The Mt. Cabot Deep Freeze. meeting new old friends

My two little mountain goats are not accustomed to Alpine starts. As growing 11 year old's I like to let them sleep in. But sometimes an opportunity presents itself that must be taken. Ella, her mother and I had all read Trish Herr's book "Up" about her hiking the 48 White Mountain peaks with her then 5 year old daughter Alex. We could relate to the stories of their first time treks. Alex and Sage have gone on to greater goals in the mountains since that first round of peaks. When Trish contacted me to invite us along for a trip up Mt Cabot we immediately said "Yes!" The compromise was that since the Herr's had an afternoon commitment, we would need to meet them at the trailhead at 6:30 a.m.

heading up to Mt. Cabot in the snow

Did I mention that our kids rarely get out of bed by 6:30 a.m. on the weekend? Also the primary Cabot trail head is the furthest drive of all the White Mountain peaks. From our house to the Berlin Fish Hatchery trail head is a good 1:45 drive. None the less they were eager to hike with the Herr's. We set our alarm clocks for 4:30 a.m., packed up the night before, and prepared an in car breakfast. We even arrived (almost) on time.

The other complicating factor was the cold. While winter conditions had been in full effect for several weeks, I was not entirely prepared for -8F at the start. I've skied & climbed in colder weather, but the first below zero day on a trail is always a shock. I've certainly never gone out in this deep a freeze at the beginning of December. Still we had plenty of layers and we moved briskly at the start to get warmed up. Indeed we had on too much so we stopped several times in the first hour to adjust clothing and snowshoes.

a quick break before the summit push

The trail was quite and empty in the early morning light. A purple glow reflected off the distant ridge line as we walked up the Bunnell Notch Trail. As the morning brightened and we began to climb we also started to chat. It was easy to find things in common with Herr's besides our love of the White Mountains. Since we had the trail to ourselves we could talk about anything or nothing at a pace of our choosing. By the time we got to the first lookout the sky was bright and blue. The sunshine made air feel 20 degree warmer. We stopped to enjoy the lookout and take a few photos.

enjoying some sunshine at the look out

But the summit still loomed ahead. We climbed the last steep section of trail and crossed the glade at the ridge to Cabot Cabin. The snow had drifted enough that we all used snow shoes across the ridge. Trish noted how often hikers reach the cabin and fail to realize that the summit is another 300 meters away. We climbed the snow drift up the trail to the true summit. There we took several pictures around the summit tree since the small cairn was well buried. Nicholas and Ella were giddy at getting so close to completing the 48 peaks.

Nicholas and Ella at the Cabot Summit

We returned to the cabin for some lunch. After fiddling with my snowshoes to get them off I went inside. The Cabot Cabin is worn and spare. But it does offer some shelter on a windy day. It also gave us a chance to chat with Alex and Sage for a while. I forgot that the air was just above 0F. After eating with bare hands for 15 minutes my fingers went numb. After getting back into my snow shoes I could not zipper up my jacket. I put on my heavy gloves and started jogging down the trail to get circulation back into my hands. Unfortunately I let my fingers get frost nipped by waiting too long. On a colder day it would be a dangerous mistake to make. One can only get frost nip a few times before permanent damage is done.

checking in at Cabot Cabin

We trotted down the trail at a good pace. We only slowed when passing several groups who started at a more reasonable hour. Even at our pace the Herr's were running behind to make their afternoon commitments. They took off at high tempo with a few miles left and were driving away from the trailhead just as we finished. But I'm certain we'll get a chance to hike together again. We all live too close by and spend so much time on the trails not to run into one another by chance or design.