Single digit temperatures with wind chills below zero. No heat, electricity, or running water.
Huh.
When Chris first suggested joining Outdoor Bound’s President’s Day weekend snowshoe trip to New Hampshire, I was a bit skeptical on the probability of returning with all ten fingers and toes. But I like to consider myself to be fairly adventurous, so I agreed to the challenge.
We left by 7am Saturday morning in a van with 5 fellow snowshoe-rs, plus our guide. The car ride was lengthy, about 7 hours to get from the city to the White Mountain National Park, an area of New Hampshire mountains near Mt. Washington. Thankfully our van mates were a fun group of professionals from the city – and a stop at Littleton diner in NH provided local flavor both in terms of culture and lunch deliciousness.
All of our supplies, including food, had to be backpacked in, so we loaded up our giant hiker backpacks and snowshoed uphill for ~3 hours to arrive at Carter Hut Notch, part of a remote group of huts run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Carter was a small compound with a kitchen hut (where the all-important wood stove was lit between 4-9pm daily), bunk huts (bunk bed rooms – no heat/electricity/water but still shelter from the wind), and an outhouse hut up the hill (which was quite aromatic to say the least).
We arrived after dark, using our headlamps to make our way in, and hit the hay early after a quick dinner around the stove. With no lights and no heat after 9pm there’s no dilly-dallying before retreating into sleeping bags!
A daylight view of the hut, and the bunk's interior room door handle, which frosted over at night:
Sunday involved a rigorous snowshoe up to Carter Dome and Mount Hight – the views from the top were stunning, with snow drifts of several feet. The way down was a bit of a heart-pounder: the sun made the snow a bit icy, so there were a few moments where we were unintentionally butt-sliding down the mountain! Thankfully there were minimal steep drop-offs adjacent to the trail, so a quick self-arrest with hiking poles averted trouble (for trouble read: dropping off several-thousand-foot mountain).
Carter Dome:
Trail and Mt. Hight Summit:
We arrived back exhausted, mostly in a good way, around 3pm. Then came one of the worst moments of the weekend: hanging around, counting the seconds until 4pm until the wood stove was lit. While the weather was cold all weekend, we really didn’t feel it while snowshoeing. In fact, the exercise was strenuous enough that the real risk is sweating, since a wet base layer of clothing can get dangerously cold after you’re not walking around. But once you’re just sitting around in cold huts (where the temp outside is teens and the temp inside is 20s/low 30s) it gets chilly pretty darn quickly. But we survived until 4pm, and enjoyed the evening snug around the fire, eating tacos and chatting with other hikers.
Hanging out in the cold, waiting for the coveted 4pm fire-lighting moment:
Once 9pm hit and the stove was off, we were out of there like lightning, bolting for our sleeping bags.
We forget in modern society how odd it is not to have to deal with the cold – we quickly retreat to heated homes/cars/offices. But sleeping in the cold is another story. You have to plan ahead! We filled water bottles with warm water (boiled from the lake) to take the chill out of our sleeping bags. Anything you didn’t want to freeze solid overnight – including slightly sweaty clothes, water, etc, had to go into the sleeping bag with you. And definitely no drinking water right before bed – going to the bathroom during the night involved unzipping two sleeping bag layers, losing the all-important body heat, putting on boots and waterproof clothes, grabbing a headlamp, waking up the entire room of campers with the ruckus, and trekking in the dark to the outhouse.
The 5am pre-dawn darkness on Monday saw us up and about for an early hike up Wildcat Mountain. We began in cold/dark/single digit temps, but enjoyed a beautiful sunrise as we hiked up the steep trail. Popping back to Cater by 8am, we grabbed a quick breakfast, packed up our packs, and hiked back out to our cars, 2-3 hours away.
First peek of sunrise:
The drive home was a bit “ripe” – 7 hikers who hadn’t showered in 3 days – but a happy exhaustion prevailed in the van. On the whole, I’m incredibly glad we went. Not just for the views, though the area was beautiful, but for the forgotten art of unplugging. Without cell service, laptops, emails, or even electricity we embraced the art of actual conversation. With all of our modern conveniences, we lose a certain beauty of the old days, where everyone gathered around a fire and talked to each other as the evening’s only entertainment. No on hung out alone in their bunks (why would you in the cold/dark?) so we got to know one another and the other hikers passing through the area. A sense of strong community prevailed, and we remain in touch with our hiking buddies.
Of course, all that said, a looong hot shower at home on Monday night felt pretty darn amazing.
The Intrepid Crew:
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