TRIP REPORT
 
 Mt. Adams, NH
 3/15 - 3/16, 1997
 
 We sign the trail registers as the False Summiteers.
 The name fits although Bob still holds out for the
 Bold Soul Sisters which may fit for him but not the
 rest of us. 
 
 This weekend, only 3 of the 6 can make it to the trail
 head. Bork simply couldn't get away given the short notice.
 Gordo lives in OH (sound of a open palm slaping a forehead)
 and Dave S. was kept away by a nasty ice storm in W.Mass.
 
 Bob and I pulled out of Boston after rush hour on Friday
 night and fought our way thru lousy roads covered with
 freezing slush. My wife is 5 months pregnant with our 
 first baby and in my heart of hearts, I really want 
 to be home with her. Ineritia is taking me north but
 the karma-meter is at an all time low and getting lower
 with the road conditions. We get in at 10:00, catch up
 with old friends and sort our gear while hoping
 for better weather in the morning.
 
 Our plan is to hike into Crag via Amphibrach and Spur 
 on Sat and Sun to run around King Ravine to Madison
 Hut. From there we can run up to the summit of Madison
 and then beat feet down Valley Way. In the Appalacia
 parking lot we meet a party of 4 gearing up for a 
 day climb of Madison via Valley Way. Good news. They
 are all carrying snowshoes (Snowshoers...YEH!!) so
 our trail down will be nicely broken out.
 
 Amphibrach follows a stream nearly straight up the
 side of the mtn at a nice leisurely grade. The woods
 are open offering nice views of the rolling, rambling
 stream for much of the way. There is a faint dusting
 of snow over a hard, breakable crust from yesterday's
 ice and snow storm. 
 
 We try (pathetically) to decipher the tracks in the 
 snow. Small weasal? Maybe. Hare? Yes. Grouse? Certainly,
 I saw it. Bobcat? Or a fox? I think it was a Bobcat.
 Left her calling card in the trail for us and the tracks
 follow the trail on up Spur. (We later see them above
 Crag!)
 
 We get into Crag near 2:00 and settle in. There is still
 alot of catching up for old friends and the view of Madison,
 Adams and the ledges of King Ravine that can be seen from around
 the tables of Crag is one of the best places for this kind
 of talk.
 
 We turn in around 7:00 (THE luxury of winter camping) discussing
 possibilities for tomorrow. We spent the afternoon watching
 spindrift being blown through Thunderstorm Junction. If the
 weather is lousy, we will set our sites on climbing Adams
 instead of trying to make the run around the ravine.
 
 In the morning, the clouds have socked in the summits.
 The wind is still strong. The temp in the hut is a cool
 8f and it is noticably warmer inside than it is outside.
 The decision is made to try for Adams instead of committing
 to Madison. At treeline, we pause to reasses the situation.
 Bob's feet have been cold since he left the hut and makes
 the decision to head back now. He's had a blackened toe
 from frostbite before and even if he hadn't, it is a 
 perfectly good decision to make. The wind is up, visibility
 is down and it's cold. Cold feet need attending to.
 I inform Jim that I could just as easily make the same
 decision at any time as my feet were not roasty-toasty
 yet.
 
 Visibility is anywhere from 1 to 3 cairns depending
 on the wind. The wind is hard, affecting our walking.
 Gusts make us stumble. But the footing is good and
 the wind is at our backs. We press on, keeping in mind
 that retreat will be harder as we will have to press
 into the howling wind and blowing spindrift. But
 we are warm and things all looked good. My feet were
 now super warm so we decide to attempt to make it
 to the big cairn in the Jct.
 
 Walking thru the rocks and ice and blowing snow is 
 other worldly. There is no frame of reference in the
 greyness. Time slipped quickly by and seemingly in a 
 second, we are at the huge cairn marking Thunderstorm
 Junction, a flat saddle underneath the summit cone
 of Adams where 5 or 6 trails come together. We spend
 some time studying the retreat so we can be assured
 of picking out the correct cairn line on the way down.
 Then we made the last push to the top.
 
 The last 1/4 mile to the top is rockier and windier
 as we press up into the maw of the mtn affect winds.
 At the summit, we are reduced to walking with one
 hand down at all times to keep our footing. But no
 real crawling. My goggles have iced totally. We duck
 for cover behind a large rock and I futily try to 
 clear the goggles. Given the wind and spindrift,
 both the face mask and goggles are musts. It becomes
 clear that the goggles aren't going to cooperate
 but, this is no place to sit and discuss better goggle/
 mask combos that might be found! I tell Jim to lead
 the way. His shadowy figure will be like a moving
 cairn for my clouded world for the next hour.
 
 We strike out to the NE and descend by way of a 
 large snowfield. It's like cramponing on
 hard styrofoam. We pass one large cairn on the way down
 but don't see any connecting ones. We continue down
 further until we level out on what must be the
 shoulder above King Ravine. We are standing in an
 open rock field in the howling wind with next to no
 visibility and no cairn line to follow. A very wonderous
 place to be. We know this part of the mountain pretty
 well though. All we have to do now is to move west,
 into the col. It will be impossible for us to miss
 the cairn lines that converge there.
 
 Sure enough 15 minutes of walking puts us on a cairn
 line. We had hit the Lowes/Spur line just below the Jct, 
 exactly what we had anticipated. We spend a few minutes 
 sorting out Lowes, Spur and King Ravine trail and start
 heading back. Too soon, we are standing at the top
 of the snowfield that extends below the last cairn
 down to treeline. I sit down to relish these last few
 fleeting moments in this strange, beautiful and terrible
 place. The sun is trying to break through the cloud
 cover, lighting all of the ice and snow up bright
 while the clouds stay low over us. After a bit, we
 get up and in a few minutes we are taking off the
 crampons on the porch of Crag.
 
 Bob was hanging out reading his feet warm in his bag.
 Warm Gatorade and lunch in the (relative) warmth of
 the hut. It is a balmy 11f inside now.
 
 The next day at the office, people are talking about
 some technical problem or another. I don't know. In
 my mind, I am standing in the windblown grey expanse
 above King Ravine. I wonder if my kid will love the 
 mountains too...