I did a lot of overnight winter trips in my younger years, still hike day trips in winter, my wife and I were out a few weeks ago in 0 degrees but it wasn't windy so not so bad. Nothing huge, maybe 4 1/2 mile total, beautiful hike, didn't see a soul, we were the only car in the parking lot. I love the way things sound different, the crunch of the snow, on winter hikes.
I try to carry enough gear so if I had to sit down in the snow for an extended time I would be ok. Maybe not comfortable, but ok. You can't count on seeing anyone else unless you are on a well traveled trail, like Tecumseh on a weekend, so you need to be able to hunker down if you need to.
I've been on the various ridges, Franconia or Presidentials, in cold and wind and it demands full respect. What happened to the guys in The Last Traverse was sad but a huge error in judgement from start to finish by them, and put a ton of other people in extreme danger.
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