. Then we had to set up camp, as we started to get cold. There was about 10 inches of snow cover/drift, maybe more in some spots. Shoving the snow with the flat end of the ice-axes, we managed to get two fairly leveled spots for our tents, and set them up. Hector had his 2-person single-wall winter tent which he and Christian shared, and the three ladies squeezed in a spacious 2-person 3-season tent. By 3:00 am we were in the tents. Hector proposed that we get up at 7:00am, giving us what he called a more-than-generous four hours of sleep. Thirty seconds later, Christian: "I was lying at five inches from Hector's snoring throat, while the girls were still talking in their tent. Soon after I also passed out." Deb: "Who's Snoring? Already!? I couldn't believe how fast they were out." Hector left his tent door half open to prevent condensation on the inside of the tent, and Christian's nose almost froze. The ladies had it rougher as the rain fly the 3-season tent wasn't staked to let the condensation air out, and it froze on the inside of the fly, making it feel quite cool inside, especially for the two near the edges of the tent. Christine wasn't able to sleep, we came to find out in the morning, as she was freezing due to the moisture soaking through to her sleeping bag. Deb got about 2-3 hours feeling squished yet mostly warm, buried deep in the sleeping bag on the other side of the tent. An was probably the warmest, cozy in the middle. At 7:00 am, the guys were up first and measured 20 degrees F, although Hector estimated that it had dropped to a low of between 10-15 degrees F overnight. It was a beautiful morning with blue sky, just before the sun came out. Having a head start, the guys boiled the water, while the girls tried to clean up camp a little and prepare the food. A painful sting came to the feet and hands as they warmed up during the morning activity. Preparing breakfast took a while, but we managed to get some hot chocolate, tea, oatmeal, bread, cheese, jam, etc. for the group. We huddled in the larger 3-season tent to stay warm while eating. Shortly after 9:15 am we managed to start hiking, and we saw that we had camped just below treeline on Mt. Pierce, and had covered a good distance during our night hike. Warm sunshine let our surroundings appear, the most beautiful winter-wonderland one can imagine. Although more strenuous, only winter-hiking can provide this atmosphere. Shortly after, we arrived on the summit of Mt. Pierce, with a beautiful view of Mt. Eisenhower, Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Adams. The sky was incredibly clear. On this crowded morning we met two other groups of four to five persons and at least two more couples and a single hiker later on. Staying just shortly, we then proceeded to Mt. Eisenhower. Water had frozen on the trail making it a slippery slope. In some places there were humps of snow with two-foot holes from previous hikers that had sunken in. The final ascent to the summit of Mt. Eisenhower was a bit steep, but well worth the effort with the heavy packs. The view was spectacular, ideal hiking weather and no wind. Christian had bagged his last remaining presidential peak. An was the closest she had ever been to the summit of Washington and there was a clear view of the observatory towers on top. Hector timed our breaks just like a professional to keep us on pace to our destination. A short cookie break, a group picture, and we left again. Very shortly after we started our descent, Christine had problems walking with the weight bearing down. She was in serious pain, and we learned she had twisted her knee the night before when she slipped on the way up. Thinking that it would be alright, she had hiked up all the way. But after the cold night and the break on Mt. Eisenhower, she felt a ligament and could not bend it. Hector began having visions of beer and warmth back at Intervale cabin and the decision was made instantly to bail out on an escape route. We were slightly disappointed not to make out goal, and yet very relieved not to have to bear the freezing cold and wind camping out that night. Presidentials in the winter another time, maybe. The guys doctored Christine's knee with a bandage and two analgesics, and we then distributed the weight from her pack to the rest of the group members. Christine made her way down bravely, luckily she was able to walk out, as we headed down on Edmand's Path. We even got a chance to use our crampons, since there was so much ice on the trail, until we reached about the halfway point where the trail was mostly dirt. And for the rest of the day there was a friendly rivalry between Christian and Hector on who had the heaviest pack. We figured we'd have to walk another 3-4 miles from the trailhead back out to Rte 302 to get Hector's car. But we got lucky -- a couple also heading down passed us just before the trailhead, and Hector was able to hitch a ride with them to get his car. He soon returned and once again, we all crammed in his car. He was very tempted to take a nice shortcut through the valley on Jefferson Notch Road instead of driving all the way around on the highway. Deb warned him that the dirt road was not maintained in winter and might be too treacherous for a car with only front wheel drive. Seeing only patches of snow and among the dirt on the entrance of the road, we decided to take the chance that it would not be that bad, thinking it would save time. Little did we know, further up, the road was pretty much covered with packed snow and ice making it very slippery. The car was slipping around quite a bit with loose traction. Although Hector was managing to keep up the momentum and doing a balancing-act of steering to keep us on the road, we came to a point where an SUV coming in the opposite direction forced him to the side of the road where he had to stop. We were worried that we were now stuck. Incredibly, luck was still on our side. The very next vehicle coming toward us was a Hummer! We could not have asked for anything better. Hector, thinking quickly, flagged the driver and asked him to wait to see if we could get out. When Hector tried to move, the car ended up sliding sideways toward the ditch. We were stuck. The dude with the Hummer pulled us out from behind, so we were straight on the road again. Hector was able to back up, crest the small hill, find a relatively flat dirt patch to turn around on further up, and we headed back. It wasn't worth continuing as we would have had at least 3/4 of the road still to cover. We caught a small glimpse of a gorgeous sunset through the trees. Once hitting the asphalt again, Hector was overjoyed to be in full control of his car, singing the praises of friction, that we all too often take for granted! He even demonstrated the responsiveness of the car to the steering wheel by making large swerves on the road. We were all impressed, but assured him that we really could just take his word for it! We drove all the way around the mountains that we had hoped to traverse across, and picked up the other car. Stopped to put air in Hector's tires, went to dinner, picked up the beer, and then went to surprise the group staying at the Intervale cabin. They had a nice roaring fire going when we arrived, and we got to tell them all about our adventure. By 10:30-11:00 pm, some of us were ready for bed, feeling rather beat. And we wanted to get up at 4 am to watch the peak of the Leonids meteor shower, as it was supposed to be one of the largest, most spectacular ones, occurring once about every 33 or whatever years. Several of us camped out in sleeping bags and bivy sacks on the observation deck, and the rest preferred the warmth of the cabin. As we went to sleep outside, the sky was covered with clouds. Christian assured us that it would be clear later. It had to be, because if mother nature went through the trouble of putting the meteor shower on the weekend, so we'd have time to watch it, then she would also have to make sure it was clear. Deb woke up at 1:30 am and it was still overcast. At about 2:30 am there were some "Ooo's" and "Ahh's" that woke us up. The sky was clear and we saw many stars and several meteors with bright tails shoot across the sky. We tried to get some more Zzz's before the peak near 4. Deb woke up again at 3:30 am, and saw more shooting meteors. At about 3:45 am, she saw about 5 right in a row and decided to make some noise to wake more people up. What followed a most amazing display of shooting meteors over the next two hours. The people from the cabin joined in at about 4:30 am. Christian turned into the cookie monster, making comments every 5 or 10 minutes about how he was tempted to go outside the warm sleeping bag to fetch his bag of cookies, until he finally did. He also felt bad for meteors as the were dying, burning to bits in our atmosphere merely for our enjoyment. People hypothesized about the physics of meteors, the orientation of their trajectory as they were entering the atmosphere as the burning tails seemed to go in opposite directions, the explanation of the burning tail pattern, and why we saw orange and green colors when they exploded, appearing to hit the atmosphere dead on. etc. What else would expect from MIT students? People's comments were often interrupted with squeaks of delight and amazement in mid-speech while witnessing the show above us. It was quite awesome, extraordinarily spectacular, beyond words. At one point Deb counted about 15-20 shooting meteors within a minute, and there was probably more that we couldn't see. Hector was having trouble staying awake, and also trouble falling back asleep as we kept making so much noise with our "Ooo's" and "Ahh's". At 5:30 am the sun began to rise and sky got progressively lighter. It was more difficult to see the stars, but you could tell the meteors were still quite actively falling, and only the brightest ones were clearly visible in the sky. Deb: "The sunrise was very pretty with a rainbow prism effect on the horizon. After 6 am, as the others drifted back to sleep, I saw two very bright meteors burn through the morning sky, one with a bright orange blaze at the end." We slept until about 10:00 am. We got up and packed, and Hector serenaded to An to wake her up in the cabin she as was out cold. He has a very nice voice actually. We said good-bye to the other group, and went to Yesterday's in Jackson for breakfast -- the "Country Man's Special" -- a lot of good food! And then headed to Crawford Notch to do a light hike to Aresutha Falls, as Hector wanted to check it out for ice climbing later in the season. Christine, with her bad knee, waited for us at the car. Hector and Christian packed the last two remaining beers in an empty cookie tin for the trip, and then chilled the beer in the freezing brook just below the falls. The trail was really cool with lots of rocks and gnarly tree roots. We enjoyed the view of the falls, the guys relaxed with their beers, and we watched a chubby red squirrel scoping us out for food. Hector climbed the steep trail on the side of the waterfall to keep warm as he didn't bring a windbreaker, and the rest of us followed to get a view from the top. We returned to the car, and Christian tried to eat a old apple still dangling from one of the trees. He offered a bite to An, who proceeded to make the most interesting face in response to to the bad taste. He also taught us how to whistle using our fingers and the top of an acorn. Then we made our way back to Boston. The weekend was full of adventure, surprises, and good times! Deb and Christian |