Mt. Lafayette

I have long planned on 2011 being a big hiking year, enough to match my first year hiking of which I have yet to duplicate...that was 2007.  

It's all about the preparation for the 5th annual "Big Hike."  To train for this 3rd attempt at the Mahousac region in NH and ME I have decided that I will attempt a run at all the 5,000ft'ers in NH in spring and early summer leading up to July 4th weekend.  To start with, I attempted a summit of Mt. Lafayette on an unusually warm day in early February.

Mt. Lafayette and the "Franconias" are just north of Lincoln, NH in Franconia Notch State Park.  It's a three headed beast with Mt. Lafayette standing at 5,260ft.  The other two peaks are Mt. Lincoln at 5,089ft and Little Haystack Mt. at 4,760.  This day I climbed just Mt. Lafayette (I had already been up Lincoln and Lil' Haystack) via the Old Bridle Path, an insanely popular trail that provides the quickest way to the summit. Here's an early pic of things to come on my hike. The Franconias are unmistakable in appearance.

The first half of the hike was easy.  I brought some snowshoes and crampons, but didn't need them as the snow was so packed down it actually made it an easier hike due to not having to negotiate rocks, roots and the such.  It many ways it is a very long hike.  Once you get up to the 4,000ft range, as you can see by the pic above, there is still a very long ways to go over the ridge line.  Tree line is at about 4,700.

Like I said it was an unusual winter day.  It was 45 by 10:00am, hazy, scattered sun and clouds...beautiful.

The trail conditions were really good.  The packed down snow made it really easy.  Although once at high elevation the snow got a bit deeper and harder to negotiate, prompting me to pull out my crampons.

The summit in view just after Greenleaf Hut.

So, I learn stuff every time I go out for a trip.  Once I hit tree line and into some alpine type stuff the wind picked up and it got cold.  Although prepared as far as gear in my pack, I fumbled around putting it on in the wind.  Lesson learned is prepare for the alpine zones and the summit ahead of time.

Dig it...

I got off the summit just as the clouds started to cover that sucker.  I chilled out at Greenleaf hut, had a butt, and headed down.

That was the second time I climbed Mt. Lafayette.

Next post: Mt. Chocorua "shuh-cor'-wuh"