March 29, 2008
Here's today's track.
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Seven of us met at the Nineteen Mile Brook Trailhead: Pete, Patty, Darcy, Bill, Nancy, Katy, and myself.
"I'm not sure what we will eat at the top," said Patty. "I didn't bring my brownies today."
"What!!!" I replied. "That's the whole reason I came."
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The mountains had received several fresh inches of snow over the past few days. Since this trail leads to Carter Notch Hut, it was already well packed. Off we go!
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The first two miles were a breeze.
Then we came to the trail junction where we took the Carter Dome Trail.
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We had to break trail here, so we went into a 100 step rotation.
Here's Katy and Bill.
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"Before you take my picture, let me put on my orange hat," joked Patty. (See last week's entry from 3-22.)
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Here's Nancy and Darcy with Pete "hiding" behind Darcy.
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Don't you just hate those blowdowns.
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By the time we made the climb to Zeta Pass, Patty and Katy decided that was enough for today. They headed back while we continued on Carter Dome Trail which was now the Appalachian Trail.
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Next stop, Mount Hight. I was hoping the overcast weather would clear since Mount Hight offers one of the best views in the Whites. The trail was very steep. The snow had drifted so we were breaking through a foot or more of fresh snow. Up, up, up we went. We slowed to a snails pace for a while, but we kept making progress. At last, there's the summit up there.
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To say the wind picked up would be an amazing understatement. Foruntately, it was blowing the right direction, and I think it actually helped the last 100 feet or so as it pushed us up the mountain. I tagged the top first, not because I was faster than anyone else, it was just my turn in the rotation. Here's our group on the blustery summit.
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Looking over to South Carter.
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Here's a 360° video clip that captures the windy summit pretty well.
Windy Summit on Mount Hight
As you can see from the clip, it was a beautiful 'spring' day. Time to get moving again.
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Back in the safety of the trees.
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On to Carter Dome
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Taking a break
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Will spring ever come???
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The ridge up to Carter Dome was just as windy as Mount Hight. The trail is usually in the cover of the trees, but the snow was piled so high we were exposed for quite a stretch. Darcy seemed uninhibited by the extreme weather. She stayed in front and broke the remainder of the trail as we pushed to the top. Way to go Darcy!
Summit of Carter Dome
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Because I had been working on a few 3000 footers and because of a couple weeks of bad weather, this was my first 4000 footer in five weeks. Although Hight is well over 4000 feet, it's not an official 4. Hight does have enough prominence, however, to make the Trailwrights List. This was my third time on Carter Dome and makes peak #103 towards 'The Grid'.
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We came down the other side of Carter Dome. Here's Pete doing some glissading (butt sliding).
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As you can see from the picture above, it seems I got a little moisture on the lens. As a result, my last couple pictures came out a little cloudy. Looking up to Wildcat Mountain
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Here's our group cutting across Carter Lake.
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On the way out be passed a lot of people heading up to the hut. They had a turkey dinner planned for that night. Hmmm, maybe we should have stayed?
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