MT TOM, MT FIELD, AND MT WILLEY

After completing all of the Adirondack 46 peaks over 4000 feet, I am now hoping to complete the NorthEast 111 (115er) list including all of the 4000 footers in New Hampshire.On this trip,  I decided to tackle three summits in one day in Crawford Notch State Park: Mount Tom, Mount Field, and Mount Willey. 

​After a chilly night in a tent at the Dry River Campground, we woke up to find the temperatures still below freezing and a blanket of snow on the ground. Winter sleeping bags and down mats kept us warm overnight, but it always a bit difficult to leave the warm cocoon come daybreak. After a quick cup of warm coffee and a bowl of oatmeal, we drove off to the trailhead (look for the yellow building below) and begun our snowy trek up to our first summit of the day: Mt Tom.  We began our hike at 8:20AM with snow in the parking lot!

Mt Tom's summit cairn

The Avalon trail begins ascending a gentle slope through a beautiful deciduous forest. We stayed right at the first two trail junctions continuing up a ravine in the shade. Continuing up to a col we found the spur trail for Tom's summit. An hour and 40 mins after we left the parking lot, we had ascended the 2100ft of trail and made it to summit #1 of the day. Tom's summit is treed and a rock cairn indicates the summit point. We enjoyed seeing a few small views of Mount Field and embraced the sun's rays as they reflected off the snow covered fir trees. After a couple of summit photos, we scampered down the trail passing a few groups still on their way up. Back at the junction with the Avalon trail, we turned right and 80yds later turned left to continue on the ridge trail up to Mt Field.

Summit of Mt Field

The ascent up the Willey Ridge Trail up to Mt Field is gradual. At this point there was about 2 inches of snow covering everything in sight, making for a very picturesque hike. I focused my footing onto untouched snow areas as the fluffy white stuff made for good grip. 1 hour after leaving the summit of Tom, we found ourselves on the summit of Field. A small lookout gave us a great view of the snow-capped Mount Washington, but our ooooooing and aweing were soon over after 2 Gray Jays started swooping in looking for a free snack. That reminded me that I hadn't eaten yet so I grabbed a snack and luckily was able to eat while keeping one eye on the feathery predator nearby. We took a few summit photos at the cairn and in the field (photo above)  and tried some timer shot fun poses that didn't work out but were a great way to keep warm!

Mt Willey Summit

The trail off the far side of Field was being hit by the sun and starting to get slushy and wet. We carefully placed our feet down a few steeper sections - there was a mixed bag of ice and slush - easy to slip on. After a 300 ft descent we continued on a fairly flattish trail before gradually increasing again up to the top of Willey. It took us 50 mins to get to this summit - another rock cairn in a treed forest summit. Here we took a good lunch break drinking and eating hot tea and home-baked goods. We decided to complete the loop by returning to Field amongst wet rock, slushy and iced trail. Back on the summit of Field, we turned right and descended a different trail back.

We descended a connector trail called the Avalon Trail from Mount Field's summit. This steep, shaded icy trail is a shortcut back to the parking lot.  On this trail I decided to don my microspikes. We passed multiple groups who were obviously not prepared for the winter-like conditions on the trail and who were moving very slowly unsure of their footing. I took the microspikes on and off a few times on this trail, but took them off for good once hitting the main Avalon Trail. The temperature from here on down continued to climb rapidly and once we hit the parking lot it was well above freezing and had no sign of snow like it had in the morning when we left. 3 more summits in the bag!

Time: 6 hours 15 mins
Ascent: 3782 feet
Distance: 15.3km or 9.5miles