Day 3: Slippery Slopes

It seems like each day is more exciting than the last. Today was a real adventure that tested our mountaineering experience while the weather hindered our hike (it actually ended up being more of a climb). The complications started off early in the morning: as we were getting ready to leave, we checked the news to see if there were any updates on the weather because it was supposed to rain for most of the day. As we wait for the weather report, we are surprised to see that yesterday two 18 year old girls had to be rescued at Mount Monadnock. That sounds familiar. We were shocked but we felt confident in our skills and good judgement, so we headed to Jaffrey, NH (that's right Chris Farrell I know where it is!) and were again surprised by the weather. There was a light rain that we weren't too worried about, but as we neared the mountain we were concerned for we knew that Mt Monadnock had to be there (we were only three minutes away according to the GPS) but we couldn't actually see it because of a cloud bank.

With our unwavering commitment and dedication, we excitedly headed to the White Dot Trail. Although we knew that we probably weren't going to summit the mountain today because of the fog (the park rangers warned us before going up), we still wanted to attempt to get as high up as possible before we had to turn back around. Twenty minutes into the hike, though, we were met with this seemingly endless wall of rocks that we had to climb up to. So, our hiking experience became a climbing experience, but a fun experience nonetheless.

As we continued to climb, the fog became thicker and thicker. We could still see a bit ahead of us though, so we decided that we would keep going until we could no longer see the trail. Here is a video we took when we got to a clearing; we were a bit confused because we could not see and it seemed like we were above the tree line, but according to the map we still had a mile to go before we were above the tree line. 

At this point we were weary of the fog and a bit concerned because we had been climbing up these steep rocks that just kept getting more slippery and we had to be very careful of slipping, especially when going down. Here I am nervously laughing as we contemplate the section of the trail that we had just climbed, and how hard it is going to be when we have to go down.

Like the brave souls we are, we kept going up but, eventually, had to stop to think about our plan. We basically had three options: head back, stop and wait to see if the weather improved, or continue the trail until there was no visibility. 

We kept going for a while, but the trail just kept getting steeper and the rocks kept getting smoother, making our way up increasingly harder. Eventually we reached our turning point: a sheet rock too smooth for us to climb with water running down its surface, making it even harder for us to climb. At this point the wind was picking up, it was raining harder, and the fog was very thick. Still, it was the slipperiness of the rock that got us. Here is picture of me happily smiling next to the rock that got the best of us. 

We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to summit Mount Monadnock, but we understand that this is because of the weather, which we have no control over. Overall, the hike was an adventure and we had fun at every step of the way, even when we realized that we had to turn around. We were unable to stick to our original plan, but this hike was honestly so fun that I wouldn't have had it any other way.