#41 Mount Lafayette and #42 Mount Lincoln

As February break wore on, I was dying to get over to the White Mountains.  I was sick of waiting for a clear, perfect weather day (which often never comes when you are waiting for it), so I headed out of town on a Saturday morning and over to the Franconia Notch.  I hit the trail a few minutes after 10am and started banging my way up the trail toward Mt. Lafayette.  The trail continues 2.9 miles until the Greenleaf hut.  At this point, the trail had already started peaking out of the trees and I could tell it was going to be incredibly windy at the top.  I bundled up with virtually every layer I had with my and started heading up the final 1.1 miles to the summit on the exposed ridge.

As the ridge became more and more exposed and the rocks became icier and icier, I wondered about putting on my microspikes.  However, it was so cold that I didn't dare take my gloves off so I decided to stick with my boots.  Fortunately the tough grip of the soles did the trick over the ice.

I made it to the top of Lafayette at 11:45am and snapped a few pictures of the Pemigewasset wilderness and Mt. Washington just beyond it.  It was also quite a site to be looking down upon Cannon Mountain across the way.  Cannon Mountain, a 4,000 footer, was dwarfed by the summit of Lafayette and I was looking nearly 1,200 feet down at it.  Quite interesting.

After a very short stay on the summit of Lafayette I continued along the cold and windy ridge to Mt. Lincoln.  Although I was properly dressed and prepared for the elements, this was probably the coldest and windiest conditions I had ever been exposed to.  Quite a rush!  I made it quite quickly to Lincoln, paused briefly to take it all in, and then kept going along the ridge for the final mile.  

At the trail split with the Falling Waters trail, where most people take down to get back to their cars, I took a moment to consider my initial plan.  I had aimed to get over to Mt. Liberty and Mt. Flume as well to round out the full ridge hike.  However, it was 12:30pm, adding those to peaks would add an additional 7 miles onto the hike, and the trail appeared as though it hadn't been traveled on in weeks.  The trail wasn't even visible in spots, and was completely snow covered and was in 4-5 foot snow drifts in parts.  Though it was hard to make this decision, I opted to skip Liberty and Flume and head back down the falling waters trail.  Here are a few pictures from Little Haystack, the secondary peak at the trail split.

Although disappointed to have not conquered the full Franconia Ridge, I was still satisfied at having grabbed two more 4,000 footers for my list, and at having braved some of the worst winter weather conditions of my life.  Thankfully it wasn't snowing!