peakbagger
06-21-2015, 15:34
There is a tradition in the NE hiking community to hike the entire presidential range in the Whites in one day on the weekend day closest to the summer solstice. There are couple of variations but the general concept is park at Appalachia on RT 2 hiking up the Mt Madison and then Hiking down to RT 302 and hiking down to RT 302 at Crawford Notch. The normal recognized route is the Gulfside and Crawford paths taking the spur trails up and over the summits but on occasion I do a "lite" version which sticks to the Gulfside and Crawford paths. There are other variations where the route is extended on the southern end by adding on one or two additional non presidential summits.
The traditional route is 21 miles and 9000 feet of vertical gain. Part of the challenge is about 14 miles is at or above treeline which means weather can be a significant issue and the trail bed is mostly rock. The forecast for Saturday (6/20) was just about perfect, 100 mile visibility, cold morning with low humidity and a stiff breeze to keep the bugs at bay. We started around 4:20 AM at the Appalachia parking lot. Other groups had already headed out and we quickly put on the headlamps and headed out up the valley way. After about 20 minutes we got to watch the sky lighten up. When we arrived at Madison Hut, it was still in the shadows and there was frost on the ground. We headed up to our first summit and the sun popped out then headed south. Along with the multiple large and small groups doing the Presi, we encounted guided hut to hut groups, day hikers, section hikers and I expect a few thru hikers. The wind was steady all day, with the sun out as long as we were hiking shorts and T -shirts were fine but stop for a few minutes and a fleece was handy. Along the way we walked by one snow patch near Edmunds Col near Jefferson.
The summit of Mt Washington was booming with tourists. The line to stand next to the Mt Washington Summit sign for a photo was about 40 people long (we skipped it) and most of our time spent waiting in line to fill up water bottles. Many folks head indoors and inevitably burn up an hour. We were 15 minutes and then headed down to Lake of the Clouds where we scored some of the last fresh hut snacks available for sale. It was around 3:30 PM when we left Lakes. The rest of the southern ridge is terrain less aggressive than the northern presidentials. Nevertheless the miles are there and after 12 hours of hiking, there was still a lot of distance to go. We finally made it to the summit of Mt Pierce around 7:30PM and then it was down off the ridge. I rarely hike the lower section of Crawford Path in the summer but normally in the winter its a well packed sidewalk that goes quick. Unfortunately in summer, especially in the twilight and with a headlamp, its an eroded mess, in many spots a deep eroded wet trench with random rocks to trip on. There are attempts to drain it but when its the lowest elevation around its hard to keep the water and mud to a manageable level. We finally made it down by about 9:50 PM.
From a thruhiker perspective, it would not be advisable to attempt the entire ridge in a day, although I expect some do. A somewhat more viable but still very long day is camp in the woods between Mt Pierce and Mt Eisenhower (there are numerous spots in the woods and occasional rock slabs in this stretch and a couple of generally viable water sources prior the final ascent up to Mt Eisenhower). From this point a long day will get the hiker to the RMC sites on the slopes of Mt Adams. If the winds are high or rainy, a hike this long may not be possible as this section is very exposed with slippery rocks and dealing with the wind could easily cut a hikers pace in half if travel is even possible. One nice aspect of the ridge is that there are several reliable water sources along the ridge so with proper planning a hiker does not need to carry a lot of water. Be aware that the camping spots north of the Mt Pierce may be legal in low trees high enough to be below treeline but they are still near a ridgecrest and if bad weather comes in this is a dangerous place to camp and the nearest cover would be somewhere down Crawford path heading in the wrong direction.
Overall it would have been a hard day to beat.
The traditional route is 21 miles and 9000 feet of vertical gain. Part of the challenge is about 14 miles is at or above treeline which means weather can be a significant issue and the trail bed is mostly rock. The forecast for Saturday (6/20) was just about perfect, 100 mile visibility, cold morning with low humidity and a stiff breeze to keep the bugs at bay. We started around 4:20 AM at the Appalachia parking lot. Other groups had already headed out and we quickly put on the headlamps and headed out up the valley way. After about 20 minutes we got to watch the sky lighten up. When we arrived at Madison Hut, it was still in the shadows and there was frost on the ground. We headed up to our first summit and the sun popped out then headed south. Along with the multiple large and small groups doing the Presi, we encounted guided hut to hut groups, day hikers, section hikers and I expect a few thru hikers. The wind was steady all day, with the sun out as long as we were hiking shorts and T -shirts were fine but stop for a few minutes and a fleece was handy. Along the way we walked by one snow patch near Edmunds Col near Jefferson.
The summit of Mt Washington was booming with tourists. The line to stand next to the Mt Washington Summit sign for a photo was about 40 people long (we skipped it) and most of our time spent waiting in line to fill up water bottles. Many folks head indoors and inevitably burn up an hour. We were 15 minutes and then headed down to Lake of the Clouds where we scored some of the last fresh hut snacks available for sale. It was around 3:30 PM when we left Lakes. The rest of the southern ridge is terrain less aggressive than the northern presidentials. Nevertheless the miles are there and after 12 hours of hiking, there was still a lot of distance to go. We finally made it to the summit of Mt Pierce around 7:30PM and then it was down off the ridge. I rarely hike the lower section of Crawford Path in the summer but normally in the winter its a well packed sidewalk that goes quick. Unfortunately in summer, especially in the twilight and with a headlamp, its an eroded mess, in many spots a deep eroded wet trench with random rocks to trip on. There are attempts to drain it but when its the lowest elevation around its hard to keep the water and mud to a manageable level. We finally made it down by about 9:50 PM.
From a thruhiker perspective, it would not be advisable to attempt the entire ridge in a day, although I expect some do. A somewhat more viable but still very long day is camp in the woods between Mt Pierce and Mt Eisenhower (there are numerous spots in the woods and occasional rock slabs in this stretch and a couple of generally viable water sources prior the final ascent up to Mt Eisenhower). From this point a long day will get the hiker to the RMC sites on the slopes of Mt Adams. If the winds are high or rainy, a hike this long may not be possible as this section is very exposed with slippery rocks and dealing with the wind could easily cut a hikers pace in half if travel is even possible. One nice aspect of the ridge is that there are several reliable water sources along the ridge so with proper planning a hiker does not need to carry a lot of water. Be aware that the camping spots north of the Mt Pierce may be legal in low trees high enough to be below treeline but they are still near a ridgecrest and if bad weather comes in this is a dangerous place to camp and the nearest cover would be somewhere down Crawford path heading in the wrong direction.
Overall it would have been a hard day to beat.