Hello all,

Every winter I make a five hour drive to have some running, light and fast fun on lion head's trail on Mount Washington. I really love the steep and the alpine part of it and am looking for other steep trails where using your hands/ice axes is necessary and where a rope is not really. Any recommendations? Please mention if it's summer only or all seasons. Since I'm from Quebec, it would ideally be north of North Conway.

Thanks and happy New Year!!!

Richard

East Trail on Mt Mansfield?

Not sure what the "East Trail" is, but the Hell Brook Trail on Mt Mansfield will give you the workout you're looking for. I personally wouldn't even try to run on that trail, though I've seen it done. Bring an axe and crampons - that trail is wet and will be icy in winter.

If you like Mt Washington you should explore Mt Adams. Lots of trails to choose from, similar gain and exposure, less crowded. You might like Watson Path on Mt Madison - it's a rather rough trail with a nice little fairly-steep section halfway up and an above-treeline finish.

Here's a list of candidate trails for you:
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.p ... ew-England

There is also lots of stuff in the Adirondacks, of course.

There's no trail in New England that hasn't been hiked in winter, though there are a few where closed roads make the approaches longer (anything in Baxter Park, for example), and of course any ravine or slide routes can present avalanche danger.

Lion's head tends to have very little snow cover where blown clean up high, and is a very well-packed trail down low. This is perfect for running. In the Adirondacks, the trails are used for skiing and snowshoeing, and you can be surprised by punching through the snow in sneakers. Most of Vermont's trails have the same caveats.

Thanks, might be time for me to have a go at Mansfield. As for running, it is more a figure of speech and am meaning moving as fast as possible. The scambling list is awesome and is now bookmarked. Thanks for that link nartreb.

Autoxfin, you are making a good point, I don't mind deep snow that has a regular bottom but I hate punching through once in a while. Still, part of the game.

I have a 80m icefall here where I climb and one of the thing I love to do is to "run" up the escape route with Ice axe and crampons. No rope necessary and no avalanche risks.

In the Adk the slides must offer something similar I guess but are they avalanche prone?

There is avalanche danger in the Adirondacks, but it's typically much lower than Mt. Washington's ravines. The slides do offer really fun climbing. If you're ok soling WI2, The Cascade and Trap Dike make great adventures. Right now you can zip up either on ice all the way to the summit. I'd use two technical tools on either one in these conditions, or maybe one technical tool and a Sum'Tec.

Before long, summiting might mean snowshoes and lots of wallowing in deep snow.