Ah Madison, I love it! As always, leaving the trailhead and the safety of civilization behind is easy. Today I'm hiking to Madison on the Valley Way trail. A couple of years ago I'd attempted to do it in November with Scott Morton and we turned back at the hut because of weather and time.
I put the snowshoes on early and they worked great on the packed down frozen sidewalk that you usually find on these popular trails in winter. Soon I was past the myriad of trail signs that lead you to other trails and was past the Junction with the Airline. It was a fairly nice day with milky white sunshine that usually fortells of snow to come.
Valley Way is a nice trail, never really steep for a long ways, it lets you warm up which is probably why it's the typical starting point for the Presidential Traverse. Snows were deep off the consolidated highway which I found out when I took off a little ways into the woods for a bathroom break. After writing my name in the snow I was back on the trail. I can't imagine breaking deep snow like this all the way to the hut.
My Tubbs were doing great, I saw some postholes where others had barebooted or used crampons to climb. I must not have been feeling that great because it took me a full 3 hours to reach Madison Hut after pausing often on that final steep part. Others were at the hut, Mt Madison stood clear in the sky and I felt good about making the summit
In the limited sunshine I sat with my back to the hut wall and ate my lunch. Pretty soon I was ready to head on up and reached into my pack for the 6 point crampons I'd packed.........OR had supposed to have packed!! UGHHHHH!! I watched as others tromped up Osgood with sharp points on their feet. I thought about it for a minute
The trail is pretty moderate so after thinking about it I decided to risk it. The mountain had a greyish cast with some ice and rime with very little snow. Heading up I had to negotiate a very slippery spot, I actually thought about putting the snowshoes on for traction but they would've been beat up pretty bad.
So I'd find a fairly bare rock and hop and then I was past that. The rest of the way wasn't bad at all, again some icy spots that I was able to get around. I didn't worry about getting to the summit anymore......I did worry about the descent.
I spent only about 15 minutes at the summit, snapped a couple of pictures and then took a picture of a group that was coming up. Winds were light and it wasn't too cold either, Mt Adams and Washington stood high and proud above me. The climb down wasn't bad at all, I hopped again avoiding the bad spots and found myself back at the Col in no time at all.
The group I met on the summit were heading over to Adams and then would go down Airline. They invited me along. Since I was worried about the summit cone of Adams and had already bagged that from Lowes Path I declined and went Valley Way.
The first part is fun because you slide on your butt, aka glissading. I put the snowshoes on for traction mostly and made good time enjoying the quiet of the woods and the beautiful weather.
I hope to hike on the Howker Ridge trail in summer or fall at some time in the future and return to the summit again