March 9, 2011: Mount Waumbek (#12)

While the rest of America packed up and headed somewhere tropical for spring break, I packed a bag and headed into the heart of winter in New Hampshire's White Mountains.
I chose Mt. Waumbek as a relaxing climb because I wasn't quite feeling up to any of the more epic peaks, and because I had read that Waumbek is less-than-stellar and I want to maintain some balance in my peak-bagging.
It was my first time driving North of the Notches and the views looking back toward the Presidential Range blew me away.

Mount Madison (far left) with Mount Adams and Mount Jefferson in the foreground:

Soon our targets for the day were in view...Mt. Starr King (left) and Mt. Waumbek (right):

I have to admit, I hadn't heard any great praise for Waumbek, but I was already impressed and we weren't even on the trail yet.

A view of Mt. Garfield and the Franconia Ridge from the parking area near the trailhead:

We put on our snowshoes and started up the Starr King Trail by 9:30am.

Much to our dismay, the trail was unbroken.  Luckily though, we didn't end up post-holing ourselves six-feet-under (literally) like we did on Mt. Jackson.  The fresh snow created a thin crust over a more stable base of snow, making snowshoeing much more enjoyable.  With the sun shining, we were on our way.
We soon passed the old cistern as the trail climbed gently to the ridge.

The trail never became overly steep but it seemed longer than usual (I've been getting too used to peaks that are 2.5 miles from the trailhead lately).  After 2.6 miles, we reached the summit of Mt. Starr King, which at 3,907 feet was not our peak-bagging goal, but a welcome milestone.  The last section before the summit of Starr King was a little steep, but nothing unreasonable.
The Presidential Range emerged from behind the trees as I stepped onto the highpoint and I rejoiced in the familiar feeling of staring in awe at such phenomenal surroundings.  I was particularly surprised at how much larger the mountains look when you see them through your own eyes, as opposed to looking at photographs taken from the very same vista.  The mountains are truly massive and pictures will never do it justice.

Mount Washington, Mount Monroe, and Mount Franklin:

Mount Adams:

The Willey Range and Bretton Woods:

We had lunch at the old fireplace and acquainted ourselves with the resident gray jays.

From the top of the fireplace, we had a view of Mount Waumbek up ahead:

We dropped our packs at Starr King and continued along the ridge to tag Waumbek.  The trail was difficult to follow at times, but we finally emerged at the summit...the only problem was that there was so much snow any sign or cairn was completely buried (Yes, only a peak-bagger would have this kind of dilemma).  We continued past the summit to the blow-down patch where we had a nearly unobstructed view of the Presidential Range.

We took the summit shot at what appeared to be the highpoint and headed back across the ridge.

We arrived back at the trailhead before 4:15pm.
Starr King and Waumbek proved to be better than what has been written about them and I very much enjoyed this hike.  It was great to see a new vantage point of the Presidential Range and it was great to be back in the mountains bagging my 12th peak (One-fourth of the way there!).
On the way out of town, we captured some shots of the Presidentials looking particularly brooding as it grew dark (Adams and Jefferson pictured below).