On Middle Carter
Adventures on Wildcats and Carters
Participants: Bilal Zia and Eric Gilbertson
Jan 30, 2006
Author: Bilal
So we wanted to do something hardcore, and having exhausted most hardcore options already (presi traverse, pemi loop), we planned an ambitious peak-bagging adventure just east of the presidentials.
We crashed at intervale Saturday night and woke up at around 3:15 and drove to Pinkham. After packing plenty of water, food, and rain gear (it was expected to start raining in the afternoon) we started off on the lost pond trail towards wildcat ridge at around 4:45am.
The climb to the wildcats is pretty intense – 3150 feet essentially straight up. The trail was very icy and rocky and very very steep, but we made good time. We were eventually treated to sunrise from the summit around 7am. The trail then dropped sharply into the valley where we ate breakfast at the carter hut. It was fairly balmy for a January day (around 30 degrees outside) but thats how this winter has been thus far.
The climb up Carterdome is even more intense than the first one. 1500 feet elevation gain in 1 mile. Thats essentially near-vertical. We got some good views from some exposed ledges but the best views were reserved for Mt. Height. The summit is bare-rock and we could see all over with clear views of the Washington Summit station.
Rain was nowhere to be found and both of us were feeling strong so we decided to push along and bag the carters as well. Several more hours of slogging got us past South Carter, Middle Carter, some intermediate peak, and North Carter.
It was now about 2:30pm and dark clouds were looming so we made a rapid descent down the Imp trail and got onto Rt 16 before dark. A couple of Canadian ladies were kind enough to give us a lift back to pinkham, but only after 45 minutes of slogging up Rt. 16 (uphill, no less).
Trip Stats: 17 miles, 6700 feet elevation gain, 11 hours 30 minutes of hiking, and successful ascents of Wildcats A, B, C, D, E, Carterdome, Height, South Carter, Middle Carter, Lethe, and North Carter.
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