View from Mt Willey
Our first climb of 2014 turned out to be one of the best climbing days we have had in a long time!
We started at the Ethan Pond Trailhead near Ripley Falls, and then ascended Mt. Willey. Within the first 5 minutes, we had to pull out the maps – the Ethan Pond Trailhead isn’t that obvious… After taking the only trail up from the parking area, and crossing an active railroad track, we came across this sign…
Ethan Pond Trail / Ripley
We figured this was the right trail because Ripley Pond Trail breaks off of Ethan Pond, which is the one we needed to follow in order to get to the Willey Range Trail. Sure enough, we came across the trail junction denoting the trail we wanted!
As we climbed upward, we enjoyed some very moderate grades, and then the trail steepened. After ~1 hr of a collection of steep sections on the trail, we hit “the ladders.” This last steep section to Mt Willey summit is overcome by ladders – wooden steps cut out of tree trunks – that get steeper and approach near vertical the higher one climbs, which made it fun for the two dogs (we had to carry each up the steepest section).
This pic doesn’t show the steepest ladder, and we weren’t about to stop and try to take a picture as we were already tense enough just making our way up! One slip could have resulted in a 20′ or 30′ fall. So, heads down as we climbed the ladders…
Willey Ladders
After the ladders, and a couple of rocky sections, we reached the summit. Total time to the summit of Mt. Willey was ~3 hours. Once at the summit, we took a ~30 minute break to take pics, eat our traditional PB&J sandwiches, fruit, cheese, etc., etc.
View from Mt Willey
After our rest, we crossed over Mt Willey summit and continued to Mt. Field, which took ~1 hour…
Once we reached Mt Field, we had some nice views into the valley where we could see the Mt Washington Inn (picture below as the red/white spec in the center of the picture).
View From Mt Field
After another ~30 minute break, we continued on to Mt. Tom.
As we continued, we began descending into the col between Mt Field and Mt Tom, which was far steeper and deeper than we had anticipated. The descent was roughly equivalent to a 56 story office building, and then we had to go back up.
At one point, we ran into a couple of hikers who had started back up the trail thinking they had somehow made a mistake and taken the wrong path. I explained to them that the other trail option back at the previous summit was the Avalon Trail that did not take them to Mt Tom, and assured them they were on the right path, steep as it may be…
Eventually, we made our way down to the next trail junction where we took the Mt Tom Spur to the summit of Mt Tom (funny how that works).
View From Mt Tom
View From Mt Tom
After another short break, we took the Mt Tom Spur trail back down to the trail junction, and then took the Avalon Trail back to the AMC Highland Center / Train Depot. The descent took ~1.5 hours.
When Paul and Karen got down to the Crawford Notch Depot next to the AMC Highland Center where we parked the first of our two vehicles, they noticed a large group was having a cookout… Karen hung out at the Depot while Paul came back up the trail to meet Christine and me (we two who had been taking our time on the descent looking at the geology, interesting gnarled trees, fungi, flowers, and so on) to let us know they had run the dogs down to the Depot and there was a cookout going on…
Crawford Notch Depot
Once were were all at the Depot, Karen and Christine walked over to the Highland Center while Paul and I drove back to the starting trailhead to pick up the other vehicle.
AMC Highland Center
Paul and I joined Karen and Christine at the Highland Center for a short break, browsed the various AMC merchandise, sat on the comfy couches (think yellowstone lodge) before heading back to the cottage (Squam Lake) for a shower, change of clothes, advil, and chicken burgers for dinner. Of course, we had ice cream with maple syrup for dessert!
