Caleb was not absent for a lack of interest (he loves hiking and the snow), but out of concern for his safety (winter hiking in the mountains of New Hampshire is not without some pretty serious risks), and also due to the type of hiking that I would be doing (longer, more challenging hikes than he is used to during summer conditions, let alone in the middle of winter). Nonetheless, I know he would love to be out there with me in the driving snow and frigid winds, and I’m sure he’ll be ready soon enough. In the meantime, we’ll continue to take shorter and safer winter hikes (like to his new favorite peak, Mt. Avalon), and leave the harder stuff for when the weather is more tame.

Even though Caleb was not with me on these hikes, I thought about him constantly. I LOVE hiking with my son and can’t wait to have him with me on trips like this, and far more challenging ones. Accordingly, though Caleb didn’t get to enjoy these first-hand, I post them here for posterity, and also for inspiration to him when he is ready to tackle these kind of conditions.

As another side note, my most recent hike (up Lafayette) reminded me of how important the mountains are to me. If you have never had the experience of climbing up out of the clouds to a view of neighboring snowy peaks, howling wind, blowing spindrift, and endless beauty, I highly recommend you give it a try. In my experience, there are few things that compare to what one can see and feel from the top of a mountain.

A trail sign just off the summit of Mt. Jackson, which I hiked alone on January 16th. There was no visibility from the summit, which normally affords a view all the way up the Presidential Range and beyond, and I didn’t linger for more than a few minutes at the top.

The view from the summit of Mt. Liberty the next day (Jan. 17th). A friend, Chris, drove up and met me for this hike, and despite the warmish conditions on the ascent (mid thirties, I think), it certainly looked like winter on the summit. Again, no views.

Chris taking some photos on the summit. Visibility was roughly 30 yards.

Chris and I met up for another hike in mid-February to the two peaks that make up the Osceolas (East Osceola and Mount Osceola). The day was excellent and we managed to get many views, first from the ridge line before East Osceola which afforded excellent visibility, and a few through the cloud cover from Mount Osceola. The climb was a bit icy, but definitely a lot of fun. This is a shot of Chris taking in the views from the summit of Mount Osceola.

After my hike with Chris, I spent the night in the Shapleigh Bunkhouse in Crawford Notch and did a quick solo hike the next morning. My plan was to hike the Willey Range starting with Mount Field, but there was quite a bit of new snow hiding the trail, and more snow coming down during the hike, and I changed my plans once I reached the summit of Mount Field. Instead of continuing on to Mt. Willey, and then back over Field to Mt. Tom, I had some hot chocolate, took off my snow shoes, and glissaded about half of the way back down the mountain. It was loads of fun, and I was back at my car before noon. This photo is of the trail leading up to Mt. Field from Mt. Avalon.

A self-portrait from the viewpoint just off the summit of Mt. Field. As you can see, it was a bit more like winter up there with a lot of blowing snow and howling wind. Indeed, as I was heading down the mountain, I discovered the most of the tracks I had made on the way up, less than an hour earlier, were almost completely filled in with snow on the way back down.

My most recent hike was to the top of Mt. Lafayette from the west in mid-February (I was previously up there this past summer, approaching it from the north, and saw nothing but Memorial Day crowds on from the cloud-encased summit). I again hiked alone and couldn’t have asked for better conditions. The trail was packed solid the entire way up the mountain, the temperature was just cold enough for my tastes, and the sun was shining beautifully once you poked your head above the clouds. This is a shot from a few miles into the hike. The route I would take goes from left to right along the ridge to the top of Lafayette, which is behind the cloud in this image.

Less than a quarter of a mile below the summit, I saw this faint, but beautiful rainbow. Looking northwest you can see the clouds sitting low like an ocean.

Just before the summit, I grabbed this shot of a group of hikers as they made their way up the final steep stretch before topping out.

Now at the summit, one of the other hikers offered to take a photograph of me. Just out of the frame to the right, you would be able to see Mount Washington off in the distance, with its summit just peeking above the clouds.

Aside from the photos, I of course made a few videos. They are a bit cheesy in spots, but convey the elements a bit more accurately than the photographs. Enjoy!

. . .

I edited together several clips from the Osceolas and Mt. Field hikes.

A video of the rainbow on the way up Lafayette.

A video from the summit of Mt. Lafayette.

Click on the image below to see more photographs from my hike.

Our destination was the Naumann tent site, which is just below the Mizpah Spring Hut near the summit of Mt. Pierce. It is a great location (easy to get to, near a hut, great hikes nearby, etc.) and we are glad we chose it over a few other options. The hike up went quickly, we set up our tent, took a nap, and then tried to make ourselves busy for the remainder of the day. I ended up hiking to the summit on my own but Caleb had a great time playing with some new friends at the hut. We ate dinner in style (macaroni and cheese) and did our best to sleep through the noise of the rain. We woke up early and broke camp in a bit of a drizzle (a light rain, really) and then hiked the few miles down the mountain to our car in time to make it to the Highland Center for an awesome breakfast.

As anyone would expect a breakfast conversation to go the morning after a backpacking trip in New Hampshire, we decided to head to Vermont for a night to mix the trip up a bit. We drove through the rain to Burlington, explored a little, ate some great Thai food, and checked into a comfy hotel room. The next day we drove south and explored Middlebury and Woodstock before heading home.

• Day 1: Early flight from Boston, through San Francisco, to Redding, CA, and a long drive west to my friend Mitch’s property along the Trinity river. There I met up with a bunch of friends from graduate school.
• Day 2: Still at Mitch’s, enjoying festivities galore…
• Day 3: Woke up early and drove east a few hours to Lassen National Park (here’s where the photos [click on the image below] pick up the story…).
• Day 4: Approach climb on Mt. Shasta.
• Day 5: Summit and descend Mt. Shasta.
• Day 6: Explore the towns around the base of the mountain, and arrive in Redding.
• Day 7: Ugh — weather delays all day. Delayed flight to San Francisco; missed connection in San Francisco and re-routed to flight through Denver (rather than direct to Minneapolis); flight to Minneapolis after seeing awesome sunset over the Rockies from the Denver airport; arrival late in Minneapolis.
• Day 8: Bluegrass festival with Megan, Caleb and my in-laws.
• Day 9: Caleb’s 4th birthday!!! Happy birthday bud!! Wedding in the evening (complete with some break-dancing by Caleb). Tornado sirens for a few minutes just as Caleb was trying to go to sleep.
• Day 10: Early flight through Milwaukee to Boston.

Whew! That was definitely the short version of this very fun and fulfilling trip. Now on to the photos (click on the image below to see them all):

[click on the photo above to see all of the images from my trip]

Unfortunately missing from the photos are a number of events that should be mentioned:

1. Roasting hot dogs over an open flame at our campsite
2. Getting a ride in a golf cart from one of the owners of the campsite
3. Caleb playing in the wooden pirate ship
4. Weirs Beach during the day
5. Our trip to the Flume Visitor Center and the related short hike (both of our camera batteries died!) :(
6. Inside Cardigan Lodge, which was a great place to stay
7. The three of us crammed overnight in a two-person tent during our one night camping outing

Caleb and I chose to hike over Mt. Hale and meet Megan’s group for the night at the Zealand Falls Hut, and then hike east on the A-Z Trail for a night in the backcountry before heading to our car to pick Megan up on the morning of the third day. Caleb and I had muddy, wet and rainy conditions on our first day but Caleb made it up and over Mt. Hale all on his own! If you don’t count his Moosilauke hike (since I carried him for roughly 2 of the 7.5 miles), Mt. Hale is Caleb’s first 4000-foot peak!

The night at the Zealand Falls Hut was pleasant (Caleb did not really dig waking up in the middle of the night to pitch black, nor did he like ramming his head a few minutes later on the corner of the shelf on the wall in his bunk — yet he still had a great time) and we look forward to returning soon. Caleb and I opted to hike 5.5 miles out to our car on the second day instead of camping near Mt. Field (as originally planned) because the weather was a bit of a drag on our morale, and we had a hard time spotting suitable tent sites from the trail, let alone 200+ feet away.

The rest of the trip was very relaxing and we opted not to do any more major hikes (we took a few short strolls…). We look forward to going back again very soon!

Here’s a fun video from this morning, shot just below the summit of Lafayette:

This was shot just south of the summit of Bondcliff (White Mountains, NH) and pans from there to Mt. Bond, West Bond, over to Franconia Ridge. Mts. Lafayette and Lincoln (where I would be two days later) are buried in the clouds).

One final one of me waving (after fidgeting with the camera a few times) to Caleb from the summit of Mt. Garfield.