Thursday, October 8, 2009

Moonlight Presidential Traverse

On Labor Day weekend my friends George and Mckean and I traveled up to New Hampshire to make a moonlight traverse of the Presidential Range. It was cold, dark and windy, but the mountains were beautiful under the full moon. It was a stunning way to experience such rugged terrain. It was also a chance to learn that telling a prospective hiking partner that "It's going to suck" is still an insufficient disclaimer for a 19-mile hike with 9,000 feet of elevation gain in freezing weather and the dead of night.

The moon above appropriately-named Star Lake between mounts Madison and John Quincy Adams

Video: Taken just below the summit of Mount Madison, the first peak of a North-South traverse of the range.


Mckean is in black, George is in green. You can't hear what George is saying because of the wind, but you can assume it's all cursing. He had a pretty rough hike from the beginning.

Gallery:
(The right and left arrow keys can be used to navigate within the gallery)


Full Report: For a full report on the hike, see the trip report I wrote for SummitPost.
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4 comments:

  1. GeorgeOctober 13, 2009 at 11:54 AM

    i would just like to say that george has fully redeemed his manhood by his gym performances...

    thank you,

    anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  2. Devin MontgomeryOctober 13, 2009 at 3:26 PM

    Thanks for the note, "anonymous." George will be happy to hear that you think so.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RyanNovember 24, 2009 at 8:23 AM

    "The distinguishing mark of true adventures, is that it is often no fun at all while they are actually happening." — Kim Stanley Robinson.

    Nice snapshots - I enjoyed reading about ur great range traverse as well. I'm planning to do the traverse this spring good beta.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Devin MontgomeryDecember 1, 2009 at 12:31 PM

    Right on, thanks Ryan! I like the quote - I've also heard this called "type-II fun": not fun to do, but fun to talk about later.

    Shoot me a line if you have any questions about either of these routes. I'm actually working on some maps to add to these reports, too.

    Good luck on your trek!

    ReplyDelete

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