Crawford Notch: Winter
White Moutains, NH
January, 2000
Trip Report for Mts. Tom, Field and Avalon 1/15/2000-1/16-2000
Written by Caitlan Conboy and Edited by Hector Briceno
Party Members:
Hector Briceno, Mike Freedman, Alex Mevay, Alex Zubak, Paul Henders,
Alexis Cavic, Merritt Evans, Caitlin Conboy, Melissa Warden, Sunil Tankha,
and Ben Ingram.
We drove up Friday night and slept in Intervale (except for Hector who
slept next to Intervale). Woke up at 5:30 on Saturday and headed to
Dunkin Donuts for a delicious and nutritious breakfast. Almost
managed to lose Paul and his car by directing them to the wrong Dunkin
Donuts, but they tracked us down just when we were about to leave
(bummer). Drove to the trail head and divided up the group gear and
food. The parking lot looked very benign at this moment.
We met some other fellow hikers in the parking lot who made the leader
waver. The fellow hikers after noticing that we were actually
preparing to hike at this point in time (meaning winter COLD
conditions), asked if we were Canadian. Hector inquired why they
asked that (he was not using his controversial and flimsy french
accent at the time). The fellow hikers responded "Only Canadians
would hike in this funny cold weather!!". But that didn't deter us
(plus we thought, this would not be even cool weather for canadians it
was only around 0).
Began the hike.
The trail had already been broken to some extent, but the snow was
deep enough to be interesting. We arrived at the Mt. Tom spur around
1:30, ditched our packs, made a couple of phone calls, and had some
snacks. Hector was very strict with time, when we got to the junction
he said "4 minutes for snacks, wilderness calls, and water." After
the four minutes we headed up Tom Spur and summited around 2:00. We
were joined in this stretch of the journey by several bold, fluffy
birds. Fellow hikers informed us that they were greyjays. At the
summit we were greeted by a beautifully clear view. Mike, the other
leader of the hike, demonstrated his leadership ability and the reason
he was on the trip by leading the group in stretches excercises (after
we had properly documented our ascent).
Continued onwards to Mt. Field. In the way upwards following Hector's
suggestion that a good site early is better than a bad site late, some
members began to pay attention to possible campsites. Hector
documented possibilities at 4050ft, 4150ft. Sumitted around 3:00.
The summit afforded a wide open clear space, and had a little peeker
view to the presidential range. Hector jokingly suggested to Mike to
set up camp at the summit, but Mike vetoed the idea, pointing out that
it would be against Section 8, paragraph 11 of the Winter School
Protocol. So we pushed onwards in search of a site. Our efforts were
not immediately rewarded, but after some scouting we happened upon a
site in which we could squish three tents. We set up camp and started
boiling water. We ran into some stove difficulties, first one stove
worked but it would have only been useful for simmering a nice alfredo
sauce (ie it had the heating power of by hand), the other stove broke
at the hose as it was unpacked (the metal most have been frozen or
faulty). Moral of the story is for people to try out their stoves
BEFORE the trip.
Our fearless leaders showed no fear (Hector: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO
DIE!!!") (not really). Hector and Paul slaved relentlessly over hot
stoves, and, despite some confusion about which was the Kosher kitchen
or which was the vegetarian kitchen, produced delicious,
somewhat-God-sanctioned and sometimes meatless food. Nonetheless,
there was much rejoicing over the culinary delights. Paul and Ben
toiled far into the night, producing hot water bottles for cold feet.
Despite the early hour, many people drifted into tents and tried to
sleep.
Hector, Mike, Caitlin and Merritt returned to the summit of Field
(which was about 100 yds from the campsite, which the "Winter School
Times" called it: "What a Spot") to look at the stars. The sky was
clear and the moon was bright enough to allow hiking without
headlamps. Hector saw 2 confirmed shooting stars (although he claimed
he saw several other "faint" ones), Mike and Merritt saw 1, and
Caitlin saw 0. (Shame!)
At the time when they went to sleep, Hector for statistical purposes
wanted to get a readout of the temperature, but he did not have a
thermometer. The other leader (we won't say any names, I will protect
Mike's identity), who was on the other tent had the thermometer. Now
how hard would you think it is to put a thermometer outside to measure
the temperature? When this idea was suggested to thermometer's
holder, it was not embraced with enthusiasm, but rather "But it means
I have to stick my hand outside"..."But it means I have to open the
tent." After much discussion about the importance of knowing the
temperature and bribing possibilities, we came to terms under one
dollar and a drive back to boston just to simply put a thermometer
outside. the temperature was around 10 degrees (of course this is an
overstatement since the thermometer was put outside for only 5 minutes
and was put in the vestibule, but we won't go into that).
Sunday morning was coated with fresh and falling snow. Nobody wanted
to leave their cocoons. Paul, the early bird, asked "If none of you
guys are getting up I am going back to my tent!!". After much
discussion, and time, the moment to leave the shelter egg case, and go
out into the real treacherous world came.
Paul made breakfast, and the group slowly packed up camp. The two
leaders went back to the summit of Mt Field to ask the Gods for
advice: "Do we go back? or do we try to bag Mt Willey (which Hector
has not been, but Mike has)." After much discussion with the Gods and
some digressions about Hermes journeys and Venus affairs, the Gods
recommended to head back. The plans to bag Mt. Willey were abandoned
on account of the extra snow we got over the night, the late hour, and
lack of copious amounts water (due partly to stoves and fuel (we still
had some spare).
The group headed home via the Avalon trail. We were treated to low
visibility (100ft), snow rushing through the forest, and a virgin
trail (for the people in front, for the people behind it was well
packed!!) The trail down said Glissade all over the place. Some
people opted for this option, and tuned their skills. There was even
a black diamond glissade option challanged to Paul and Hector by Mike
that offered entartaining views of switching from standing glissades
to butt glissades.
On the way we stopped by Mt. Avalon (100yds spur). A short steep hike
through waist deep snow afforded us a nice and windy summit with
decent views. Once we got down the trail, Mike recommended to see
some cascades he had seen before. Cascades is an overstatement of
what we saw (hey guys what did we actually see?). Finally we got down
to the parking lots at around 1:45.
We were greeted by a different parking lot, this one contained a foot
of snow with some sections with 2 feet of snow. Quickly and
effectively we organized a shovelling squad. The men were quickly
differentiated from the boys. Alex, Alexis and Alex all had read
shovels (big and strong); Hector pulled out a nice puny tiny organge
plastic blade (you can't call that a shovel). Moral: "Carry a MEN'S
shovel". After a 30 minute work out we clear just enough for us to
get out (and for that BMW we blocked to take twice as long to get out).
We headed for the traditional-after-trip Elvio's Pizza. Food
glorious, food. (important to point out, that even though the Leader
asked all the participants to pre-select their pizza on the trail,
they still spent 15 minutes arguing which pizza to get...we'll see if
this works nect time).
And, most importantly, everyone returned from the trip with their fingers
and toes still functioning (more or less) keeping to the 100% return rate.
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