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Feb 25, 2006 |
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Looking at the forecast it appeared we had a window of decent weather this morning to hike Mt Washington before the snow and wind would arrive. We started up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail at 7:30 with no wind and the the temp at 2 degrees. The trail had @ 4 inches of fresh snow at the base, however it was covering thick glare ice, so about a mile into the hike we all put crampons on. At the trailhead we met a solo female hiker, Heather (aka Umsaskis), who also was going to the summit. We would play leap frog with her most of the day.
The Gem pool was frozen solid with no sign of running water. Up until that point we went around 1 blowdown, over another, and under another. From here the trail becomes steeper and soon brings you above treeline near the Lakes in the Cloud hut. Looking back we could see into Vermont and possibly New York. When we reached the hut, Ross dropped his pack and ran over to grab Monroe, while Chris, Geri and I hung out in the "dungeon" below the hut staying warm. We'd told Ross we'd give him a 20 minute headstart before slowly starting up to the summit of Washington. Off across the lakes we went - well sort of anyways :> Chris and Geri started out on the trail - the Dry River trail. We finally all got headed in the right direction, but this allowed Ross to not only catch us but get ahead of us. As we made our way towards the summit we were amazed at how little wind there was - that would change! About half way there we were caught by another VFTTer - mhrsebago - what a small world! We were aobut .2 of a mile from the summit the wind and snow arrive - it became cold in a hurry. Reaching the summit we were happy to see we were blocked form the wind, so had time to look around at the differant buildings, take photos, and say hello to another hiker who had come up the Lions Head trail. After the photos we went to the other side of the Generator building to sign the Winter Hiker Register, before starting our descent back into the wind. As we neared the Lakes we saw a tall gentleman walking towards us - in a shell and a type of jeans - in summer boots and a no pack! We all attempted to say hello, but he wasn't in a mood to talk. We reached the hut and found 3 AMC Hut crew members in the "dungeon". One was going up to the peak, while the other two were heading back down. We soon did the same. We had a quick descent back to the COg parking lot, in time to see one of the trains returning to the base. The Cog is converting one of the engines to burn "green" fuel and expect to do trial runs in March. |
| Directions to the trailhead: From the intersection of Rte 3 and 302 in Twin Mountain, head south on Rte 302 a few miles to the Cog Base Road on your left. Follow the road 6 miles to the end and park in the Cog parking lot |
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and our