2.25.2012

Mt. Liberty Speed Hike

Date:  2/25/2012
Route:  Whitehouse to Liberty Springs, up and down.
Conditions:  Perfectly packed out.  Wore crampons the whole day - got a little soft near the top.
Hikers:  me and Dogman
Dogs:  Trudy & Spanky The Wonder Dog
Comments:  Speed hike to the summit (1:50).  Full battle gear needed in the high winds and blowing ice and snow.  Full packs on the ascent but stripped down to thin base layer w/ sleeves rolled up.  Almost died in the explosive winds/ice/snow... well, not really.  But it was damned cold.

Mt. Lafayette Speed Hike

Date:  2/18/2012
Route:  Up and down the Old Bridle Path
Conditions:  White carpet - crampons needed above treeline.  Drifts were only knee deep and the trail below treeline was perfectly packed out.  Barebooted descent.
Hikers:  me and Dogman
Dogs:  brought Trudy & Spanky The Wonder Dog
Comments:  Speed hike to the summit (2:05).

2.04.2012

Mt. Washington

Route:  Lion's Head Trail up and down

Date:  Saturday, February 4th, 2012

Group:  Hiked directly with tMail & Dogman, and more generally all the other guys of the annual Bad Boy event.  (The Puppet Master was unable to attend this year, and it was Old Skool's 2nd year in a row.)

Weather:  0° with winds gusting up into the 60's or so.  Actually, the winds were kind of out of the NW and the summit caused some weird wind shifts that basically protected us most of the day.  I doubt I experienced anything stronger than a steady 30mph for a short time.

Trail Conditions:  Very little snow, no snowshoes needed anywhere, crampons all day.  The trail is well packed out and somebody had placed bamboo poles w/ pink tape on the trail on the eastern snow fields.  The rocky sections of both the crossing from Lion's Head along the Alpine Garden and the ascent of the summit cone were well filled in and for one of the only times in a dozen-ish ascents, didn't feel like I was just banging on rocks.  Even the summit itself has almost no visible rocks although obviously you can tell by the shapes of the ice/snow/crust/rime that it's rocky.

Some hikers used microspikes, but were a bit unstable in the snowfields.