Alpine Alice leads her sherpas Caitlin, Karl, Tom, and I up her first snow covered summit: Overnight on Mt Chocorua in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. We got lucky and a recent cold snap reversed just in time for the forecasted weather to be within the range we considered acceptable for Alice to join us on a planned excursion to this mountain. Saturday we had a beautiful, calm, crystal clear day for the hike up and the summit vista. Sunday the new snow falling was more substantial than I’d expected and very wet, but we kept it moving for a quick-ish hike out.
Trail-wise the trip wound up being just a bit more rugged than expected. We went up the Champney Falls trail, which is very gradual and popular so the path was well broken in. Apparently though almost nobody then connects that and the summit over to the Jim Liberty Cabin in winter. No one had been on any of the connecting trails in seemingly some time. This resulted in more of a slog than I’d hoped: Deep, unbroken snow; constant battles with tree branches; and some worry about whether we’d lost our way. But fortunately we didn’t have very far to go and it all worked out.
Alice had an amazing time. The last hour on Sunday was a bit trying for her as her hands got cold just as we came up on naptime and lunchtime. But otherwise she clearly thought it a great adventure and wonderful being with Mommy and Daddy. Talking all the way up, giggling in her sleeping bag, running zoomies around the cabin in the morning, and enjoying copious Swedish Fish as well as multiple diner and pizzeria stops. She’s very excited to go backpacking again.
