Whether to Do C2C on Saturday the 30th?

[Carl F]

Hi arose10

I too am from Boston and visit often but I have lived here for some time. Skyline is a beautiful trail and an awesome training ground, but I agree that the White Mountain trails are underestimated partly due to their ruggedness. I had a chance to do Katahdin (after dropping my daughter off at Colby), going up Cathedral and back across the Knife Edge. For me it was way more difficult than Skyline, because of the bouldering (full body workout) , and the descent. Have you been up there, and what did you think?

Also, when on the Knife Edge you run into people finishing the Appalachian trail (since it is the northern terminus) , which is inspiring.

I even thought that the Lafayette loop in NH was a butt kicker, and you would never find that many people on a trail out here mid week!

[arose10]

OP: I am leading a small group of four up on Saturday morning. The weather outlook looks perfect. Hope to see you up there.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... pfl_CizKph

Phil

Awesome, Phil. Hope to see you on the trail. My name is Alex. I'll be hiking solo, most likely starting from the museum. Agree, the weather is looking promising! Assuming all goes as planned, I look forward to sharing photos here when I'm back in Boston.

[arose10]

Hi arose10

I too am from Boston and visit often but I have lived here for some time. Skyline is a beautiful trail and an awesome training ground, but I agree that the White Mountain trails are underestimated partly due to their ruggedness. I had a chance to do Katahdin (after dropping my daughter off at Colby), going up Cathedral and back across the Knife Edge. For me it was way more difficult than Skyline, because of the bouldering (full body workout) , and the descent. Have you been up there, and what did you think?

Also, when on the Knife Edge you run into people finishing the Appalachian trail (since it is the northern terminus) , which is inspiring.

I even thought that the Lafayette loop in NH was a butt kicker, and you would never find that many people on a trail out here mid week!

Carl, I'm with you 100%. Cathedral to Katahdin, though short, is one of the toughest hikes I've ever done. I think part of it was the nasty - wet and windy - conditions we had that day. Great hike, though. What year was your daughter from Colby? I have two cousins who graduated there, one in ~2005 and the other ~2008.

[Carl F]

My daughter is a Junior now, doing a semester abroad in Madrid. Going to visit her there next week and check out Chamonix for the first time.

PS I didn't think Katahdin was that short after coming back across the Knife Edge and down the rocky trail, but maybe I'm not quite a youngster like you!

[63ChevyII]

Here are a few pics from today.


Things got off to a nice start:





It sprinkled a little early on, cleared up, then soon after we left Flat Rock it started raining. I checked the temperature because it felt like it was cold enough to snow. It was 40 degrees. By the time we got to the Traverse, it was 30-32 with snow flurries. It was accumulating, but just enough to barely cover the tracks in the snow from last week.



When we reached Grubb's Notch, the snow was coming down pretty good:



After we were at the Tram Station for a few minutes, it really started coming down:



We didn't stay at the Mountain Station very long, so I am not sure how much snow accumulated or how long it lasted. I do know that I could not see San Jacinto on the way home. This was taken around 4PM:



Not sure if this helps much, but this is what we saw today.

[Feeel]

Thank you for the beta and wonderful pics. Heading to the trailhead in the next 30 min. P

[63ChevyII]

No problem. Have a great hike!

[arose10]

Hey, all. Just got back to my place and am about to crash. C2C was great today. Pretty ideal weather. Started at 5:30 AM and finished at 5:30 PM. I unfortunately left my camera USB cable back in Boston so I'll have to wait to share my photos soon after I return. Looking forward to doing that. Here's the only photo I took on my phone, from the peak, hopefully gives a sense of what conditions are like up there right now, probably the only time all day that the sky was clouded over...

http://bit.ly/18ezEfF

For anyone planning on hiking soon, a couple notes. I didn't need to use my microspikes below the tram station. (That could change with a little more snow, though.) I didn't necessarily need to use them above the tram either - warm weather today softened up a lot of the snow - but I found them helpful to wear at that point. Oh, and hour-plus wait for the tram at the end of the day. Brutal! Oh well. Awesome day.[/img]

[arose10]

Just posted my photos from last Saturday's C2C...

http://rosebud.dreamhosters.com/C2C.html

Also a little split image to sum up the day...



Thanks to everyone on this forum for their super helpful advice. It's a special group of folks, and I can now appreciate their enthusiasm as this was a really special hike.