For those of us not into imperial units: that last day is 96km distance and 6km altitude gain. The previous days are a little easier but not by much. Wild!
I love big stupid stuff like this. I didn't realize Ski the Whites has rebranded into White Mountain Ski co. Everyone shits on little 'ol new england, but the presidential range will chew you up as anyone who has thru hikes the AT will tell you. Suffering gives life meaning; go do hard stuff.
I grew up in New Hampshire and the White Mountains are such a good playground for stuff like this. Big network of trails, all kinds of terrain. Four very different seasons, lots of weather.
Basically anything you want to find in mountains, you can find in the Whites. Ice climbing, mountaineering, multi-pitch trad climbing, bushwhacking, easy trails, empty trails, whatever. I was very lucky to be able to hike there.
This is a weird link to be on the front page of HN.
> "A niche, fringe project, but one that resonated deeply with me because these are my mountains. This is my backyard."
I grew up smack in the middle of the White Mountains with a clear view of the presidential peaks. I have to say, at no point did I think, "Huh, I really should climb all those."
That said, for pre-season high school cross country training one year, we jogged up to the visitor center at the top of Mt. Washington. Not many people can say they did that. I also had friends who had summer jobs hauling building supplies and tools up and down the Appalachian trails to maintain the trails and huts. They were in insane shape when school started from carrying bags of concrete mix or a stack of bricks up and back every day.
The whites are an amazing resource for mountain sports of all levels. They are a bit deceptive as they lack the craggy above tree line terrain, or altitude of younger ranges - but they provide some of the longest and toughest trails in the world due to steep rocky trails which lack switchbacks. The mountains are mostly down to hard granite at this point, and as such don’t have the nice smooth trails of younger mountains.
The trail designers, such as they were back in the day, were true masochists. Literally direct lines straight up a ridge or alongside a gully. Given that they are on the fall line, the trails become rivers during rains. Unbelievably painful to hike.
No Forest Service namby pamby shallow grades and switchbacks here! Typical: the Air Line trail, ~4500 feet up at a 21% average grade.
All 48 peaks on the AMC white mountains 4000-footers¹ list in one continuous trek (no driving/shuttling/etc between trailheads).
¹ this list is outdated vis-a-vis modern mapping and includes at least one peak shorter than 4000 feet (Tecumseh) and omits at least one peak that should qualify per the rules (Guyot), but if the list were updated they would still have completed the direttissima, since they passed over Guyot on the way to the Bonds (dropping Tecumseh could only make the diretissima easier, but I'm not sure it makes much of a difference; it's been a decade or so since I hiked that section of the whites).
As an aside, that day 5 from Wildcat to Cabot is absolutely brutal even if you're fresh, to say nothing of having already covered 180 miles in the previous four days.
The White Mountains are great. As a local, one of my favorite things about them is that they aren't "cool". The people that make it here seem to respect them and the history.
If you do visit and you're into geology you may want to visit Madison, NH. It's home to the largest glacial erratic in North America.
It really is a great area. Just don't tell anyone.
Love the White Mountains, but I wouldn’t drink the water unfiltered like this guy, unless I was truly desperate. People I know have picked up giardia and hep A. Neither of which is any fun.
I absolutely love the White Mountains and it’s what I miss most about living in New England. In my opinion the best day hike in the country is the Franconia Ridge trail
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[ 391 ms ] story [ 4465 ms ] threadMonster effort.
Basically anything you want to find in mountains, you can find in the Whites. Ice climbing, mountaineering, multi-pitch trad climbing, bushwhacking, easy trails, empty trails, whatever. I was very lucky to be able to hike there.
> "A niche, fringe project, but one that resonated deeply with me because these are my mountains. This is my backyard."
I grew up smack in the middle of the White Mountains with a clear view of the presidential peaks. I have to say, at no point did I think, "Huh, I really should climb all those."
That said, for pre-season high school cross country training one year, we jogged up to the visitor center at the top of Mt. Washington. Not many people can say they did that. I also had friends who had summer jobs hauling building supplies and tools up and down the Appalachian trails to maintain the trails and huts. They were in insane shape when school started from carrying bags of concrete mix or a stack of bricks up and back every day.
The trail designers, such as they were back in the day, were true masochists. Literally direct lines straight up a ridge or alongside a gully. Given that they are on the fall line, the trails become rivers during rains. Unbelievably painful to hike.
No Forest Service namby pamby shallow grades and switchbacks here! Typical: the Air Line trail, ~4500 feet up at a 21% average grade.
¹ this list is outdated vis-a-vis modern mapping and includes at least one peak shorter than 4000 feet (Tecumseh) and omits at least one peak that should qualify per the rules (Guyot), but if the list were updated they would still have completed the direttissima, since they passed over Guyot on the way to the Bonds (dropping Tecumseh could only make the diretissima easier, but I'm not sure it makes much of a difference; it's been a decade or so since I hiked that section of the whites).
As an aside, that day 5 from Wildcat to Cabot is absolutely brutal even if you're fresh, to say nothing of having already covered 180 miles in the previous four days.
If you do visit and you're into geology you may want to visit Madison, NH. It's home to the largest glacial erratic in North America.
It really is a great area. Just don't tell anyone.