Epic Loj Snow-venture

I wrote some journal-type stuff whilst away at the Tufts Loj in NH for the long weekend, so I shall transcribe it for the people of the interwebs (especially my loyal followers in China).

1/14/12
Since I've decided to do the 48 4000 footers in the NH White Mountains, I've been making a lot of trips to the Tufts Loj. Also, my ankle injury last fall (where I tore most of the tendons in my left ankle playing... sports) has finally healed. In order to make up for lost time, I've been all about hiking in the past few months. This is my third weekend in a row up here hiking the 48. Sarah, Katie, and Michelle have been hiking a lot with me this winter. There have been microspike excitement-times, interesting people we've met, and great views.
Last night was the standard "get all the beers and have partytimes" night. Kings with snuggies was a natural product of such an evening.
Today, Katie "I already hiked all the mountains but whatevs, I'll do them all again" Rizzolo, Ryan "Weaksauce" Jacobs, and Sterling "I just met you but you're cool, sorry I can't remember your last name right now" Lastname (in the journal I call him "a new friend-gentleman named Sterling") hiked North and South Kinsman. Twas my first snowshoe hike, and it was damn fun. We started at maybe 8:30 after renting some snowshoes, starting from the Lafayette Campground parking lot. It was ass-freezingly cold though. Like, fuck. Three fucking degrees at the summit.

I am le tired

Snowshoeing ALL the mountains

But snowshoeing was fun. I got a huge bruise from the front of it slamming into my shin. No worries. The top of the mountains was a bit ping-pong ball-ish, so view was sporadic. But it was great when you could see. The whole hike obviously looked like Skyrim.

Am I doing it right?

Guest entry by Katherine D. Rizzolo:
Guest entry! Yeah! I suspect [Chris] is letting me write in this b/c he wants to analyze my handwriting for the raptor-postcard mystery. Anyway, addendums to the above: FUCK YEAH SNOWSHOES. . Also like, I love the Loj all the time but it's cozy as shit in the winter. Straight up adorbs. I'm super pumped/grateful that I have the ability to be here, and also that I've found peeps who love weird outdoor adventures like me. So that's cool. Also Chris, you're cool. kbai.

Awwwwwwwwwww. Anyway, it's now time to hang out, drink growlers, and get ready for the rest of the adventure: skiing tomorrow and hiking Monday. Heading to Woodstock Inn tonight to watch some playoff games and drink some beers. And then do some star-gazing, because those things are out of control tonight. Oh Loj. You cozy motherfucker.

Alissa, Rob, and random dude passed out in the middle of a noisy Loj, so we started stacking random items on them. Things to note: jenga stacked on Alissa's head, hammer, and guitar.

1/15/12
We just got back from skiing at Cannon. Negative 15 degrees at the summit. What. The. Fuck. So cold. But at least we were layered well and had the right gear(ish). My goggles were fogging up early, which led to IMMEDIATE freezing, so I was at a lack of vision for a lot of the runs. So I went to the lodge for some expensive-as-fuck fries and hot chocolate. Then I took the chair lifts all the way to the summit (alone, since my optics issues had me duck out early). I walked up to the lookout deck - great view, but that was the coldest, windiest piss I think I've ever taken. Worth it. By the time I walked back to the slopes, my goggles were once again entirely frozen over, resulting in nothing more than a useless, blinding weight in front of my eyes. This led to an interesting and nauseating ski to the lodge again (I had to go cross-eyed to see out of the only non-frozen portion of the goggles).
There, I met up with everyone again and had a great, full-vision rest of the day. It was a great day to go skiing; the extreme cold prevented a lot of people from showing up, so there were no lift lines. We had a few great runs, and a few great wipe-outs. Good times.
The only downsides were most of us getting early onset frostbite warnings on our faces. Oh also, the snow machines were running in the morning. Skiing through a cloud of man-made snow is absolutely terrifying. Think of your worst zombie nightmare. The levels of panic are similar. I couldn't even see the tips of my skis: the visibility was that bad. Alissa was 10 feet in front of me, but was only a silhouette. And I fell when I tried to ski over to her because I was lost in space and time and apparently was facing up the mountain somehow. I could have easily skied into a tree or over a cliff - it was awesome in theory, but kind of scary to experience. Thankfully, there were no zombies.
But most people are headed home tonight, just me and Michelle staying to continue our adventure hiking tomorrow. Time to chill the fuck out, eat some spicy soup, and read some Game of Thrones books.

1/16/12
Michelle and I snowshoe/hiked Hale today. INTERESTING SHIT HAPPENED. The access road was closed, so we snowshoed 2.5 miles to the trailhead. It was only 2.2 miles to the summit, but a continuous uphill with no breaks.

I know that you are probably thinking this is a screenshot of me playing Skyrim, but I can assure you that this is planet Earth

Some great views of the Prezzies along the way. The summit was pretty cool: some decent views and not too cold. No wind, thankfully.

Hale was my 24th 4000 footer! Halfway there.

We met a retired couple at the top, Bill and Diane. We made fast friends and they told us a way down with better views and a nicer hike, so we took that opportunity, chatting it up the entire way. It's amazing the caliber of people you meet while hiking: everyone is so ridiculously friendly, and it is very doubtful that they are insane murderers. So they took us down their trail, which is mostly bushwacking to another, shorter, less steep trail in a clear birch forest with an incredible view of Washington.

Washington is probably a bit harder to hike now that it is entirely covered in ice

Bill was telling us how he had a snow sliding accident in which he smashed his ankle into a tree and shattered it. We also discussed turtles.
Those people are nuts about White Mountain hiking; they've done the 48 a ton of times, and are currently working on their "grid." A Grid is where you do each of the 48 inside a MONTH. And you do this for EVERY MONTH OF THE CALENDAR YEAR. And I thought inside a year was badass. Fuck. I can't wait for retirement...
They drove us back to our car from the shortcut trailhead. Such a great turn of events. I love opportunities to learn new hiking tricks. Definitely a good end to an amazing weekend.