My buddy and I drove to the top of Cathedral Ledge after our hike today. Looks like it was a great day to hike, huh? Yeah well, on the Carter-Moriah Trail, it was in the 30s, windy, with a wintery mix of snow and hail. I’m not kidding. Neither of us were dressed for that— we both only had shorts on and no gloves or hats— see above for what the forecast was that we planned for— so we just summitted North Carter— a Peak neither of us had done before— and went back down the Imp Trail, skipping the other Carter mountains we’d planned on doing.
Also, you may notice two people sitting on the rock in the fourth picture. Those were rock climbers who climbed that big rock, and when I saw them, I felt a pang of jealousy, because they earned the view they were looking at, and I know what it’s like to earn my view, and it looks so much sweeter.
This is me on the Imp Trail in June of 2009, ready to do the Carters and Wildcats. This Friday I’m planning to get back out there with my buddy and hit those peaks for the first time since then. It’ll be pretty aggressive for a first hike of the season (or, first hike since I did Washington in March), we’re talking 11 peaks, 18 miles or so, plus a bike ride of 4 or 5 miles back to the car. Also it’s funny how, four years later, I don’t hike in any of the gear you see in that picture, and couldn’t imagine hiking in gear like that. That was really my third hike ever, at least in the sense of me being the avid hiker I am now. It’s also supposed to be a nice day, which I hope holds, because that hike four years ago was rainy and miserable.
This is me making my way to the summit of Mt. Antero in September of 2012. While we were there, we saw people from the Weather Channel scouting locations for a TV show, Prospectors, which I’ve seen from their website is now airing.
fuckyeahhiking:
Binary Miracle
Grand Teton National Park, WY
www.cmifoto.com
My buddy and I have tentatively put this on the map for 2014. We’ll see what happens.
jjae:
Scenes from a presi traverse
(photos by Andrejs and me)
I’ve never done a winter Pressy Traverse before, only a summer one, which can be done in a long day. Maybe with a few months left in the season I can convince my buddy, who’s already done it before, to make it happen.
Mt. Washington hike on 3-5-2013. We originally planned to go up Huntington Ravine, but with someone dying in an avalanche there on Friday, and the avalanche warning still in effect, we decided to go up Lion’s Head Winter Route instead. There were a lot of people hiking that day, including a larger group from Quebec that created a traffic jam on the steep rock walls and made that a little more unnerving, but otherwise, the weather was nice, and I hit the summit for my 12th time and first time in March.
The top photo is a shot of Tuckerman Ravine taken by my buddy on our hike up Mt. Washington in January of 2011, and to this point it’s my favorite. The bottom one he took yesterday. They’re taken from different places on the mountain— the second is from much higher up. I think I have a new favorite now.
This is what I have on the docket for tomorrow, Mt. Washington up the Huntington Ravine Trail. This picture is from 3 years ago, when my friend and I tried the Pinnacle Gully route, which involved ice climbing, and we were turned back due to spin drift. He wanted to do an ice climbing route again, but I convinced him to just do Central Gully, which will still have some very steep pitches. I’m hoping it goes well. Huntington in winter is one of the few things I haven’t done on Mt. Washington, plus I’ve never hiked it in March before. I’m out of shape though (though 15 pounds lighter than I was in this picture), and have a bit of a cold, so it’ll be interesting.
