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| Route travelled: New Zealand Rd - Hale Brook Trail - Lend-a-hand Trail - Zealand Trail - Zealand Hut - Twinway Trail (AT) - Zealand - back by Zealand Trail past Mt. Hale |
Question: Does it matter how deep the snow is once you're in over your head?
On March 30th, James, Kayla and I set out to grab a couple new peaks - Mt. Hale and Mt. Zealand - in New Hampshire's White Mountains. At least, we think we grabbed peaks. For all we could see of solid ground, we may just have grabbed a couple particularly high snowdrifts.
A note about snowdrifts. They're white and pretty and one of the things we love about the White Mountains. If you have snowshoes or cross-country skis, they're quite fun to dash across the tops of. If you have neither of those, they're quite entertaining to plunge hip-deep into with every misstep.
In March, we expected trails packed by a winter's worth of walkers; instead, we climbed Mt. Hale on a trail softened by freezing drizzle, and descended in two miles of unbroken snow. At a rough guess, the three of us walked 18 miles and made 2500 post-holes yesterday.
Post-hole 0
8.30 am. Well-caffeinated, lightly packed, and full of enthusiasm.
Post-hole 500
Mt. Hale is one of those mountains with half a dozen almost-summits. Almost far enough, almost around this corner: we finally hit the icy pile of stones atop Mt. Hale with snacks and celebration.
Post-Hole 1000
"You know," James told us, falling knee-deep with every other step and hip-deep every few yards, "this is making me really regret those sixty pounds I put on in high school." I laughed, jumping along the trail behind him and tumbling into the holes he left behind.
Post-Hole 1500
We found Zealand Hut just before 2pm. The huts offer hot chocolate and coffee for $1/cup, so we sipped and shook the snow out of our clothes and wondered how far we could continue. It had been a long walk already - but we were feeling fine, so why not try another six miles to Mt. Zealand and back and get a second summit out of it?
Besides, the spring snow was beautiful.
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| Layer by layer, a winter's worth of snowfall. |
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| Frozen lichen is still soft to touch! |
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| Some of the trees were just starting to bud, though leaves and twigs were still coated with ice. |
Post-Hole 2000
"We found something that looks a lot like trail!" called Kayla. The trail had petered out for the third time in a copse of evergreens. Three inches of snow had fallen since anyone else had walked this way, and the blazes were missing or buried. Everything beyond the ridge was hidden in mist.
"Hey guys?" I called. "I could use a hand here..." Kayla saw me clinging to a spruce-tree, chest deep in the snow.
"Use your backpack for leverage!" offered James, making his way through. I tried, but only pushed it down to my waist and sank myself further. Spruce traps are rather like quicksand; the more you struggle, the faster you sink. I pushed my feet against the tree and tried to kick out a platform, but the snow gave way like air. James got his arm within reach - a green sleeve looking wonderfully solid against the snow - and pulled me up to him. As I stepped up, he fell backwards into a trap nearly as good as mine. There wasn't space for two to stand, so I pulled myself back into my tree and gave him an arm in turn. We fumbled in the snow. I tried to crawl away from the trapping tree, but it was the only thing within reach that held my weight.
"Can you knock more snow into the hole?" I said. "Make it solid?" James kicked the loose snow from the walls. Finally, we made a solid patch and escaped. Kayla stood on blessedly firm trail. There was snow soaking my socks, snow freezing my hair into curls and melting on my fleece.
"Thanks," I smiled.
"No problem. You know, if we get stuck here overnight, we've got a perfect person-sized burrow there. Just set up the tarp around us and we'd be set."
I laughed. "We might wake up a few feet further down than we meant to." I poked a baby spruce tree sticking up a foot or so beside the past. ''These little guys must actually be ten feet tall.''
It was 4:40 and we hadn't found the summit. We dropped our packs and sprinted for the summit, but gave up when the trail began to descend before we'd seen a sign or a cairn. Mt. Zealand might have hidden in the mist ahead of us. I like to think it was hidden right under our feet, and my spruce trap brought me nearly down to it.
Post-Hole 2500
The walk back was wonderfully uneventful. The cold had finally solidified the trails.We skidded and hurried downhill to make it down to Zealand Road before dark. The road was closed for the winter, so we passed clearings decorated with the tops of parking meters, and stop signs poking fancifully up from three feet of snow. The clouds were just bright enough to light our way towards a warm car and home.
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| Zealand Road in the morning |
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