Bushwhacks

Howe Peak (2966′) is a New Hampshire 200 Highest Mountain in the Wild River Wilderness, near Shelburne Moriah Mountain. It’s a trail-less peak, so the only way to get to the summit is to use your navigation wits and brawn to bushwhack to the top. More brawn was needed on …

The Passaconaway Slide Trail is an old “lost” trail that climbs an avalanche path to Mt Passaconaway, a 4000 footer in the Sandwich Range. While it’s no longer signed or listed in the White Mountain Guide, it is possible to find the old route with a little bushwhacking saavy and …

Beth and I met at the Caps Ridge Trailhead at 6:00 am for my Redlining finish hike. We wanted an early start to hike our 13+ mile route (with 6300′ of elevation gain), up Mt Jefferson via the Caps Ridge Trail, down Sphinx Col, and back up the Six Husbands …

Cape Horn is an unusual geologic feature in New Hampshire’s north country called a ring dike. Two thousand feet in height, it’s a ring-shaped remnant of volcanic activity, bordered to the east and west by steep (note angry red and purple slope shading above) talus cliffs. I was inspired to climb …

The Acteon Ridge is a sequence of trail-less peaks in the Sandwich Range Wilderness of the White Mountains. I climbed one of the peaks on the ridge, named Sachem Peak a few years ago, but have always wanted to go back and hike all of the peaks on the ridge including …

“Fisher Mountain is the best little peak that no one’s ever heard of” said my friend Ken. West of famous Welch-Dickey Mountain Loop, Fisher Mountain is an easy bushwhack up the old Dickey Notch Trail, now renamed and signed as a mountain biking route. A favorite of Ken’s, we attempted to …

Mount Huntington (North) and its three subpeaks, South, West, and East have a notorious reputation in New Hampshire’s off-trail hiking community (North and South are on the NH100 highest list) Dense spruce, blowdowns galore, steep climbs, and sheer cliffs keep most hikers away, since there aren’t any trails that climb these mountains, not …

Mt Paugus is a 3000 footer in the Sandwich Range, adjacent to famous Mt Chocorua. Known as Old Shag for its shaggy, lumpish appearance, Paugus is quite a big mountain with formidable southern cliffs which make a fine resting spot in summer, providing an excellent view of the New Hampshire lake district …

Mt Bemis is a 3725′ mountain located in the White Mountain’s Crawford Notch, named for Dr Samuel Bemis, who built the stone house at its base which is now the popular Notchland B&B. Bemis was an interesting character: a denture maker turned landscape photographer, he loaned money to the Crawford Family, …

“We have to climb 500 more feet in the next quarter mile”, said Kris, as we scrambled up the southeast face of Mt Chandler, a 3000 footer on the eastern side of the White Mountains just south of the Baldface Range. I put my head down prepared to gut out the ascent …

I was grumpy at the end of our bushwhack up Middle and East Scar. I was soaking wet, my hands were cold, and my rain pants were shredded. We’d fallen off our line descending from the East peak and I was covered in snow from bushwhacking down the steep south …

“We should have brought our crampons” said Kris, my frequent bushwhacking partner. “Even without snow,” I replied, as we clawed and scrambled our way up an incredibly steep slope below rocky cliffs. It was unseasonably warm, this first week of November, on what we had assumed would be an easy …

Dave turned to me and said “I love this!” as we passed a steaming pile of bear poop after a freezing lunch on the summit of trail-less Black Mountain, just outside of Jackson, NH. “I love the adventure,” he said, as we dropped into the col between the north and …

Sachem Peak is a trailless mountain near Sandwich Dome noted for its rocky visage and open summit ledges. Located on Acteon Ridge just below Jennings Peak, it’s a moderately easy bushwhack from the Smarts Brook Trail which climbs Sandwich Dome from the west. The walk from Rt 49 up the Smarts …