Winslow Ledge

Having gotten into spring mode, I drove down towards Hanover with the faint hope of finding some bare ground hiking despite some recent snowfall in the Whites. There was new snow down there as well. I thought I would climb South Moose Mountain along the AT, but the beginning of the dirt road sequence in Hanover leading to the trailhead was in prime mud season form. So I turned around and came up with Plan B: drive up the paved (though frost-heaved) Dorchester Road to the Dartmouth Skiway, climb up the ski trails, and from the top bushwhack to the 2285-foot summit of Winslow Ledge. From there I would seek a couple of clifftop perches I have seen several times from nearby Holts Ledge. This would be all new territory for me.

 

I parked at a designated spot for hikers and walked up to the base of the ski slopes to study the trail map. A ski area employee who was passing by advised using the MD Trail, which loops out to the left. Thanks!

Skies were clearing nicely as I started up the mountain.

The snow was a few inches deep on the ski trail, in places masking ice lurking beneath.
 

 

 First views back towards Vermont

 

Making tracks.

 

 

Nice wide corridor through the hardwoods.

Perhaps this was once pastureland.

Near the top of the ski trail every branch was delicately cloaked in snow.

View out to the Green Mountains from the top of the ski slope.

The mile-long southeastward bushwhack to the summit of Winslow Ledge was 98% through hardwoods. Above the Skiway, most of Winslow Ledge, including the summit and cliffs, is within an outlying parcel of the White Mountain National Forest.

An early peek at Holts Ledge with Bear Hill beyond.

 

Beautiful open hardwoods on this ridge.

Lacy beauty.

Snow magic.

Arriving at the knob shown as the summit on the USGS Smarts Mountain quadrangle. Nice old spruces here. I didn't find a summit register at this spot. Later, at home, I saw on a lidar 2-foot contour map that there was another summit bump of the same elevation just to the SE. That must be the location of the register.

I headed back to the NW, descending to the steep south edge of the ridge in search of the cliffs.

Found a clifftop perch - and snow-free, too!

Wide views to the south on a crystal-clear afternoon. The most prominent peaks are North and South Moose Mountains in Hanover, which are traversed by the Appalachian Trail.

Zoomed.

Down-look.

Looking out towards Sunapee Mountain on the horizon.

Zoomed.

 

Holts Ledge, also on the Appalachian Trail, is close by to the west.

An array of Green Mountain peaks on the horizon between North Moose Mountain and Holts Ledge. The most distant visible peaks were Haystack Mountain and Dorset Peak in southern Vermont.

A clear view of Killington and Shrewsbury Peaks.

 

A bit farther to the west was another clifftop outlook, with a wider view of Holts Ledge and the Green Mountains.

Another big dropoff.

Following my tracks back down the ridge.

 

Descending along the bare edge of the ski trail, avoiding the ice hidden under the snow.