Moosilauke; a visit to an old friend.
Trail:Gorge Brook
Date: 11/29/2002
Attending: Shawn White, Ralph Chicoine, Gary Gilchrest, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine
Miles: 7.5-mile loop Time: 3 hours to summit. 5.5 hour total
AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Moosilauke Ravine Lodge
Weather: Snowing, White-out conditions on the summit
On this hike the base had several inches of snow increasing to between 12 to 15 inches of fresh falling winter wonderland powder throughout the hike. The trail was well broken in and easy to follow. This was one of Gary and Ralph’s first serious winter 4K hikes. We started up with solid cloud cover hiding the summit at 9:30 in 20 degree temps.
We found one!
Can anybody see the next one?
The white powder started falling within the first 30 minutes of our hike and continued for the rest of the day. The ride into the Ravine lodge was very tricky/slippery. Thank God for good tires. (The ride home was snow covered all the way down into Concord.) Dressing for this one was a bit tricky, we wanted to be in shirts and vests because of the temps, but the snow was soaking us enough that we needed extra layers to keep dry and warm. The down side of this extra layering was that we were wetting through from sweat. By the time we reached the last section of the climb where the trees thin out enough to get a preview of the cold winds, we were all as layered up as we could be.
What a disappointment when we stepped onto the open summit only to find such inhibiting white-out conditions. We could only guess where the summit was from past experience so we pulled out the compass in hopes of finding the first cairn. We decided to send out a scouting party to search for cairns to the top. We could see a human figure standing at a cairn, but we couldn’t see the cairns themselves (white on white). We managed to work this process for three cairns up towards the summit, but soon we would have to pull the person standing at the trailhead (loosing our century to the trailhead off the mountain.) We opted to call it off. So we didn’t touch the sign on the summit, (all of us have at one time or another) and one view of 30 ft. of white-out is a s good as the next.
Was this your lunch?
None the less, we all had a wonderful hike and the snow falling added such a pleasant feeling to the time we spent with this gentle giant
None of us wanted to leave. On our descent we opted to have lunch at the first section of the trail that provided us some shelter from the storm. We can’t wait for our next winter hike in the Whites.
Winter’s here! It’s time for snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing! To get any better than this, we’d have to be hiking into heaven. Thank’s God.
- Moosilauke1 Matt Leblank, Gabe, J&S (Winter 1998)
- Moosilauke2 Shawn, Ralph, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2000)
- Moosilauke3 Shawn, Ralph, Gary, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2002)
- Moosilauke4 Gary & Pete, Gabe, Noah, J&S (Winter 2003)
- Moosilauke5 J&S (Spring 2009)
- Moosilauke6 Chris, Joel, Shawn, J &S, (Fall 2011)
- Moosilauke7 J&S (Fall 2017)
A hot drink never tasted so good!
