Monday January 3rd:
Nick: “Let’s just do a single day Presi Traverse.”
Me: “Ok!”
Tuesday January 4th (2:30am)-
That was our wake up call only a few hours after, it seemed,
we had decided to tackle something we’d always talked about. As one is probably
able to infer from the above-mentioned dialogue, there wasn’t an excess of
planning that went into this trip. We did all the prep and route planning the
night before. While Nick (and Ma) prepared dinner, I pulled out the trusty AMC
White Mountain guide and the maps that accompany it to get a few of the
logistics ironed out. After about an hour and a half of poring over the guide,
maps, and trip reports posted online, I had finally nailed down the exact
route, with various escape options off of the ridge in case the weather got out
of hand, etc. The term “Presi Traverse” gets thrown around a lot, so there is a
medley of opinions of what a “true” traverse entails. I wanted there to be no
doubt about it so decided we would be tackling the 8 high peaks (Madison,
Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, Pierce, and Jackson) as well
as the intermediate peaks in between (Clay and Franklin). With the route
planning out of the way, we got down to business packing up gear. Our theory
was light and fast equated to safety. Being bogged down with an excess of gear
would most likely accomplish nothing other than placing additional fatigue on
our bodies (which often leads to hazard, if not just making things miserable).
So, after much deliberation we narrowed it down to: snowshoes, crampons, down
jacket, heavy top, two pairs of liner, 2.5 L of water, sandwiches, snacks,
goggles, mid-weight top, hand/toe warmers, gaiters, headlamps, mountain axe,
poles, and face masks. All fit in small day packs.
From this point forward it was going to be all above tree line –
nothing but windblown snow and rocks. It’s a pretty stark landscape here in the
winter…nothing but blacks and whites. We headed into the wind and snow, trading
snowshoes for crampons. Our goggles proved to be an early asset as well. The
summit came fairly quick, and we were even graced with breaks in the clouds.
 |
| Ascending Madison |
After a hasty snapshot we ventured down to Madison hut where we grabbed a bite
and I messaged mom to let her know our progress. I normally shun technology
like phones in the mountains, but she was more than a little worried and
rightfully so, what we were doing has more than a minute amount of risk
associated with it. From here we made way for Adams which came and went with a
photo and before we knew it we were crossing the col to Jefferson. It was at
this point that the sun came out in her full glory and shown down on the beauty
around us. Our spirits soared! We joked lightheartedly and seemed to bounce
across the uncharacteristically calm landscape towards Jefferson. It wouldn’t
be until we had to search for the next summit that our spirits would come down.
As if to warn us not to become complacent, the sun dipped behind clouds and the
weather grew inclement once again – our visibility decimated. Each cairn seemed
to blend into the setting around them. I foolishly wanted to just keep climbing
“up” while Nick insisted we backtrack and find the cairns. I obliged and we
eventually happened upon the trail and slowly made way towards the summit.
 |
| View From Adams |
Cresting to the summit cairn, we spared no time and were on our way down to
make way to the mighty Mt. Washington, but not before hitting the sub-peak Mt.
Clay. The latter proved to be quite the kick in the ass. A leg burner in the
truest sense of the phrase, and I really don’t know why. Upon the descent of
Clay we once again lost track of the trail but came across the cog railway,
which we proceeded to follow to the summit. The rail provided comfort, both as
a guaranteed path to the summit (provided we followed it the right way of
course:) and it reminded us of our ski trip up Mt. Washington the previous
year. We reminisced and ticked off the footsteps until before us loomed the
summit observatory. Towering into the sky, the outline of the various summit
buildings produced what appeared to be the shadow of a strange medieval castle.
We sought refuge here and ate our lunch. However, as had happened every time we
halted, I grew cold to the point where I shivered uncontrollably, so I loathed
hanging out motionless for long. We hit the summit sign for a quick Kodak
moment and set out in search for the Crawford path; the trail that would take
us a vast majority of the rest of the way. This proved to be a bit of a conundrum
however, because you see, one needs to actually find a cairn to know the
whereabouts of the trail. We searched for what seemed to be an eternity to no
avail. Nick suggested we just abandon ship and hike down the cog railway, but
this time I insisted we find a way. So together we backtracked a bit and
somehow found a cairn in the terrible visibility. This section was sparsely
populated with them so we had to exercise extra caution as we proceeded.
 |
| Descending Into he Unknown |
We
eventually made our way to the Lake of the Clouds hut, indulged in some water,
and made way past the frozen Lake of the Clouds up the shoulder of Mt. Monroe.
The climb was moderate but it was at this point that my knees and ankles began
to ache like nothing else. I suspected the culprit were the crampons. We
trudged on nonetheless and ticked off Monroe and continued onward to
Eisenhower. In my mind I set a goal to reach the summit before needing to put
on headlamps, which we did, but barely – and no thanks to another navigational
mishap (interlacing trails threw us for a loop for a quick minute… or ten). We
trudged onward towards Pierce after donning headlamps. The peak came, but not
before I began to become extremely fatigued. Over 20 miles of rugged winter
climbing will do that. My spirit began to slip and hit a low as we finally made
the .9 mile descent to the Mizpah hut. Here we saw the first people of the
trip, a group of NC State students being led by a professor. It was at this
point that we decided to ditch the crampons – what a brilliant idea, one I wished
we had partaken in earlier! We cruised for the last summit of the day, Jackson,
and did so making great time considering how long we’d been on our feet. We strapped
on the crampons for one last time to traverse the icy summit of Jackson then
enjoyed a fairly quick descent aided by a fair bit of glissading.
16 hours after we had started we stumbled out of the woods to
the car. It was a great feeling (especially because we had inadvertently parked
RIGHT near the trail head). A drive through a snowstorm and back to the house
where pizza and beer were waiting for us provided the best ending to an
incredible day. I had only one beer but I felt drunk – not from the alcohol,
but from having pushed my body and accomplishing a great feat. There were many
lessons learned and some great memories formed from this adventure – one I’ll
never forget!
 |
| Parking lot glee! |
Some stats from the day:
- Weather: Freezing Fog
- Temp: -2°F
- Visibility: 200 ft
- Relative Humidity: 100%
- Peak wind gust: 126mph
- Average Wind speed: 76.2mph
No comments:
Post a Comment