48th Summit: Last of the White Mountain 4000 footers

Moriah, my last of the 48, has been conquered, and none too soon!  I'm leaving in two days to climb Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (from the 48 4000 footer challenge to the 7 summit challenge? That escalated quickly... literally).

I was able to get some last minute training in with some great winter-hike enthusiasts: Sarah, Lauren, Sterling, Ryan, and Tony.  Tony seemed to enjoy his first winter hike.  Well, except for the last half mile to the summit, but then again, nobody seemed to enjoy that part.  But we left Boston around 7am and drove through gradually worsening snow all the way to Gorham, NH, which is the location of the Moriah trailhead, way the hell in the north of NH. 

There was snow, like, everywhere.  I guess that's usually how snow works.  Time to break out the microspikes.  Except the conditions were really awkward for them: the snow was slippery, but it wasn't very deep, and there was no ice.  So we just kept scraping against rock, which led to a few tumbles.  Quite a few tumbles if your name is Sarah M.F. Holland.  But the hike was fine.  Except for the last half mile.  I don't know what it was, but it was mentally exhausting.  I was ready to be done.  And Tony's jokes went from like 3 jokes/min to 0.5 jpm.  Rough.  But then, hey!  Summit-town USA!  It was freezing!

BOOM.  48th and last White Mountain 4000 Footer completed.  We celebrated by ass-sledding down most of the mountain... and then by celebrating with alcohol at my house back in Boston.

"Take a picture so we can get down from here."

 Alternate caption "It's frikkin freezing in here Mr. Bigglesworth."  ANYWAY.


So that's done.  This might be the first New Years resolution I've accomplished: to finish the 48 by the end of 2012.  AND NOW IT'S TIME TO REFLECT.

Setting a goal to hike these mountains is retrospectively pretty sweet.  At first I was against the whole theme of checking things off a list, but I like this challenge not for that reason, but because it got me to go out and hike mountains that I normally wouldn't have.  It was a great incentive to just go outside and hike.  And I met a lot of great people along the way... well I guess not met (although Michelle and I did meet some great people on Hale), but some great friendships grew as a result of these hikes.  So really, I'd just like to extend a huge thank you to all the people that helped me along the way, either physically or... mentally?  Emotionally?  What's that thing that women have?  Feelings?

Trip statistics:
Highest Mountain: Mt. Washington (6288 ft)
Shortest Mountain: Tecumseh (4003 ft)
Net Elevation Gain: 0 ft (Yeah, I came back down every one of them.  Sorry I'm a douche, jk I'm not sorry.)
Favorite Hike: Prezzie Traverse
Second Favorite Hike: Carrigain
Third Favorite Hike: Pemi Loop
Favorite Mountain: Mooselauke (I just wish we weren't inside a pingpong ball at the top!)
Least Favorite Mountain: Zealand (seriously fuck that guy)

Using the Hiking Binary Rating Scale, which I invited to indicate: 0 - would not hike again, or 1 - would hike again, the only 0's on the list are:
Zealand
Waumbek
maybe Galehead

But so many of them are really awesome, and there are a few that I DEFINITELY want to hike again.  Namely Mooselauke, the Bonds, and the Prezzies.  I look forward to help others on their quests to hike the 48 now!  ALUMNI.