Little Haystack Mountain

2/2/08

Mount Carrigain

Trip Leaders: Mike Oltmans and Jon Hanselman
Participants: Me, Petek Saracoglu, Connor McEntee, Chris Nosko, David Mendel

On Friday the 25th of January, we set off to MITOC's cabin at Intervale to get an earl(ier) start up Mount Carrigain the next morning. It was my first stay at Intervale, which doesn't have electricity, but has gas heat which was cozy, and doesn't have a door on the outhouse which just seems strange to me -- can I build a door please? I'm pretty sure even I could build and hinge a door if I tried.

Since the last car didn't arrive until ~1am, we didn't get an alpine start the next morning, but we were at the trailhead (the Signal Ridge trail) and hiking (after a visit at the busiest DD's in the world) by, uh, 10:45? It was my first backpacking trip (ever) and was in the middle of January, so I was definitely carrying the heaviest pack of my life -- I don't really know how much it weighed, maybe 40 pounds? Minus-15 sleeping bags and 4-season tents are heavy! (Not to mention the many layers of clothing and blocks of cheese we were carrying!)

The first 2 miles were on a road, which were easy, and the next 2 miles into the woods were flat and picturesque as well, going along the Sawyer River. After this we climbed most of our elevation gain (around 3300 feet) over the last 3 miles. I think this classifies as pretty steep, and our pace was much slower. My main bodily complaint was that my right butt muscle was in pain, maybe from carrying an extra 40 pounds that it wasn't used to carrying. We used crampons for these last 3 miles, which might not have been entirely necessary if we weren't wearing mouse boots (which are warm, but so awful at the same time). Yay for army surplus.

We got a gorgeous view from the ridgeline of Mount Washington all covered in snow, and all the other mountains in the area. We got to the ridge right as the sun was setting, and hurried along to the summit after a couple of pictures, so we summited before it was completely dark. We found a nice flat-ish area right near the summit (you could see the firetower if you walked a few feet up the trail) to set up our 2 3-man 4-season tents and John set up his 1-man tent in the same area. Dinner was the most delicious mac and cheese (and butter) that I've ever had in my entire life (funny how that works when you're outside) and lots of peanut M&Ms and things like that. Good healthy food.

Oh, and it was "6 degrees and dropping," I think because Conner got tired of watching the numbers on his thermometer decrease depressingly close to 0. I was so cold that my fingers starting hurting pretty badly, but handwarmers, a down jacket, and a few ventures up to almost-the-summit and back helped a lot. By 8:30pm or so (I think?) I went to bed, and our fearless leaders and some of the other hardier souls than me stayed up and boiled more water for a while. (When Jon and Petek came to bed I finally got warm again and had to delayer in my sleeping bag). Someone delivered me a Snickers bar as well (thanks Mike!) which was more amazing than you could ever imagine until you try it.

By the next morning the weather was much worse -- not the clear skies we had been hoping for -- and there was a light snow the whole way down. We also took a while to get going again, and skipped the eggs that we had brought for breakfast because it was still only ~7 degrees near the summit and the wind had picked up so we were freezing. We walked down (and I fell over a ridiculous number of times -- at one point I fell off the trail into a spruce trap and Conner and Chris had to pull me out) and finally had our eggs where the trail split after the major descent. After this we made amazingly good time, so even though we didn't start until 9:30 or something, we were at the cars around 2:30pm. We were tired (well, I was tired, I won't speak for everyone else) but happy!



So I survived my first ever backpacking trip, hit my second 4000-footer, and then called my mother to convince her that I really did survive (she says I'm crazy and that I should try a less dangerous hobby). Oh, and we decided post-hike to bump up our trip from a "Moderate" MITOC trip to a "Strenuous" one. So there. :)

Mt. Pierce

So I've knocked off my first 4000-footer this past weekend -- Mt. Pierce, in the Southern Presidentials of the White Mountains. It was a MITOC Winter School trip, with Mike Oltmans, Jon Hanselman, and Maddie Hickman. It was a gorgeous hike! We went from Mt. Clinton Rd., and hiked the Crawford Path, stopping at the Mizpah Hut on the way back (we wanted to hit Jackson as well, but the Webster Cliff trail wasn't broken and we didn't want to get lost after dark). We used crampons for most of the way, which are nice when you're wearing mouse boots, and I learned to self-arrest as well (stop yourself from falling all the way down the mountain). It was an easy hike as well, even prepared as we were with our 20+lbs of extra clothing/supplies (I'm not used to carrying a heavy backpack!) so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to hike some of the harder mountains without too much trouble, so long as the conditions aren't crazy.

Fingers crossed someone leads another 4000-footer that I can go on next weekend! :)

First Post

I'm starting this blog as a record of my hiking and outdoor excursions, starting in January 2008. I've always gone walking/hiking with my parents, going up little mountains like Pack Monadnock in western New Hampshire. For the past couple summers I've been dragging my dad up and down some of the local mountains, but Mount Monadnock is a strenuous trip for my parents these days, so our options have been a little limited! Now that I'm in college though, I've met people in MIT's Outing Club who do crazy things like hiking over all the NH Presidentials in one day -- they're inspiring me to get out and do bigger and better things.

My goal: All 48 NH 4000-footers by the time I graduate from MIT.

That gives me until June 2010, about 2 years (since I'll be gone in Australia for the next few months). It'll be an adventure :)