The Wild Wildcats and Trying the Tripyramids

As Myles Chase and I are attempting to hike the 48 4,000+ foot peaks in New Hampshire this winter, we were looking to hit some up this weekend and New Years day. On Sunday we attempted to do a long traverse of the the Wildcat and Carter Ridges which would have netted 6 peaks. It was going to be an epic day. Amber and Deidre joined us as we started bright and early for the nineteen mile hike.

Amber and Deidre

Myles and Deidre at the second ledge on Wildcat

After 2 1/2 hours of postholing through 2-4 feet of unbroken snow making it less than 2 miles, we decided that the day was better spent regaining warmth in our feet, having a good lunch and doing some shopping at the outlets.

Amber and Danny

All in all, it took us about four hours to cover the four miles. So instead of six peaks on Sunday we climbed 0.0 mountains.

Danny Breaking Trail

Deidre on his heels

Danny is a wildcat?

Or is it Amber?

After nine days of winter: Peaks climbed: 1; Peaks Remaining: 47.

 

Danny Breaking More Trail



This week wasn't meant to be for epic hikes as our New Years hike along the Franconia Ridge got vetoed as both Amber and Deidre wanted to go cross-country skiing instead. Myles and I then settled on the Tripyramids. Amber and I had done them in the past and I remembered that going up one was significantly more challenging than the other. I just forgot which. Apparently it's safer to go up the North Slide and down the South Slide.


There are two reasons for that. The South slide is somewhat less steep but also it is more covered from the wind so typically is just snow filled. The North slide on the other hand typically is sheer ice and at a steeper pitch.

The North Slide- Imagine it covered with sheer ice.



The North Slide-One of the few places with deep enough snow to stand

 So what did we do? We climbed up the South Slide and down the North. This ended up being a good thing as we used the North Slide as the name implies. One long fun slide. My butt is not pleased with me today but we surely made up some time on the descent. Also making things go a little quicker, was our foresight to bring snowshoes which was certainly needed as at the bottom of the slide there was nearly three feet of unpacked snow(most people hike the Scaur Trail to avoid the slide altogether).

That line marks Danny's butt slide on the North Slide



All told, we hiked a little over 11 miles in a little less than 4 hours. A little better than our day at Wildcat and hopefully a sign of what we can do for the remaining winter.

The South Slide on Mt Tripyramid Trail

As of 1/1/2013-Peaks climbed: 3; Peaks Remaining: 45.