The clouds moved fast overhead obscurring the summit of Mt Washington. Plan A had been Franconia Ridge but the forecast looked ominous. Every winter hiker has to have a plan B and ours was Mt Hale.
Bill with his dog Stanley, Bob, Jeb and I geared up at snowmobile central on 302. The snow from last night's storm piled up beautifully on the trees. I was excited, finally a snowshoe day! Zealand road was ungated and plowed and made for an easy walk. At Hale Brook three of us put on snowshoes, Bob would wear crampons.
Stanley was eager to go and he and Bill led the way. The trail was unbroken with 6 inches of new snow over a hard crust. Soon we were up high enough to see views through the open birch forest. The higher we got, the deeper the snow. The trees were loaded with light fluffy brand new powder.
We climbed up along a ravine ridgeline with wonderful views all around. Eisenhower stood in the clear behind us. We traversed a section along the ravine that fell away steeply. Funny, I'd never noticed that before. Stanley evidently smelled something down on the ravine floor and straining on the leash. He practically pulled Bill down with him. Underfoot was hard slippery ice. You'd walk along and a snowshoe would swoosh away downhill.
<-Bill and Stanley->
We moved pretty quickly up through the few steep spots and made the zig-zag turns. A flock of Boreal Chickadees joined us and kept us company with their energetic voices. We made the sharp left turn and began climbing the final ridge to Hale's summit. Jeb and Bob caught up with us high on the mountain. Jeb and I continued on and soon topped out on the flat scrubby summit. The winds were blowing 20mph or so. It was cold enough so a hand pulled from a glove to take a picture, was soon numb.
Bill and Stanley on top...............................Jeb Bradley on the Summit
Pretty soon Bill, Stanley and Bob joined us on the frosty peak. I knew the fun part was ahead. I love wearing snowshoes going downhill. We made incredible time, just pausing to snap a picture or two. We hadn't seen a single person all day and finally at the brook crossing we ran into a hiker and two skiers. We were down quickly and what had taken us a little more than 2 hrs to climb up, took us less than an hour to descend.
Mt Hale was winter peak #38 for me.
