November 21, 2010: N. Kinsman (#7) & S. Kinsman (#8)

After a long hiatus from the mountains, I returned to New Hampshire this morning to continue bagging peaks.  Today's agenda: North and South Kinsman, two peaks on the Western side of Franconia Notch.  The weather seemed to be on our side and we set off for Lonesome Lake before 9:30am.  We arrived at the lake at about 10:20 am.  From the lake we had incredible views to the North of Cannon Mountain and views to the East of Franconia Ridge.

On the way to Lonesome Lake, we passed a large boyscout troop descending who were having trouble staying on their feet on the slick terrain.  I think this was probably foreshadowing of what was to come.

After a quick self-tour of the hut, we began climbing North Kinsman via the Fishin' Jimmy Trail.

Let me begin by saying that I highly under-estimated the Kinsmans.  The hike was very challenging and physically demanding...but I suppose that's what makes peak-bagging an honorable achievement; if it were an easy stroll up a hill I don't know how proud of an achievement it would be.

Soon after leaving Lonesome Lake, we realized traction was a necessity.  The trail was completely coated in ice.  Imagine trying to ascend and descend a slick, ice-coated flight of stairs.  That's what the trail was like, except it was 1.8 miles to the junction with Kinsman Ridge Trail.

And yes, for clarification, that is the trail going straight up the ice.

Once we had our spikes on, climbing the icy trail became considerably easier, but still challenging.  We were offered occasional views back toward the Franconia Range as we pushed upward.  We arrived at the junction with the Kinsman Ridge Trail at 12:10pm and began the final push to the summit of North Kinsman, which was in sight straight ahead.

After a lot of exerted effort, we found ourselves at the summit of North Kinsman, my 7th summit.  Other than a white blaze marking the Appalachian Trail, there were no other signs indicating that we had reached the top.

Just before the summit, there were ledges with astounding views of the surrounding mountains (notice Lonesome Lake with Mt. Lafayette, Mt. Lincoln, and Little Haystack rising up behind it).

Mount Liberty and Mount Flume (notice the slides on Mt. Flume):

After taking in the view, we headed down the into the col between the North and South peaks.  The mile between the two peaks passed surprisingly fast and awarded us with more majestic views.

South Kinsman:

We also had a particularly great view of the snow-capped Mount Moosilauke:

Around 1:00pm, we arrived at my 8th summit, South Kinsman.  From the summit we had more views of the Franconia Ridge, endless White Mountains, and even the Green Mountains of Vermont.  We were even able to see Camel's Hump in Vermont!

There are two summit bumps on South Kinsman and there is some discussion over which one is the "true" summit.  We visited both bumps and the labeled picture above is from the first bump, although the second bump is widely believed to be the true summit (I just liked this picture better).

As we headed back toward North Kinsman from South Kinsman we had a nice view of North Kinsman ahead.

After a long, dangerous climb down the icy trail, we arrived back at Lonesome Lake in time to see the Franconia Ridge beautifully lit by the setting sun.  A view of the Franconia Ridge never gets old.

Although this hike proved to be particularly difficult and challenging, I truly enjoyed every minute of it.  The views were unbeatable (and I thought Cannon had the best views...), the weather was perfect (no wind AT ALL, great visibility), and the hike was a great success.  40 more peaks to go!