NH 48 4000 footers: Whiteface & Passaconway

Saturday, November 25, 2017
NH 4000 footers climbed: Mt. Whiteface and Mt. Passaconway
New England Hundred Highest climbed: East Sleeper Peak
Miles: 14.0  (total, out and back hike)
Elevation gained: 4358′
MapMyRun recording

I was awake at 6 a.m. and on the road before 6:30. It took me about an hour to drive to the trailhead and I was the third car in the parking lot. 

With fresh sunlight on my back, I headed up Dicey’s Mill Trail until it intersected with the Tom Wiggin Trail.  

I follow that trail for its entirety until it met up with the Blueberry Legends Trail and took that to just before the summit of Mt Whiteface. 

I then took the Kate Sleeper Trail down and over to East Sleeper Peak.

There were a lot of blowdowns and the trail was poorly marked. I was not able to locate East Sleeper with any high level of confidence. I was able to ascertain I was in the right area, though I couldn’t find the spur that went the few hundred feet to the true summit. After a lot of combined with climbing over a lot of trees, I decided it was close enough. I returned the way I’d come, and then went to the wooded peak of Whiteface. 

I then followed the Rollins trail over to the intersection of Dicey’s Mill Trail, then stayed left at the new two trail intersections to get to the wooded peak of Passaconway. Along the way, there were breaks in the trees where some good views could be found.

I then returned to my car by way of Dicey’s Mill Trail. While it was sunny with clear skies and relatively warm, there was as much as 4 inches of snow accumulated on the trail, with sections where the trail was just one big sheet of ice. 

I had my microspikes, which were very necessary for much of the hike. The snow, blowdowns, and poorly marked trails made the day take that much longer. Originally, I’d planned to do a second hike the same day but didn’t return to my car until 2:45pm, which would put my next hike almost exclusively after sundown. I decided to save it for the next day and bump the next day’s hike to a different time.