 Closing on the tree line, we entered a true
winter wonderland, with Christmas-tree like evergreens covered
in powdery snow.  The
windward side of the mountain collects significant snowfall,
and the wind did not yet have the chance to knock it off. So
we proceeded, filled with wonder, already thinking of this failed
presidential traverse as a quite successful hike. We topped out
on the ridge line, and turned left to ascend the final few hundred
feet to the top of Pierce (Clinton?). The depth of the snow drifts
increased dramatically, and soon the the wind hit us hard. All
of the sudden the winter wonderland vanished in a whitout of
blowing ice needles. Quickly, we scurried back into the shelter
of the trees, breaking out the summit gear: goggles, mittens,
balaclavas; zipping up the jackets and the Goretex pants. Thus
armored, we proceeded to storm the ridge yet again.  The
wind and snow posed little problem now, so we happily proceeded
into the whiteout, heading mostly uphill. My cheap goggles fogged
up completely at this point, so Lisa took the initiative and
led the way to the highest local point. At this time it became
obvious that we would be foolish to traverse the ridge today,
so we proceeded back down, briefly losing ourselves after missing
a turn in the trail ("Wait, this drop-off was not here on
the way up...") |
The whole trip started with a promise I made
to Lisa about attempting a winter traverse of the White Mountain
Presidential Range. It's a nice 30 mile hike that is almost completely
above tree line and includes all the Presidential peaks (hence
the name) and their brutal winter weather. Given that we only
had a few days that fit into our schedules, we gambled on the
weather and drove up to New Hampshire hoping for a clearing.
After dropping off a car at the Pinkham Notch, we drove to the
southern start of the traverse, and spent the night at the trailhead
of the Crawford Path. Having slept comfortably in the Lisa's
huge Explorer, we woke up to discover about half a foot of fresh
powdery snow, with more coming down all the time. Obviously,
the conditions above treeline would be less than balmy... Hiking
up through the woods, our snowshoes were braking trail in about
a foot of fresh powder. Human track preceded us for about half
a mile up the trail, but then the valiant hiker apparently decided
that the trail was too snowed in to be hiking without snowshoes,
and turned around to descend back to the parking lot. The trail
above that point remained pristine and untouched. 
