Love Goat Films: Winter Cheating on Monroe and Eisenhower

Trip Details
Date: February 23^rd, 2018
Total Distance: 11.12 mi (via Garmin fenix 5X)
Total Time: 5 hours 42 minutes
Total Elevation: 3642 ft gained
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After another botched snowy/rainy weekend that kept us off the summits two weeks ago, our backs we up against the wall for getting in some more winter hiking before the end of the season. Unfortunately, coordinating with our days off from work and the weather makes this a gamble every year. The weather during the days leading up to our next attempt was incredible for February, with the seacoast area hitting highs of 75ºF! Mt. Washington recorded its record high for two of the days as well as new monthly and seasonal records. After a few days of this it was obvious that significant melt was going to have occurred. The forecast for the day was predicting increasing winds as the day went on and afternoon snow/rain, but overcast prior to that with a decent temperature and moderate winds. The alpine zone was calling us so we took advantage of the conditions and finished the remaining southern Presidentials that we had left.

Parking at the Cog Railway puts you on a spur trail that is about 0.3 miles long and saves somewhere between 0.75 to 1 mile worth of trail walking. The Cog Railway charges $10 to park there and has a new pay station for you to put money in an envelope and drop it into the station. It is basically identical to paying at the WMNF pay stations. If you want to save a bit of money and do not mind the extra hiking, the Ammonoosuc Ravine parking area is also open. They charge $5 for that.
We started in microspikes, but due to unknown conditions we had snowshoes and crampons strapped to our backs. The spur trail and the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to gem pool were hard packed frozen snow. It was pretty easy going. We actually took our jackets off quickly and did most of the hike up until the ledges in just a t-shirt.
The ice bridge at Gem Pool was basically melted and I did break through at one point, but thankfully the GORE-TEX kept my feet dry.
Once the elevation climb begins, it gets steep and would provide for some fun butt sliding! Unfortunately, the rotting frozen snow would do a number to one’s backside at this point so hopefully some more fluffy new snow will fall to cover this over.
Once you break out to the ledge part the trail got very interesting. Ice flows were covering all the ledges. Other hikers we caught up to were cautiously making their way up these with crampons on. I wear Hillsound Trail Crampons (essentially microspikes with a bit longer spike). On a safe section I decided to see how they would work prior to switching to my crampons. They worked great and I never felt unsafe or slipped. BishopX wear the Kahtoola microspikes, which unfortunately did not provide the same traction and after a few slides he switched to crampons and made quick work of the icy ledges.
Lakes of the Clouds Hut was basically snow free except for right at its entrance where it does not get enough sun as the snow pile still allowed for one to walk right onto the roof.
After assessing Mt. Monroe in front of us, BishopX switched back to microspikes and we made relatively quick work of ascending Mt. Monroe. The wind had picked up a bit but it was comfortable enough to hang out for a few minutes and take some photos. There was no snow up here at all. We assessed the Crawford Path in front of us and saw that it looked pretty snow free or where there was snow we could easily navigate around it. So, we took our microspikes off instead of beating them up on the rocks and barebooted the ridge.
There were some hard icy/snowy patches coming off of Mt. Monroe where I would just buttslide from rock to rock. Big sections of the Crawford Path were in fact snow free, but others were filled in with thick ice. We just stayed along the rocks on the side and made our way to the Mt. Eisenhower Loop Trail without any issues. Looking back, microspikes would probably have worked okay for the entire length but definitely were not necessary.
With microspikes back on and our packs left at the trail junction, we made our way up Mt. Eisenhower. The wind was very strong and sustained at this point (I would estimate 40-50 mph). It was hard to walk straight and I had really wished I grabbed my goggles for this part. Once on the summit we hung out behind the giant cairn which provided minimal shielding if we sat close together. After some photos we hustled down back to the junction.
Edmands Path was in terrible condition. It looks like no one has ever used snowshoes on it and the snow was now frozen so us using them was not going to help it. The upper part has you walking along the edge of a cliff and the trees are trying to push you off with every step. Once the brook is crossed, which was completely covered in snow at this point, the trail entered the woods but still remained choppy. We could get some good speed on the descent, but had to watch every step carefully. Some frozen postholes were present, but the snow was so hard at this point that there was not much risk of postholing even if you moved off the center.
At one point we approached what I can only imagine is damage from the Halloween storm this past fall. Someone cleaned it up nicely with a chainsaw, but wow did it take some damage.
The bridge crossing Abenaki Brook is washed out and the ice bridge was dicey at best. We found a safe spot to cross a bit upstream, but with any more warm weather I would anticipate getting wet here.
Mt Clinton Rd is hard packed and the gate is open. So someone in theory could drive down and park at the trailhead. We road walked it to our car that was parked at the Base Rd/Mt Clinton Rd junction. There is room for probably three cars in an obvious pull off.