Mount Eisenhower and Mount Monroe

Mount Eisenhower and Mount Monroe

Eric on Eisenhower

Dates Climbed: 2/6/05, 4/9/05, 9/25/05, 10/14/06, 9/22/07, 2/16/09, 5/9/09

Southern Presidential Traverse

Jackson to Washington and back
Date: April 9, 2005     Time: 3:30am to 7:40pm
Distance: ~23mi
Location: Southern Presidentials, NH
Participants: Matthew Gilbertson, Eric Gilbertson, Lei W.
Author: Matthew Gilbertson
Instead of sleeping, we hiked. We left Cambridge at midnight on Friday night, ready for what was going to be an awesome hike in New Hampshire. None of us had gotten very much sleep the night before, and it was very tough to stay awake on the car ride, so Lei put in a book on tape: “Into Thin Air.” I have to say, we couldn’t get much sleep listening to the tales of disastrous Mt Everest attempts. We hoped that Mount Washington would prove less lethal, but we knew anything could happen…

We finally made it to the Crawford Path trailhead at 3:20am and suited up for some serious winter hiking. We were feeling pretty pumped, so we decided we’d lengthen the trip a little bit and hike up Jackson instead of going right up to Pierce. So we left the car at the official time of 3:30. There was a pretty hard crust of ice on top of the snow, so we didn’t posthole too much on the way up. We made it to Jackson right at sunrise (6:10) and it was absolutely spectacular. There aren’t many more incredible sights than sunrise above treeline. So from Jackson we hiked along the Webster Cliff trail and eventually met up with Crawford Path, which would become our companion for the next 12hrs.

Despite the beautiful sunrise and cloudless sky, the weather was still a little fierce along the ridge, and the winds nearly knocked us over. All we could do was lean into the wind and appreciate the shelter afforded by a few gnarled trees. Eventually we left the trees and reached the fully-exposed, above treeline portion of Crawford Path, but by that time the wind had died down to perhaps 30mph and with the air warming to 20F it was starting to feel downright balmy. OK it was still pretty dang cold…

We took our time along the ridge admired the nearly perfect view. Besides a few contrails, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, not even on Washington. We knew this was going to be a spectacular day indeed. We made it to the Lake of the Clouds Hut at noon and decided to have something to eat before we tackled Washington. But first we had to play around on top of the enormous snowdrift that engulfed half the building. The wind had piled up a huge mound of snow on the East side of the building, and it must have been a good 15ft deep.

After filling up on some cheese, chocolate, and some Gatorade, we were ready for the big climb. From about any angle, Mount Washington looks a lot closer than it really is, and this seemed especially true from Lake of the Clouds. We could see swarms of people all over the mountain, trying to dodge the boulders as they skied down. Since the snow covered up most of the big rocks, we decided that one trail was just about as good as any other. So with Lei leading the way, we bypassed the Cairns and marched straight up; well, maybe it wasn’t straight up, but it was still pretty steep, and the crampons definitely came in handy on the icy parts.

But I didn’t really pay any attention to the angle of the trail, I was so anxious to get to the top. I focused on the summit and especially the radio towers and finally, after we stepped over the last couple of rocks, Mount Washington was ours. The view was absolutely indescribable. We could see 70mi in all directions, but I was focused more on the summit itself than the 360 degrees of amazement. Everything was covered in six inches of ice, sculpted into one direction by the never-ceasing wind. I have never seen anything like it.

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