Date: 2008-08-19
From: Stealthsite .3 before Carter Hut, NH

To: Stealth site .1 past Imp Shelter, NH
Miles today: 7.6

Oh man, what a wild nite and day. A storm blew through, but we were spared the worst, however, the wind was wicked and had me swaying back and forth like a baby in a swinging crib at times. I wasn't concerned, I knew the trees I'd hung from where strong. It also rained and there was thunder in the distance, but the major stuff went around thankfully.That group of men were up early and seemed to be unaware that it's polite to be quiet. It had stopped raining for a bit, so I was up @ my normal 6:30 a.m. I walked down to get our food and it was ALL gone! I actually figured V8 had already pulled it down, and I was right..whew. What a feeling to not see your food hanging where you left it the nite before.Around 7:30 a.m., it started raining again, and we were almost packed up. I sat under my tarp, and they got back in their tent. A bit before 8, we decided to just finish packing and go the .3 down to the hut and see what the weather was calling for.I headed off first, and it started raining harder, and it was in the low 50's...ugh. You hike past 2 beautiful lakes on the way to the hut. This was Carter Hut, a small one, but in a great location.The ladies showed up and we put our packs in the little entry hall. I paid a buck for some hot coffee, and I added cocoa mix, but when I tasted it, I feared I'd mixed hot tea with the cocoa, because it was horrible tasting. I walked over and smelled the pot to see what it was and wow..it was coffee! Oops..guess I;m a bigger coffee snob than I thought.They had free left over pancakes, and these tasted pretty good, so I ate 2 or 3 of them, just dry. V8 and A.M. had some too. We studied the map, and finally around 9 a.m. the rain let up, so we decided to head out.V8 was out the door, and A.M. and I were standing in the entry hall where there's a huge iron grate in the floor where skiiers would normally walk over and the stuff on their boots would fall down into the gravel about 6" below. Well, A.M. looks down ad goes, "Oh man, is that my headlamp?" Indeed it was, it had somehow fallen into this thing, and the hut croo didn't seem thrilled about having to lift this thing up, or even how to do it. Well, V8 then goes, "Hey Certain, what about your broken hiking pole without the basket on it?" Oh yeah! I grabbed it and was able to feed it through the grate at an angle and grab A.M.'s headlamp strap. SUCCESS! Us 3 ladies can pretty much solve any problem I think.The weather called for rain, then clearing in the afternoon with sun. We hoped sp. We were officially off @ 9:10 a.m. and headed up Carter Dome for 1.5 miles of climbing. I was in full raingear, because it was quite windy and that made it pretty cool.The climb was steep, but not as bad as Wildcat Mtn. I soon got hot, so I had to take my rainjacket off. It was foggy and the wind was stronger than any wind I've hiked in.We got to the top, and it wasn't totally exposed, but had those stubby trees all around. It was about 1 mile now to Mt. Hight, so we took some pics and headed on.I was leading now, and we climbed a short distance to the totally treeless and exposed summit of Mt. Hight. Umm....ok, you know those weatherpeople who cover hurricanes, and the wind is so strong they can't even walk, but instead just stand there leaning @ a 45 degree angle just trying to stand up? Well....that was us on top of Mt. Hight, and I am NOT exaggerating at all.Folks, I've never experienced wind like this EVER in my life. I couldn't see where the trail went, and just turning around to look for the path was a challenge. I finally found it way off to the left, and we slowly made our way, but I had to keep stopping and bracing myself to keep from getting knocked over. My OR hat was around my neck, but it would have been ripped right off if I didn't hang on to it.Luckily there was no rain, no dangerous storms or anything, just this unbelievable wind, so my reaction the whole time we were up there? I was laughing...I couldn't help it. Both V8 and A.M. were struggling like me, and remember, we're all weighted down with our packs too, but we were like ragdolls up there. Truly unbelievable and humbling, the power of mother nature that is.We got to the path down, and I told them to go first, because they are so much faster going down. You had to yell, because you couldn't even hear due to the wind.It was so cold too, my hands were numb, and it was a steep drop, so I leaned down and planned on just letting my body gently fall to the left a few inches so I could catch my left hand on a boulder when suddenly...WHOOOOSH! A gust of wind hit me and SLAMMED me down and into the rock instead. Have ya ever hit a freezing cold hand or fingers really hard on something and felt that frozen pain? Oh man..I grimaced, and shook my left hand in pain.V8 had turned around to see it, so next thing I know, she's handing me a pair of thin polypro gloves to wear, which made a huge difference. I don't generally wear gloves while hiking becaue my hands are warm as long as I'm moving, but you almost need to protect your hands from the crazy sharp rocks here. V8 wears bicycling gloves, which I think issmart.I managed to get down the first steep bit, and was still laughing, and was also enjoying a nice adrenalin rush from all of that. We were probably in those conditions for a bout 5 minutes, but it seemed much longer.We kept descending lower and finally got back into the cover of treeline. We descended to Zeta Pass, where there was water. Then A.M. goes, "Hey, is my pack cover still on my pack?" NO!! It wasn't! How crazy was it on Mt. Hight? Crazy enough for her pack cover to fly off and away, and NONE of us saw it or noticed it was gone! LOL Oh man, I was laughing about that the rest of the day.Suddenly, like 10 hikers converged here @ Zeta Pass, several men from the UK hiking a section going south, and a nobo named Spider who said he saw A.M.'s pack cover stuck in a bush on Mt. Hight. Se, we usually pick up gear and take it to the next shelter (if it's light), but we now don't know if someone is a sobo or nobo, so it's best to leave it alone so you don't end up carrying it further away.Whew, after a short break, we headed up again to South Carter Mtn., next was Middle Carter and then finally North Carter. These are multiple peaks on 1 mountain. It was a more gradual climb and not too bad. We did think we were @ North Carter when we were only @ Middle Carter though..whopps..did it again. These were not exposed as much thankfully. It wa a pretty nice hike between the peaks, and it involved some boardwalks through very bright green moss-covered forests. Very beautiful. We stopped for lunch before Midle Carter @ 1:45 p.m. and the sun was trying so hard to come out. It peeked out 3 times and that was it for the day. Still windy and dingy, but we could see valleys below in sunshine, we were just too high up.The trail was a mixture of rocks, roots, mud, dirt, and large slabs of rock. Not the worst, not the best...that is until the descent from Carter. Oh....Ma...Gaw.... 1 mile from North Carter summit to what we had hoped would be our stopping place, Imp Campsite and Shelter.Folks, this 1 mile descent was pretty unbelievable. Sheer wet long slabs of granite, where you just sort of had to slide and aim to catch your foot on a tiny 3" by 6" "ledge" to stop yourself, then slide again to catch on another tiny hold. Places, it was easier for me to turn around, hang on to giant roots sticking out of the side of the mountain, and go down backwards. Other places you are traversing and squeezing yourself in between a crevace formed by 2 giant slabs of rock, hoping your feet being wedged in the crevace is enough to hold. It was totally insane. We all kept looking at each other and all we could say was, "Wow, this is crazy." A.M. took a pic of me about 20 feet (almost) directly above her, where I'm just standing there trying to figure out how the hell a human being is supposed to get down this verticle drop without climbing gear. Slow going was an understatement, and this downhill kept going and going and going. Ok, it wasn't as long as my descent ! from Mt. Madison, but that descent wasn't 20 foot slabs of wet granit with nothing to hold onto either. Hard to compare really.So add to this, today my feet and knees hurt worse than they have hurt in weeks. It was taking a tremendous amount of mental and physical energy to deal with the pain on top of this terrain. Advil was having no effect..it's simply the result of months of abusing my body out here.I stopped talking, and was slowing alot due to pain and concentration. A.M. turned around and goes, "I'd like to hear one word describing what you're thinking right now." I just gave "that" look (Persistent knows this look) and I said, "There are no words."It was over 2 bumps with .5 miles to go yet down to Imp, the trail got a little more maneuverable, but not much.At 4:50 p.m., we were @ the sidetrail tio Imp. It's a fee site, but our concern was camping in some shelter from the wind, so we decided to check out the site and if it was windy, we'd hike a bit further to a stealth site A.M.'s husbad marked on her map (he was part of MEGATEX from last year..Uncle Tom).We went DOWN 300 yards, and V8 said she'd go down to the campsites. The 5 guys from last nite were in the shelter. V8 and A.M. came back and said no way, the wind was whipping right up the mountainside and they didn't want to tent there, so we got water and decided to push on to this stealthsite that we weren't sure where it was.By this point, we were all past the point of exhaustion, not talking, no expressions on our faces..we just wanted to get to camp.We got back up to the trail and started a short climb, and luckily, it wasn't but about .1 that we saw a place we could walk way back into and camp. It wasn't totally blocked from the wind, but I do believe it was the lesser of 2 evils. We searched around and the ladies were sharing a tent this time, and found a nice place about 15 feet away from my site.For the first time in months, I pitched my tarp almost straight down, had 2 corners staked directly to the ground, built up duff and everything. It was still windy enough to be a problem if I ddn't do everything possible.We all made dinner and talked about this being one of the best parts of the day..sitting, eating, camp set up. It was mashed potatoes for me, and some stale oreos, but I didn't care.I was getting cold, it was already 51 degrees, so V8 said she'd deal with bearbagging for us al, which was a relief to me tonight.I crawled in with all of my clothing on, and the wind is still blowing like crazy up here. Amazingly powerful. It's 47 degrees now, @ 7:58 p.m., I've gotta water the leaves and then do everything I can to get warm. I'm not using a sleeping pad, so we'll see if my tarp-work is good enough. What a day....~Certain