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Old 01-18-2022, 09:27 PM   #1
fatlazyless
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Default Jan 18, 2022: winter A.T. thru-hiking; Crawford Notch to (almost) Mt Lafayette

A solo winter hiker doing the Appalachian Trail, going south from Baxter State Park, Maine and all the trail down to Georgia, is hiking the White Mountain National Forest right now, Sunday and Monday - Jan 16-17, 2022, walking from Crawford Notch to (almost) Mt Lafayette except the cold and wind drove him off back just above treeline on Mt Lafayette and into town. MAYBE he has headed over to the nearby Town of Sugar Hill for Polly's hot pancake breakfast at Polly's Pancakes?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUAuD0ygcbY&t=174s ... White Mountains, New Hampshire .... Sun Jan 16-big sunny day & Mon Jan 17-big snow storm day ..... a selfie pole, hand-held video made while hiking the Guyot Shelter between Mt Guyot, Mt Bond, N&S Twin Mt, Mt Garfield, and up-up-up toward Mt Lafayette hiking thru wind, cold and snow on the Appalachian Trail .... 26:31 ... Scott Benerofe .... A.T. winter thru-hiker, hiking southbound.

Believe the second unnamed overnight log shelter after the Guyot shelter is the Garfield Ridge shelter. Both are on or very close to the Appalachian Trail.

Day #1 started at Baxter State Park, up north in Maine on December 6, 2021 so that's six weeks of winter hiking and overnight camping experience on the Appalachian Trail for living out in the C-O-L-D and hiking the A.T., alone. No mosquitos, no black flies, no crowded hiking trail, no crowded shelters, no crowded parking lot and no big heat and high humidity when hiking the A.T. in New Hampshire in January ....... weeeoooo! ....... ....... and shaazaam!

Cold cold temps are definitely here in New Hampshire this week, so's it could be a cold week for hiking and camping the A.T., solo, through the White Mountain National Forest. .... .... cold! ..... today is Tuesday, Jan 18, 2022.

Hey, here's an interview .... first item on the Google ...... with 'Scott Benerhofe on His Ongoing SOBO Winter AT Thru-Hike' ..... https://thetrek.co/appalachian-trail...an-trail-hike/ ..... dated January 17, 2022 by Penina Satlow ..... with eight photos from his winter Appalachian Trail hike southbound thru relatively warm Maine in December and early January as he gets closer, step by step by snowy step to danged cold New Hampshire! My definition for danged c-o-l-d is +nine degrees, single digits, plus what wind and sunshine.
.........

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 ...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzptm4tspMc ...... 'Appalachian Trail - Climb Back Up And Face The Wind- Franconia Ridge' .... White Mountains, New Hampshire ... 15:20

February 10, 2022 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6JR3hgCZfA .... 'Appalachian Trail - This is What It Takes - Rutland to Manchester Center' .... Green Mountains, Vermont ... 28:41

February 13, 2022 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv2JTep73r8 ... 'Appalachian Trail - A Warm Day - Manchester Center to Bennington' ... Green Mountains, Vermont ....18:09

February 18, 2022 .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkOJvK-ycVY ..... 'Appalachian Trail - Vermont Recap' .... 7:03

Looks like Scott Benerofe ..... aka Aquaman .... made it into Massachusetts, hiking on the Appalachian Trail ..... and everyone in New Hampshire knows that Massachusetts is so totally full of hot air! With hiking and camping the A.T. when its danged cold out, is good to take a zero-mile day indoors with heat and facilities; eat, sleep, rest and recover, watch the weather and wait for the right day to hit the trail, again, before hitting the trail with a fresh roast beef sub to eat!
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Old 01-18-2022, 09:52 PM   #2
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Thanks for sharing—we did the Bonds again last summer, but I've never done it, or the Ridge, in winter. The bluebird day looked amazing, but the storm not so much.

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Old 01-18-2022, 10:51 PM   #3
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Wow--can't imagine doing that in January. I did Monadnock with my adult son a few years ago--just once. One thing that becomes very clear during the winter above the tree line--a simple mistake or fall can kill you if you cannot get out of the cold. With virtually nobody else on the trail, I thought two people was not enough for safety.
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Old 01-18-2022, 11:24 PM   #4
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Three people are needed:

One to fall.

One to attend to the fallen.

One to seek help.

A registered personal locator beacon or similar device is a good idea.
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Old 01-19-2022, 04:26 AM   #5
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Interesting book on hiking in New Hampshire in winter. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whe...gne/1126967401
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Old 01-19-2022, 04:57 AM   #6
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Interesting book on hiking in New Hampshire in winter. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whe...gne/1126967401
For anyone interested in reading about the Whites in winter, this is a great one for sure. His newer book, The Last Traverse, is also good and about the Franconia Ridge (as opposed to the Presidentials).

I ran a book club for my students last year that included meeting the author, Ty Gagne, and the survivor, James Osborne. It was a pretty cool experience for the kiddos!

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Old 01-24-2022, 10:07 AM   #7
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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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Old 01-24-2022, 12:00 PM   #8
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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.
One thing I very much appreciate about Ty Gagne's writing is that he remains (mostly) objective and addresses tragedy through the lens of decision making and risk analysis. I'm honest enough to understand that many of my outdoor adventures could have gone poorly with only a slight shift in circumstances.

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Old 01-24-2022, 12:57 PM   #9
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I agree, well written and a good objective view of the events.

I know what you are saying, that outdoor adventures could have gone wrong, I'm in the same boat. But going wrong could be getting hurt, getting lost, gear breaking, something like that. In the case of these 2 hikers one was so inexperienced that he was going solely on the advice of his mentor, and the mentor was so experienced that it was inexplicable that he would make the mistake he did. Walking into a major, well predicted storm on the assumption you'd hike fast enough to beat it on a several mile exposed ridge in winter is madness.

The helicopter stuff was beyond amazing, that the pilot had the skill and the chopper had the capability to operate in those conditions.
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Old 07-16-2022, 07:16 AM   #10
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Hiking the A.T. in New Hampshire ..... posted July 16, 2022 ..... a lone thru-hiker, trail name: Spotter (from Michigan)..... going north from Georgia to Maine ..... Day #112 ..... www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9U9kVPszWg ..... 19:43 .... Lonesome Lake to Franconia Ridge to Galehead ... walk-walk-walk-walk-walk!

This stretch of the Appalachian Trail is same area as the first post in this thread from January, and now six months later is in July ....... notice the difference!
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Old 07-16-2022, 09:54 AM   #11
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Hiking the A.T. in New Hampshire ..... posted July 16, 2022 .... a lone thru-hiker, trail name: Spotter (from Michigan)..... going north from Georgia to Maine ..... Day #112 ..... www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9U9kVPszWg ..... 19:43 .... Lonesome Lake to Franconia Ridge to Galehead ... walk-walk-walk-walk-walk!

This stretch of the Appalachian Trail is same area as the first post in this thread from January, and now six months later is in July ....... notice the difference!
Thanks, FLL--she's awesome! A huge but completely unpretentious show of physical and emotional strength as she casually recounts her through-hike. I love her "14.9 mile...low mileage day"
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Old 07-16-2022, 10:04 AM   #12
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Thanks, FLL--she's awesome! A huge but completely unpretentious show of physical and emotional strength as she casually recounts her through-hike. I love her "14.9 mile...low mileage day"
14.9 in the Whites is tough. A former student is currently on day 39 or something of his PCT thru-hike...averaging 30 miles/day!

I had a Pemi Loop on the schedule early this week, but it appears the weather will foul my plans! (I'm kind-of a fairweather backpacker these days).

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Old 07-16-2022, 10:20 AM   #13
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14.9 in the Whites is tough. A former student is currently on day 39 or something of his PCT thru-hike...averaging 30 miles/day!

I had a Pemi Loop on the schedule early this week, but it appears the weather will foul my plans! (I'm kind-of a fairweather backpacker these days).

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Yes! And then at the end of the video it turns out she did over 20 miles with gains and drops both over 7,000'. She's putting up numbers like the most macho guy you've ever met, all with the demeanor of a young "girl" on a stroll through the park
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Old 07-17-2022, 06:43 AM   #14
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She most definitely speaks and walks with excellent condition, mentally and physically, what with her 112 days, so far, walking and camping outdoors from Georgia to New Hampshire. Is not unusual for A.T. thru-hikers to get foot walking problems like sore feet and blisters due to walking with damp socks and damp shoes from all that sloppy wet mud in Vermont and western Massachusetts.

Is a long standing, 50-year plus tradition for Appalachian Trail thru-hikers to pull down their pants and moon the Cog Railroad .... www.thecog.com .... the single passenger car .... ho-ho-ho .... .... along the rocky A.T. trail off the summit on Mt Washington.

Wonder what is her height ...... how tall? .... cannot tell from the video? .....

This .... "Let me get to hiking!" ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCtVOlkDfDU .... 25:39 ..... is the next day ..... Day #113 .... posted July 17 ..... walking the A.T. ..... Zealand Falls area and southern presidentials ..... up to Lakes of the Clouds hut .... walk-walk-walk-walk-walk!

Day #1 started in north western Georgia on about March 20, 2022.

Day #114 .... 'Unbound Crow' .... posted July 18 ..... walking Washington, Madison, Pinkham Notch, Wildcat & Carter Dome ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmzCiZ7KkM ..... 27:21 .... walk-walk-walk-walk-walk!
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Old 07-25-2022, 12:13 PM   #15
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Here's a good one ..... Day #138, July 4, 2022 ..... North Conway, NH ..... Crawford Notch .... up the Crawford Trail ..... aka the Appalachian Trail ..... to Mizpah Spring Hut overflow tent area ..... 6:56 .... posted July 25, 2022 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ev1EmxQwE ..... includes a random falling birch tree that came down with the wind, or something
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Old 07-25-2022, 12:54 PM   #16
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Having enjoyed North Conway for decades and been there for a day just a week ago, the video reminds me--any thoughts on why the area looks like it's gone through such hard times?

It's such a funny mix of new investment and old dilapidation. I don't understand how they keep drawing new money as the old places struggle, or maybe it's how the old places struggle as new money comes in? This is not the usual gentrification or natural turnover--it's something different or at least more extreme
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