December 9, 2024

Start/End: Pinkham Notch Visitor Center

Peaks: N/A

Elevation Gain: 2,510 ft

RT Mileage: 5.00 mi

Duration: 6 hours, 7 minutes

Snow/Ice Difficulty: Grade II

I had been planning a hike of the Lion Head Winter Route for a couple of months now, and fortunately a series of snowstorms from late November to early December got the route open by the weekend of the 7th. Rain looks to spoil the winter fun later this week, but luckily I was able to take advantage of a brief window of good weather on the 9th. I had originally planned to ascend past the end of the winter route all the way to the summit of Lion Head, but ended up turning back a little short due to poor trail conditions. This was my first Grade II crampons and ice axe hike, and it was a doozy.

Waking up at 3:25 AM, I was out of the house by 4:00, and arrived at Pinkham Notch for the fourth and final time this year just before 7:00. It was sunrise and the alpenglow on the summits above was spectacular, so I couldn't help but take out my camera and snap a few photos. By the time my little photoshoot and my final preparations for the day were complete and I was finally on the trail, it was almost 7:30.

A number of backcountry skiers had already made their rounds since the most recent snowfall yesterday, so the Tuckerman Ravine Trail was nicely packed heading out from Pinkham. A little ways up, I ran into a dad who had brought his 10-year-old daughter with him to summit Washington, and I thought that was just so awesome. It was a Monday so the kid probably had to miss school for this, and I knew she was being raised right, learning that sometimes it's okay to take a break and do what you like.

Anyway, 1.8 miles in I came to the fork with the Huntington Ravine Fire Road, where I turned north. It was 8:40 by this time, and I was on track to finish the hike with plenty of time to spare. After 0.1 miles on the Fire Road, though it felt much longer because I was impatient, I came to the beginning of the Lion Head Winter Route. The trail was surprisingly well-packed considering the route opened just a couple of days ago. After a few minutes, the route went from 0 to 100, steepening to a sustained 50% grade. I kept spikes for the time being, but I did have my ice axe out now.

After 150 vertical feet, I came to the crux of the route, the Wilcox Step. I tried to make it up with spikes at first, but it was no use, and I stopped on an uncomfortably small ledge to swap them out for crampons. On my first attempt at the Step, my left crampon came off my boot and rapidly slid down several dozen feet. Having lost traction, I lost control and followed behind it. After regrouping and getting the crampon back on, I tried again, and this time I made it up, with more support from the ice axe than I would have liked on such thin snow.

After the Wilcox Step the trail remained just as steep, but there were no more technical sections. Several times the coniferous forest thinned and I thought I had made it to treeline, only for the forest to thicken again immediately after. On the bright side, the spruces looked beautiful after the heavy snowfall over the last couple of weeks.

After several hundred vertical feet of steady uphill grinding, I finally made it to treeline for real at 4,250 ft. It was a beautiful, windless day above treeline, although high clouds did spoil the mood a little. Also, the trail was no longer packed above treeline, presumably since snow had drifted over with the wind last night. Despite frequent cairns, I found the trail hard to follow and ended up post-holing often, which was not fun on terrain that was still sustained at a 40% grade. I made it around halfway to Lion Head from treeline before topping out at 4,600 ft, where I got out my camera to shoot my last photos before heading back.

After getting down below treeline on the descent, I ended up glissading most of the way back to the Wilcox Step, and there wasn't really another option. Normally I'm a big fan of glissading but this was far less controlled than I would have liked. I had my ice axe in hand the whole way and had to use it a couple of times to self-arrest to stay in control. The Wilcox Step was a nightmare to get down safely, and I had to uncomfortably hang from a tree and sort of rappel down to solid ground. After a little more glissading, I was back at the Fire Road, where I stopped to swap out my crampons for spikes again.

The rest of the descent on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail was quick and easy, taking just over 40 minutes. I was back the parking lot before 2:00 PM, much earlier than I usually get down from hikes, and I was able to get most of the way back home before dark.