Tired of the old rat race at work? Tired of bad news on the television, telemarketers on your phone, bills in your mailbox, beepers and noise of the city? Tired of being pushed to "hike faster, hike longer" with friends? Tired of "rush, rush, rush"?

This is what you would have missed if you'd been on our hike from Zealand Falls to Ethan Pond on Memorial Day Weekend 2002.

Seven great folks representing Get Outdoors New England eagerly strapped on colorful hi-tech backpacks, checked bootlaces and water bottles and started their hike from the parking area on Zealand Road at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Pemigewasset Wilderness waited before them as they meandered through ancient forests and granite lined trails.

Read about Ern's trip to the Ethan Pond Shelter and Thoreau Falls with Alexey, Harold and Saron, Pat, Debra, Toto, and Tom...and pups Charlie and Eldora.

We chatted with a few people who were at the summit, then it was time for us to head back.  We retraced our steps to the spot where Carolyn's Trail takes an easy-to-miss left turn and took that as our way down.  After a rocky start, Carolyn's Trail eases out into a gradual downward slope--a perfect return.

An "almost" ladyslipper on Carolyn's Trail (lower right)

At 6:30 AM, on the morning of Saturday, May 18, 2002 here on Dalton Mountain, NH, the thick, heavy snow began. At 7, I tried to get in contact with Thien N. to discuss the situation. He, evidently had already left his Bennington, VT home and was driving to meet us early.

By 8 AM there was just over an inch of snow here. Eldora and I decided to stick to the plan, drive to the A.M.C. Cardigan Lodge in Alexandria, NH and meet Thien. The drive though Franconia Notch was scary, as huge chucks of snow the size of quarters were falling and blowing around rapidly. The posts and guard rails clearly had 2" of snow.

I looked in the Lafayette trailhead parking lot and saw no vehicles. Remarkably, all the notch mountains looked surreal, gothic, and most ominous. There were two happy fisherman with their dogs, in almost blizzard conditions, enjoying their morning in canoes on Profile Lake. Truly two real dedicated outdoorsmen.

What an unsettling drive! Only 2 weeks ago I had removed the winter snow tires from my car for the seasonal rain type. Tension mounted as my car skidded and hydroplaned on 8 occasions during the 90 minute commute, causing the back of my neck and upper back to stiffen up tightly.

At the lodge, we met Thien 15 minutes early and waited until 10:30 AM, in case the others arrived late. We decided to go for it and keep to the main plan of climbing up the most difficult way, Holt Trail. The first mile is easy to moderate, a regular walk in the woods. Now the fun begins!

Hour after hour ticked by, the trail becoming steeper and then even more steeply, the snow storm dropping inch after inch of thick, heavy, wet snow. My gloved hand measured five inches of snow, although I knew that the snow fall was really closer to seven or eight, as the wet heavy snow collapses on itself and is an illusion to the true total.

The slope soon became a complete 45 degree angle, causing slow altitude gain. An older couple who left the lodge one half hour before us, appeared coming down from above. The man decided to return after he slide a good twelve feet. His wife said she was thoroughly soaked. We passed the bare ledge where he skidded uncontrollably, seeing it clearly in the snow, then we pressed on!

Now the trail acutely angles to an incredible 60 degree and at times an amazing 75 degrees on wet leaves that covers bare ledge -- now spice it up -- add 5-6 inches of snow! Eldora climbed this part of the mountain as though it was flat land and constantly waited for us to catch up. She is a true, technical rock-climbing mountaineer!

We had to get down and dirty on all fours and even use our knees to climb over the dangerously wet, snow covered bare ledges, now above the tree line with 30 m.p.h. howling winds, and one brutal blizzard. At times we each thought we heard voices in the mountain and we even called out to them many times. Were we slowly dying of exposure, were we hypnotized by the weather, just in one heck of a fierce storm or a little of all three?

Suddenly Thien slipped and quickly dropped ten feet stopping just inches in front of me. I thought he was going to sweep us down hundreds of feet rapidly to certain injury, or worse. Soon afterwards, and with me now slipping more, at only about 400 feet from the top with the relentless snow, we stopped and had a long discussion and made a determination. It was now 1 PM. We are defeated.

We reluctantly turned around and ever so slowly, so dangerously, at times gaining only one yard ever so carefully. We headed back down to return to the lodge and finally at 3 PM eat lunch and have hot coffee. The lodge was jammed, with some very wet hikers, Scouts and their leaders, yet filled mostly with young, single women who were taking an A.M.C course entitled "Backpacking For Beginners."

How ironic this seemed, yet so magical, compared to the incredible conditions we just survived. Yet we enjoyed every minute and will conquer Mt. Cardigan on another, more favorable day.

Arnie, 14 years my senior, carried little extra in his daypack other than his new 100 oz platypus® hydration system. I had a full backpack weighing 30+ pounds ready for a 3 day expedition. Eldora carried nothing and guided us up the trail.

When crampons were required about an hour later, I strapped on the ol’ Grivel G-10®’s. Arnie had a pair not suited for mountain slopes with ice and had to just bareboot it. Eldora did not use crampons as she is the expert climber.

Martin and Michael

Our meeting time was 10:30 am, and we started our hike at 10:50 am. We went up the White Dot trail over to Cascade Link before heading up Red Spot. On Red Spot there were some beautiful open areas that gave us a nice view of the valley below. We hiked the rest of the way out in the open, up Pumpelly and to the top of Monadnock. It was crowded and windy as usual for Monadnock. We reached the top around 12:30 and ate our lunch. I surprised Michael and Martin with a six-pack of Pepsi, but I should have brought beer instead, next time.

Left:  Thien / Right: Michael and Thien

What does three guys talk about on top of a mountain? The obvious answer was gear and more gear; Michael’s GoLite backpack got us started, plus everything from our shoes to the new tuna packaging that Martin has not heard of.  After lunch we took the White Dot trail down where there was a stream of people going up.

For the next hike up Monadnock, I suggested we bring up a barbecue and do some grilling up top. All we have to do is get enough people to carry up one charcoal at a time.