Sunday, December 4, 2011

"Why are stairs so freaking hard?" And other groans from our Mount Adams climb

Nate and I bagged another 4,000 footer and climbed the second highest mountain in New Hampshire. It was again not an easy climb and I was really, really sore afterward. I still don't understand why climbing stairs is so hard, but it is really hard! Plus on the way down, the trail we took was really icy so it was a long, slow climb down too. 

Here are some pictures of our adventure: 

This is something that I learned when I moved to New Hampshire. When the ground freezes, the ice starts to protrude from the ground. I have no idea how this happens or what it's called, but it's super cool looking.

This is one of the few times Nate let me take a break on the way up! ;) 

 I believe this is looking up towards Mount Adams but it could be Mount Quincy Adams because we summited that on too. I was just excited because we had reached the "alpine zone" so I knew that we were getting close. 


Mount Washington from Mount Adams. Last week, the mountains had over a foot of snow... this week... just a fine dusting... STUPID WEATHER!!! 

Nate and I at the top of the mountain. Definitely not pretty at all.. It was sooo bright up there!! 

A better picture of Mount Washington from Mount Adams. 

A very cute Nater from the top of Mount Adams. 

The dogs waiting for their hand outs at the top of the mountain. They get goodies at the top too. 

Mount Madison from the top of Mount Adams. 

I wish I had a lot to say about the hike, but I really don't. It was hard, long 6 hours of hiking. We summited the Mount John Quincy Adams and looked over and realized that we hadn't reached our goal. We decided to see if we could quickly scramble to reach the top. I was super happy we did because it was really cool up there and I felt really proud of ourselves for doing it. The whole walking down thing is getting super lame, but we wouldn't have hiked Mount Adams with our ski/ride stuff so I guess it's a good experience. The trails were all ice with a dusting over the top. I fell on my bum 3 or 4 times... I guess it's a good time to get the first fall on ice over for the season. My legs were spaghetti-like on the way down. I definitely didn't eat or drink enough. Plus, we just finished as it started to get a little dark. We weren't the smartest on this one, but we got it done and we were safe!

I have smartened up and started wearing my Garmin watch for our hikes. Last week, we were at 90,961. Garmin says we had 4,519 (I'm accepting the elevation loss because I forgot to turn on my watch right away). That means we have 86,442 to go. We are under 90k!! Hip Hip HOORAY!!!!

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