Mt. Madison, September 17, 2013, Presidential Range, White Mountain National Forest

Descending from Mt. Madison, APC and morning frost in distance

It was a cold night but we got through it... Gotta "drop a tent" in Madison Hut.

Looking out the window, we found that the last remnants of the cold front that dampened our Presidential Range traverse the day before was greeting us on the morning of our last day in Whites. We skipped out of Madison Spring hut just after breakfast in order to beat the rush of other hikers up the Osgood Trail to the peak of nearby Mt. Madison. Intending to go up and over the summit and return to the car via the Watson Path, we bore full backs to the summit -- packs made even heavier by yesterday's wet clothes and jackets.

Huddled for breakfast in a chilly Madison Spring Hut

Although the forecast for the day was a return to beautiful sunny weather in the valley below, the early hours at higher elevation saw very cold temperatures and high winds. Having packed wisely, we each still had a full set of dry, warm gear to wear during the ascent. We rock-hopped over frost-covered boulders up to the summit, relying on dry wool socks on our hands because our mittens and gloves, unfortunately, were still soaked. At the top, we realized that the winds were blowing from the north. A descent via the Watson Path would have us descending into the wind over slippery rocks for a 1/2 mile or more. Not a good idea.

Thus, we decided to retrace our steps back to the hut and descend via the tree-covered Valley Way.

Would have been a lot easier had we just stowed our packs and done a quick up and back of the summit without 50 lbs on our backs. Oh well.

Peak: Mount Madison
Elevation: 5,367 feet (Gain from hut: 542 feet)
Distance: 1 mile round trip to summit (+ 3.7 mile descent back to car)
Route: Osgood Trail, Valley Way
Conditions: Party sunny, windy, 30 degrees F

Madison Spring Hut, September 16, 2013, Presidential Range, White Mountain National Forest

White Mountain weather is notoriously unpredictable. After a day of hiking up to Lakes of the Clouds hut in beautiful weather, we had great expectations of continuing the traverse the following day and bagging the summits of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. As it turned out, we bagged none of the three.

At dinner the night before, a visiting meteorologist at Lakes of the Cloud hut informed us of a cold front moving rapidly into the mountains from the northwest. The front, he predicted, would bring with it a drop in temperature, mixed precipitation, high winds, and fog. We awoke the next morning to all of the above. Some of our fellow hikers decided to call it a day and stay in the hut until good weather returned... predicted to happen one day later. Since we had the appropriate gear, we decided to continue our traverse to the next hut at Madison Spring.

We set out at 8:30 AM, encountering a dense fog that made sighting the next cairn marking the trail almost impossible. The winds were equally challenging, with gusts approaching 45 mph, making any summit attempts impossible. By 10:00, the mixed precipitation arrived -- a heavy, drenching rain that the high winds blasted into our faces as we skirted the mountainside just under 5,000 feet.

Instead of going up and down our three peaks, we had no choice but to push ahead in the quickest way possible -- the Gulfside Trail. Each time that we passed a cut-off for a peak, we pondered a summit attempt. But the cold, wet, and wind soon made us reconsider. Four long hours later, just as our Goretex shells had soaked through from the outside and our wool undergarments were drenched with sweat from the inside, we arrived at Madison Spring hut and took refuge from the storm.

We took not a single photo to document our Presidential traverse. Removing a digital device in that White Mountain shit storm would have rendered it inoperable in seconds.

Destination: Madison Spring Hut
Elevation: 4,800 feet (Gain 1,650 feet)
Distance: 6.8 miles one way
Route: Crawford Path, Gulfside Trail
Conditions: 29 degrees F (18 degrees F windchill); mixed precipitation, fog, wind gusts up to 45 mph

Mount Eisenhower and Mount Monroe, September 15, 2013, Presidential Range, White Mountain National Forest

View of Traverse towards Mts. Eisenhower, Monroe, and Washington, from Mt. Pierce Cutoff

Over the last few years, it has become an annual tradition for my brother and I to make a trip up to the Whites and tackle a few more mountains on our respective 4000-footer lists. Down to a mere handful on his countdown, he has been kind enough to join me on a few jaunts that have him reclimbing some of the toughest. For this trip, we decided on a hut-to-hut traverse over the Presidential Range. For me, it would mean knocking off six peaks. My brother had been up there a few times before, but had missed both Eisenhower and Jefferson. So the traverse idea had equal appeal to him.

On a beautiful, early Autumn day, we stowed a car at Appalachia and took the AMC shuttle to Highland Center where we spent the night. Breakfast, we learned, would be at 6:30 AM... far too late by our standards. We awoke early but were rebuffed in an attempt to jump into the breakfast buffet before 6:30 sharp. Forced to hit the trail at 7:00, we spent the morning lamenting the "hiker-unfriendly" policy of starting breakfast so darn late.

Mt. Eisenhower Summit Cairn

Lost in our complaints, we made quick work of the Crawford Path - the oldest continuously maintained hiking trail in the mountains - and reached 4000-foot elevation by mid-morning. After admiring a great view of the traverse route north to Mt Washington from the Mt. Pierce cutoff, we continued along the Crawford Path to Mt. Eisenhower. A lone American flag had been planted on the summit cairn, left from the previous day's "Flags on the 48" memorial hike - an annual event commemorating 9/11 in which flags are flown simultaneously on all 48 4000 footers.

Pressing on, we crossed 5000-footer Mt. Franklin and climbed up and over Mt. Monroe. Our destination, Lakes of the Clouds hut, sits on the shoulder of Mount Washington in a col between the highest peak in New England and Mt. Monroe. We quickly descended and arrived at the hut in time for lunch and passed the afternoon resting, conversing with arriving hikers, and exploring the immediate vicinity. I thought about running up to the summit of Mt. Washington but figured that we could hit it first thing the next morning...

... but White Mountain weather would render that plan impossible.

Arriving at Lakes of the Clouds hut, ominous clouds in the distance

Peaks: Mt. Eisenhower and Mt. Monroe 
Elevation: 4,760 and 5,372 feet (Gain: 3,450 feet) 
Distance: 7.0 miles 
Route: Traverse, via Crawford Path from Highland Center to Lakes of the Clouds Hut
Conditions: Mostly sunny, 55 degrees F