With the recent melt-freeze cycles, and knowing South Moat is pretty popular, I thought it would be a good choice for a well-broken out hike, and I know the views are excellent. And it's about my preferred length. I thought I might stretch over to Middle Moat.
I wanted to get an early start so I drove up to Bartlett Sat evening. There were some standing puddles; apparently Sat was very warm!
Time is short! The calendar, of course is closing in on the Winter Listers, but the temps are closing in on the rest of us too. Monorail, mud and bugs are just around the corner :(
Up early Sunday, reached the trailhead, nobody else there yet. Trail was indeed very well broken out. Decided the snowshoes could stay in the car.
Spikes were enough, not a single posthole - though I saw plenty of spots where others had stepped off the center line and dropped in. But the center of the treadway was rock solid until afternoon.
It wasnt warm, but reasonable, and the ascent soon had me down to shirtsleeves. Bad day to forget sunglasses! Glad I remembered mine.
There's only one spot on this hike that's very steep, it runs next to a slab that is usually pretty wet. I was a little concerned this might be an ice wall, but that proved needless to worry about. Footing up it was very good, no problem at all.
Just below the summit I took a side trail across the more open ledges away from the main trail and enjoyed some views.
Here I got into a little photographic trouble. Nothing too serious, but highly annoying. I put on a polarizer, and either breath or perhaps a careless touch of a damp glove resulted in a little fog on some pics until it evaporated off. Hence the smudge above. Grrr. Later when I tried to remove the polarizer it turned out to be stuck, maybe frozen on. Standing on precarious snow with a strong gusty wind and low temp was not conducive to fooling with my lens :)
So, it stayed on and spoiled a few shots, but such is life. I still enjoyed the day, and salvaged some decent shots.
Rejoining the main path and ascending I spotted a raven - maybe a crow - soaring up and over the summit. No time for a pic, he was gone in an instant. The wind was getting pretty strong, so got out the shell. Then I hit the summit, and the wind was quite strong. Bad wind chill, so I wasted no time getting behind some rocks and putting on the layers.
Didnt take much time to abandon the idea of going over to Middle Moat. With the wind, it wouldnt be that much fun. A party of 3 showed up, looked at Middle Moat for a while , and apparently reached the same conclusion and turned back down. Several other people showed up, looked around and headed down almost immediately. I only wound up staying on the summit a half hour, I started to get cold, and the wind was blowing hard enough to make photography ... erm, challenging :)
So, headed back down, the sun by this time working to make a mashed potato surface wherever there was no shade. But still solid enough not to posthole. Yay for that! I was pretty cautious, I kept expecting a posthole but got away unscathed.
A nice stop for tea -it's important to remain civilized, after all - with an outstanding view of Chocorua , then down the rest of the way with a few stops to chat with late ascenders.
I swung by the pullout in Conway on the way out and took a few pics of the Moats in the afternoon sun. Can just make out one hiker on South moat - can you see him? Or her? Look sharp! :)
The gallery has the solution...
A really nice day to have gotten out !