November 10, 2023

Start/End: Greeley Ponds Trailhead, Kancamagus Hwy

Peaks: East Osceola (4,156'), Osceola (4,340')

Elevation Gain: 3,050 ft

RT Mileage: 7.33 mi

Duration: 5 hours, 59 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 2

Snow/Ice Difficulty: Grade I

Two weeks ago I realized how inexperienced I was with shoulder season hiking, and I decided that now was the best time to change that. The weather on Friday looked better south and east, so I decided to go with the Osceolas.

Leaving home at 6:10 AM, I arrived at the trailhead at 8:15, and was on the trail by 8:30. I barebooted out from the parking lot and was immediately greeted by around an inch of slushy snow. The first 1.2 miles of trail until the fork were flat, so barebooting was the way to go, but the going was still slow. Once I reached Mad River Notch, I took the Osceola Trail at the fork and began ascending. 

Trail conditions continued to be unpleasant as the trail ascended East Osceola's northeast slopes. I finally found drier snow above 3,000 ft, just as the trail began to steepen, and the spikes went on. Not long after, the trail came to the base of a steep, exposed slide, before steepening significantly as it skirted the edge of the slide. Views from the top of the slide were decent.

The trail leveled off again upon gaining East Osceola's north shoulder, where I took a short side path to a viewpoint with excellent views of the Osceolas summits. The remaining 0.3 miles were pretty easy, and I gained the summit of East Osceola at 11:40.

I ate a quick snack on the summit before carrying on towards Osceola. The 300-vertical-foot descent from East Osceola went by rather quickly. After making it down to the col between the two summits, I was immediately greeted by the Chimney, a short but extremely steep Class 2 scramble, not unlike the first scramble immediately above treeline on the Caps Ridge.

The Chimney was pretty straightforward with only one somewhat hard move. It was still fun especially with snow and ice coating the steps. The remainder of the ascent to Osceola was rather tame, a gradual incline up to the northeast shoulder, and then a simple ridge walk over to the summit. I summited my second 4,000er of the day at 12:30 PM.

Low clouds rolled in just as I summited so I missed out on what would have been a decent view to the east. Tripyramid's North Slide was visible through the clouds but not much else. I didn't linger long on the summit before beginning to make my way back. At the Chimney, I decided to take the bushwhack through the woods instead of descending the actual scramble.

It started snowing after I summited East Osceola on the way back and it snowed on-and-off for the rest of the descent. The going was a little rough above 3,000 ft, but the trail flattened out significantly after that and it was smooth sailing from there. I made it back to the parking lot just after 3:45, and 4,000ers #24 and #25 were in the books.