The recent snowfall promised some good snowshoeing both on and off the trails, something that has been in short supply so far this winter. I first went up to the Old Bridle Path trailhead in Franconia Notch and though there was a nice snowshoe track on OBP, the cover was still rather thin with rocks poking up, and there was no base off-trail in the woods. I knew from my hike up North Hancock last week that there was plenty of snow out along the Kanc Highway, so the next choice was the Greeley Ponds Trail, parking at a pulloff 0.2 mile up the road from the unplowed trailhead. At the pulloff I chatted with Robert from Littleton, who had snowshoed in to the Greeley Ponds. Out by the ponds he had met a skier who was scouting the East Osceola slides for a possible run.
Plenty o' snow out here, a consistent two feet or more.
Robert had laid down a beautiful soft, powdery track through the snow-draped conifers. Thanks!
Something rare so far this winter - a snow bridge over the South Fork of Hancock Branch.
When I got to the Mount Osceola Trail junction, I decided to do some trail breaking up that route, hoping to make it up to the big rock slab beside the trail at 3300 ft. Laying down fresh tracks in the powder is one of the deep pleasures of winter hiking.
I always enjoy this hardwood glade where the trail swings left to traverse beneath the East Osceola cliffs.
Here I encountered the first of many drifts in the next half-mile.
Bustin' through.
More drifts. Pretty slow going through here.
A peek up at the impressive East Osceola cliffs.
There are boulder caves in there.
Looking back along the steep climb to the slab.
Emerging at the base of the huge snowy slab after a 1 1/2 hour climb from Greeley Ponds Trail.
This is the most open remaining part of a large slide that fell in 1891 or 1892; the Mount Osceola Trail crosses the upper part of this slide at ~3700 ft. The pitch of this slab is almost 45 degrees! In 1893 William Morse Cole, an economics professor at Harvard, made a hair-raising ascent of the new slide and spent the night on the summit of Mt. Osceola. His account of the trip, “Alone on Osceola,” was published in New England Monthly magazine in 1895. Perhaps he referred to this slab when he wrote, “Now and then I came to a pitch so sharp and smooth that I could not cling, even though I lay flat and pressed hard with both feet and hands.”
In the past I've snowshoed up along the right edge of the slab for a view out towards Mt. Tripyramid. But with avalanche danger rated as "considerable" this day by the Mt. Washington Avalanche Center, it was prudent not to venture out on this slope, which had a pretty good snow load atop a hard crust.
Another look at the East Osceola cliffs while descending the steep pitch down to 3000 ft.
On the way down I got to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Back through the heavy drifts.
Got snow, with more soon to come!
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