Saturday, March 2
Summits: Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, Pierce, Jackson
Start: Appalachia TH
Finish: Crawford Notch TH
Miles: 20.0
Elevation gain/loss: 10,958′
We started from Appalachia at 5:45am after spotting a car at Crawford Notch. The sky was clear and we didn’t need headlamps to see as we headed up the trail. We made fairly good time, though we had to stop and throw on snowshoes for a mile towards the top of the climb to the hut. At the hut, we dropped our packs, switched to traction, and headed for the first summit. The wind was howling on the climb, hitting at least 50 MPH. We tagged the summit and headed back down; by then, all blue sky was gone with thick clouds rolling over the saddle by the hut.
We headed for Adams by the AT/Gulfside. Most rocks were visible, and we were often moving between snow, ice, and bare ground. The fierce wind buffeted us as we climbed, though it stilled completely just before we summited. As we headed down and over towards Jefferson, the wind picked back up in some places, hitting us with 50-60 MPH gusts. The Jefferson snowfield was present but with established steps in the snow. We took our time and were methodical and steady in our progress. After we summited Jefferson, we headed around Clay and over towards the cog. The wind picked up, and we just kept moving. We saw our first people of the day nearby Jewell trail, but none of us were interested in shouting over the wind to say more than ‘hey.’
Once we made it to the lawn, we headed directly over to the cog, to bypass the drop-off present on the AT. This was a good choice, because the wind picked up and we had sustained winds of over 70 MPH and windchill as low as 6 degrees (despite the high temperature being ~28 degrees). It picked up the loose snow and ice and blew them directly into our faces. Katie had goggles and I was sad I’d neglected to bring mine. We hid behind a cairn at one point to eat a quick snack, since we hadn’t eaten in a while. We followed the cog and at a number of points, the cog was completely covered in drifted snow and we were unable to see anything other than full whiteout – no rocks, no landscape was visible.
We missed the turnoff for Gulfside since we were unable to even see the cairns and instead ended up on the Nelson Crag trail. We nearly walked into the cafeteria building on Mt Washington before we could see it. We heard the rumble of the generators on the summit long before we could see any structures. We tagged the summit, and then headed down at a quick clip.
The visibility got a bit better as we descended and we were able to see the Lake of the Clouds hut maybe 100 yards before we were there. We stopped for a moment to have a more substantial snack and trade out our layers and gloves, then pushed on to summit Monroe. As we descended from Monroe, the conditions improved – it got warmer and less windy, with a bit more visibility. We got partial views of Eisenhower as we headed towards it, and were so glad to get up and over it, further away from the tumultuous northern Presi.
We made quick time over to Pierce, though it began to snow as we approached the summit. We knew that this snow would be followed by rain within a few hours, so we hurried as much as we could. We descended to Mizpah hut and then kept a quick pace over to Jackson. The precipitation on Jackson was still snow, but as we descended, it turned into rain. We were glad for our timing, because just as we emerged by the car at Crawford Notch, it began raining in earnest. All said and done, it was a wild adventure in the mountains, and we made great time, only taking 10.5 hours total in really challenging conditions.
