Winter Lafayette Dayhike - 1/Feb/98
The day after my solo hike on the Welch-Dickey loop, Brenda, Dave
and I went up Lafayette. It turned out to be one of the glorious
sunny, warm, winter days with unlimited views, so I can't complain
too much. We spent the night at Dave's new house and then drove
to the trailhead by 9:00. We were supposed to meet Jen and her friend
there, but they had already started up. Dave and I had plastic boots,
Brenda was using her fairly worn leather Asolos. We all had crampons
and ski poles.
After changing into our boots and packing up, we headed up the Old
Bridle Path. Quickly, we stripped down to just
polypro and a light
fleece layer over that. While we were in the trees, it wasn't bad,
but as soon as we hit the first ledges, it was just too hot to keep
our shells on. We saw one hiker coming down without a shirt. The
views at the Busstop are always wonderful,
even more so on this sunny day.
A bit farther up, just after Red Rocks, we
stopped again for
some water and a rest. Then it was a fairly quick jaunt up to
the trail junction and
Greenleaf Hut. It was just so
warm and sunny that we could have
taken a nap on the front steps. As tempting as that was, it was
even more tempting to
get to the top so we could see into the Pemi
and Presidentials. So, we grabbed a quick lunch, stretched, took
some
photos, and pressed on.
From the hut to the summit the climbing is a
little steeper, and there
are some snowfields to negotiate. About three-quarters of the way up
we ran into
Jen and her friend coming down, so we stopped for a chat
and some more water. Just before the last false summit there's a tricky
snowfield that makes you feel a little uneasy about your footing. But
the snow was soft that day and we didn't need crampons. Then, we made
it! The views east to the Pemi and
Mt Washington were everything we
expected. Here are some shots of Owls Head,
Carrigain and the Hancocks and
the Cannon cliffs.
Days like this make you feel
completely alive. It was a
little chilly up there, but the wind was nearly non-existant so it was
easy to stay
up there for a while. A lot of the folks we met headed
over the ridge for the full loop, but we needed to get back down quickly
so we headed back the way we came.
The trip down proved more difficult than we anticipated. Brenda's boots
have been worn down over the years and she had a hard time keeping her
footing on the icy snowfields. In places we could slide
down
on our butts, but that wasn't always
possible. So, from the
summit to the hut
took longer than we expected. Once you hit the trees, the snow is a lot
easier to deal with and there's no exposure so we picked up the pace.
From then it was boot skiing and sliding on our butts, mixed with long
periods of quick hiking. When we reached the parking
area under the Cannon cliffs, we were pretty
burned out from the sun and exertion, but it felt like a perfect spring
hike, not a winter expedition.
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