I took a slight tumble off the trail into deep snow!
9:06am-The start at RT-302 Crawford Notch Mount Jackson in my opinion is probably the easiest winter hike besides Tecumseh. Karen needed Jackson and thus we chose it for this day after the blizzard. In Southern NH we got perhaps 12" but Crawford Notch is another world indeed. It is a world of gigantic snowbanks of 7' and higher, and is beautiful with the trees completely covered in snow
It was windy and cold in the notch and we met up with Bill and Karen at the plowed out lot across from the Webster-Jackson trail. The trail was completely unbroken as we climbed over the snowbanks at 9:06am. Our group of four would be breaking trail today. We hoped that a large troop of boyscouts would come along soon after and relieve us. It was not to happen quite that way.
The woods were beautiful and much warmer as we plunged thigh deep through the somewhat consolidated powder. How much snow had they received here yesterday? Franconia Notch didn't have nearly as much. When I did Mt Jackson for my winter hike, it took about 3 hours and we had maybe 6" of loose snow over hard-pack
It took us 3-1/2 hours just to travel 1.4 miles to the Webster trail junction. It was very difficult going, plunge in thigh or waist deep, pull up snowshoe and plunge forward. At times you would try and swipe away the top layer with your hand to make the going easier. We hiked 5 minute intervals and let me tell you, when it was your turn to rotate to the back of the line, it was really nice. At 4:15 in, we were caught by a group of six coming up, it was 1:30pm. We had discussed our turn around time to be 2:30 and really didn't feel like we had a shot. Now we felt better about reaching the summit.
They took over the trailbreaking and plowed through the walls of snow. We now followed on a very nice broken trail. We were pretty exhausted but felt good about our chances. An hour later we could see the summit but the going had been very slow. If you've ever broken through waist deep snow, you know what I'm talking about. Even younger legs had trouble. I do remember Cath Goodwins famous mantra; "It's fun breaking trail-it's fun breaking trail.
At 2:45 I looked at John and he looked pretty tired, I'll admit I was too. Karen and Bill wanted to go for it. The summit was perhaps a half hour away. Within minutes of turning back, John fell and had a hard time getting up. He fell about 10 more times, his legs were done. It only took 1:30 to get down, by 4:20 or so with sunlight fading, we were back. Now we'd wait for Bill and Karen to emerge. The group of six were camping out off the Webster-Jackson trail that night and they looked well equipped. At 2:30 they had bagged their plans of reaching Mitzpah tent platforms. The ridge was brutal on this day. We also met two young guys while we were going down that planned to camp out on the ridge, they also looked very well equipped. I hope they made out OK.
At 4:45 Bill and Karen emerged, they had made the summit and described brutal conditions. Knock-down winds and even colder temps. I congratulated them. Before we parted ways, we checked on the small red car that was parked there. We noticed the sign in the window that morning. It said. Three 19 year old college students parking at Dolly Copp and heading up Daniel Webster Scout Trail to Madison, spending the night at Sphinx Col and coming across the ridge the following day. I can't image taking that trail in winter and how would they reach Sphinx that day. We all hoped they had bagged their plans and were sleeping somewhere safe that night. Bill and Karen reported the note to somebody at the Highland Center
We were certainly happy to see the younger group and thank them for their efforts during the rest of the day
Left "John Gorman takes a Fall" Above right, Karen McNiff breaks trail