An entire month has passed since I last climbed a 4000 footer. It was February and usually the brunt of winter, weekend after weekend will pass when the forecast would call for temps below 0 °F or that there would be too much snow. After a balmy week of 50 °F in Boston I figured that the weekend would be an ideal time to go back. The trusty friend I did the Hancocks with last month is decommissioned as he has to undergo surgery and will be out until late Spring 😞
I discovered another group in the hiking community known as the Hiking Lovers. They are a group of friends that travel every Sunday to do a hike and recently opened up to the Facebook community to join them on their hikes. The plan this weekend was to do the Osceolas and since I haven’t check them off my NH 48 list, I was game.
Here are the accessories/gear I currently own for winter hiking:
- Merrell Hiking Boots
- Black Diamond Hiking Poles
- Snow Powder Sand Baskets: had to remove the old tips by soaking them in a pot of boiling water and then using a glue gun to fasten the new ones.
- micro spikes
- Gaiters
One thing I didn’t own but felt I needed was snowshoes. For that I decided to rent one for 2 nights from REI ($18 first night then $5 for each additional night). The model that they rented me was the MSR Evos. I was actually willing to buy one outright and it seems to be a scarce commodity these days, sold out at all REI locations and even most retailers online 😱
Aight lets jump to it…alarm rings at 5:30 AM and I set out at 6 AM for the 2 hour drive with stops for dunkin coffee, bathroom breaks and a Beyond breakfast sandwich at White Mountain Bagels. The trailhead was going to be a curb just off the Kanc highway. I made it a little after 8:30 AM and many cars were already parked there and I immediately spotted the group starting to get ready. We walk off army style to start of the trail and welcomed by the glorious sign:
So the course we are taking is 6.8 miles via the Greely Ponds trail in contrast to the more common route starting from Waterville Valley off Tripoli Rd which is closed off in the winters.
If you look at the route, it follows a 1.3 miles path along the Greeley Ponds trail then sharp turns right along the 2.5 miles Osceola trail to hit East Osceola (4156') and finally Mt Osceola (4315')
Osceola is named for the 19th century Seminole leader. I’m not sure why they decided to name a mountain in New Hampshire after a Native American in Florida?? 🤔
Trails starts with numerous brook crossings, many which are bridged and you’ll see many small holes in snow where water is not frozen:
This is what the trail looked like, it was yellow blazed and ground had a fresh layer of snow from the day before:
Did I mention it was warm, in fact no winds and temps in the 30s, I had to take off my down jacket and do it in one layer:
It only gets interesting after we reach the junction to switch over to the Osceola trail:
At some point the two peaks become visible from an outlook but there is sure a heck of a climb before getting to any of them:
There was a vista with a great view of the Franconias and Presidentials, I did my best to try to identify the respective mountains below:
There isn’t much of a reward after getting atop E. Osceola. Its views of nothing but the trees right in front of you. There is apparently a cairn to mark the spot but I missed it both times passing there.
There is a spot between the two mountains is known as “The Chimney”. It is almost vertical rock climbing. I should have maybe been fortunate to be wearing snow shoes as part of this climb, some say microspikes don’t cut it even though many in my group did it that way and lived to tell the story.
This is me atop Osceola with the E Osceola right behind me, it obviously got colder since the beginning and the jacket was back on. So cold I even needed to open a pack of hand warmers as my hands started freezing.
There wasn’t any cairn to mark the summit but apparently there is a US Geological Survey Marker. Ha! good luck trying to find it in the winter. If you look closely at my pic above, it appears I lost one of my pole baskets, yup it was kind of loose and fell through the snow like quicksand. I tried hard to recover it but no dice 😫 It sucked without it since the pole would just sink into the snow and not provide much traction.
Here is an interesting thing about Mt Osceola I discovered after the fact:
There are 4 pillars like the one above standing there and they are not picnic tables, in fact they are remnants of a fire tower. If you click on the link you could see what it used to look like before it was demolished in 1985 😞
At the summit we also spotted what is maybe regarded as the woodland jumping mouse. It wasn’t afraid to approach hikers to take food handouts similar to the behavior of the gray jays we often see in the whites. This moment didn’t last long enough for me to capture a shot of it as I think it got startled from the golden retriever that was part of our group.
As fun as it was up here we had to go back before sunset and yes that involved having to go up the chimney again and climbing E. Osceola and then down until back to the trailhead. Most of it was butt sliding but there are treacherous parts where if you didn’t break your slide with a tree branch or rock you’ll just fall off the cliff 😨
All in all it took us 8 hours and 40 minutes and I am glad I did it with company. I definitely feel like I made new friends out of the experience and will be back with these guys for another adventure.
The drive back was uneventful. I was starving and wanted to grab a bite, thought about something in Lincoln but most places were really busy with all the après skiiers. I wanted to do it barseat style but with covid you cannot casually just walk up to an empty seat, you got be put on a waiting list 😩. They told me 30 minutes and it was more than I was willing to wait so decided against it. Ultimately settled with eating at a Five Guys off the exit in Tilton, NH along the way back home.
