Trip Report

Mt. Adams / Mt. Madison
4/25 - 4/26 1998

Trails: Amphibrach, Spur, Upper Spur, Upper Lowe's
Path, Gulf Side, Airline



[Mr.] Laurie B and I left the house around
4:30 and drove into Boston to pick up maohai huang.
Maohai and I had not met yet except by way of the net
so it was great to drive north, chat and get to
know each other a bit. The skies in Boston were
breaking up but as we drove north, the skies darkened
and by time we got to the Appalachia parking lot,
at 8:30 it was pouring out and around 40f. Perfect 
way to start a hike.

We flew up Amphibrach expecting the worst in terms
of the storm damage. We were pleasantly surprised.
Although the woods had been hit hard and despite
the trail being littered with lots of junk, the limbs
were small and a bit of wading over it or walking
around it kept the pace up. Soon we had snow under
our feet and by time we crossed Cliffway (around
2500') we had it falling on us too. 

Just above Pentadoi, there is a stream crossing
and we stumbled across a critter of some sort.
My current best guess is that it was a small fischer
but I'm still working on the ID. It flew like the
wind and I'm not sure maohai even got a look at it.
Exciting and a real treat.

We made Crag Camp around noon, peeled off wet rain gear
and tried to shake the snow out of the packs. We got
a bit of lunch, dropped off some gear and left for
the summit of Adams at 1:30. At treeline, visibility
was poor but workable. The wind was howling out of 
the NW and we reassessed the situation when the 
Spur lifted above the lee of the Nowell Ridge
and again at Thunderstorm Junction. We went ahead
up to the summit. I only got knocked over by the
wind once so it wasn't the worst wind I've ever
seen up there. I've had to crawl to summit on another
occasion. But the run back down to the Thunderstorm
cairn was not really fun since we had to turn back
into the wind that was driving grauple in our faces
like a sandblaster. Needless to say, there was absolutely
no view what so ever and we didn't hang out up top
for long. The snow was really drifting. We found
next to no trace of our prints going back along
the Spur trail until we got back down to treeline.

Crag was pretty active, perhap 6 different parties
all told. I dug out my old trusty Svea and maohai
failed to choke back the laughter. One of the interesting
aspects of this trip was observing the different
approaches to mountain travel that were present.
maohai is into alpine climbing and had the weather
been better, Laurie and I would have lost him to 
the steep ravines of the northern Presis where
maohai likes to play. His pack was small, light
and efficient despite the requisite alpine tools
-- helmet, snow anchors, ice axe. No stove in his
pack. Only cold food.

Laurie, on the other hand, is a veteran long distance
hiker. He and his wife have thru hiked the Long Trail
and several major sections of the AT north of PA. His
pack, like mine, was bigger and they contained some
of amenities associated with spending longer periods
of time on the trail. Stove, cookset, water bag...
We carried ski poles. maohai, an ice axe. An alpine
climber out for a hike and hikers in an alpine
setting.  (Oh me? I'm a self-professed week-end
warrior. Good at nothing, really.)

Most times in the mountains, I get to meet a really
nice person. This week-end, I met 2. One was maohai.
Exchanging e-mails with a person is one thing but
hiking together is another. It's good to have made
another friend. The second was Jamie. Jamie was in
his 50s and was on a second career as guide. We talked
long into the night about life, jobs, kids and the
mountains. I learned a lot.

Sunday morning greeted us with clear skies. King
Ravine which had previously been a felt but unseen
presence outside the front door of the hut was revealed
with Madison and Quincy Adams overhead. After breakfast,
we packed up, ran over to Grey Knob and headed up
Lowes. What a difference a day makes!! The visibility
was great and sun blinding! Dropping off of the
back of Adams 4 was like being on another planet.

We got up to Thunderstorm again and set off along
Gulfside towards Madison breaking trail thru boot
to knee deep snow. We dropped 2 of the packs by 
the hut and ran up to the top of Madison. Great
views but high winds and gather greyness to the
west kept the lingering to a minimum. Back down
at the hut, Laurie and plopped down to brew up
with the old stove and yes, maohai bit his lip,
comprimised his alpine scrupples and took some
hot water to melt the snow and ice in his drinking
bladder.

Heading down the knife edge we spotted 4 skiers
down in King Ravine working on the slides below
the Great Gully Trail. Dedicated little loonies.
They had to haul their skis thru all of the ice
damage. That's commitment.

On the way down the Airline, we met 3 guys under
huuuuge packs. Tents, snowshoes....the whole shooting
match. They were still undecided about whether
to camp near Mad hut or to shoot across the ridge
to Perch. They admited to a late start and we
noted the darkening skies that we had left behind
at treeline. A few minutes later, we were passed
by 2 other guys wearing, and I'm not making this
up, running shoes, jeans, a jean jacket and a nylon
running jacket. We asked them were they had been
and it turns out that while we were on Madison, they
had come up Airline followed our tracks and went
over to the summit of Adams. Now, jeans and shoes
soaking wet, they were on their way back to their
car. They had never hiked before and thought it
would be cool thing to do. We asked if they thought
it was a little windy up there and they conceeded
that they thought they were going to die.

Ayuh.

Another funny day in NH.


Copyright 2004 by David Mann