VINE SWINGERS MENS CLUB

Crawford Path to Mt. Washington
New Hampshire
White Mountains National Forest

Expedition Date: October 18th 2012

Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan Devesty

Distance: 15 miles

Summits: Pierce, Eisenhower, Franklin, Monroe, Washington

Elevation Gain and loss: 8700 feet

Average Temperature: 20 degrees
Completion Time: 12 hours

The historic Crawford Path ranks as the oldest continuously used and maintained hiking trail in the Northeastern United States. Dating to 1819, the Crawford Path runs from Route 302 in the vicinity of the Crawford Hostel to the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington. 

Base Camp for the weekend. It was $3 dollars a night for parking at the Crawford Connector Trail head. We arrived Friday night at 12am for a 4:30am wake up call Saturday.

Saturday morning we were on the trail by 5am. It was fully dark still so headlamps were a must, especially with all the ice we ran into rite out of the gate.

Crawford Path passes over or very near the summits of Mount Pierce, Mount Eisenhower, Mount Franklin and Mount Monroe before its terminus at the peak of Mount Washington. It also passes by the well-known Lakes of the Clouds in the vicinity of the AMC hut bearing the same name. It is the premiere hiking trail in the southern Presidentials and this path typically constitutes a significant portion of a "Presidential Traverse.

We expected some snow but nothing like this. As we gained elevation it just got deeper. We went from early Autumn in NJ to full blown Winter in NH.

 7:30am 1st Summit Mt. Pierce 4312'

 9:00am 2nd Summit Mt. Eisenhower 4780'

That golden line out in the horizon is the Atlantic Ocean over half the state of NH and the whole state of Maine. It caught us off guard at first and we didn't even know what it was. Soon we realized we were starring at the Atlantic Ocean. What a sight on this clear morning with the sun beaming down on us.

Squatchy footprints in the snow near the summit of Franklin. Looks like we need to call the guys from "Finding Big Foot"!

 10:00am 3rd Summit Mt Franklin 5001'

11:00am 4th Summit Mt. Monroe  5372' and our first clear view of Mt. Washington's summit.

You can see down below is the Lake of the clouds Hut and the 2 frozen lakes of the clouds.

We encountered snow drifts up to 3 ft deep. Pow Pow.

The ice was bad! We had yaktrax over our boots which gave us well needed traction. Made the going slow.

The climb to our 5th summit Mt. Washington was long and tiring. We had been climbing for 6.5 hours at this point and already bagged 4 peaks. It was getting real.

Finally! 12:30pm 5th Summit Mt. Washington 6,288'

Blazer Bob tested and approved at the Summit of Mt. Washington "The Home of the Worlds Worse Weather" Yew... For Blazer Products click the link below.

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Jewel trail on the backside of Mt. Washington. This was our

We took Jewell trail down from the the summit of Washington with our new found friend Paul. What a nice guy. He ended up driving us from the base of Jewell trail where he was parked to our parking lot (Base Camp) a couple miles a way. Thanks again Paul!

The view from the entrance of Mt Washington Resort. We bagged 5 peaks on this 12 hour day trip including Mt. Washington "Home of The Worlds Worse Weather." One of the hardest day trips of my life. What a day...