NH 48 4000 footers: Isolation

Saturday, November 11, 2017
4000 footers climbed: Mt. Isolation
Miles: 12.0 (total, out and back hike) (went beyond the summit and added ~1 mi to the hike)
Elevation gained: 4967'
MapMyRun recording

I was up at 6am and out of Rattle River hostel by 6:30am. I headed towards the trailhead, stopping off at Pinkham Notch AMC/Joe Dodge Lodge to pick up a few things. They let me know the trail I'd selected for my hike involved many stream crossings, none of which are frozen fully yet. I decided to change my trailhead destination and went with the Glen Ellis parking area, arriving by 7:30am and heading up the Glen Boulder Trail.

It was bitterly cold. With wind chill, it was -3 degrees with gusts of up to 30 MPH. I managed to forget my traction devices, but I made it work. The one place I really wished I'd had them was for the spot below. The route I took was steep and relentless, climbing from below 1000' to well over 5000' at Boott Spur before dropping down to hike over to Mt Isolation.

It was beautiful while also being brutally cold and steep. On the rocks, there was some snow and ice accumulated but the wind was the worst.

This is the boulder of Glen Boulder. It's kinda huge. It offered me a good wind break to put on more layers, since the wind was whipping above treeline.

Snow accumulated between the patches of trees on the way up the ridge. It was maybe 3-4 inches, but I was so glad for the wind break I didn't care one bit.

I finally made it to the intersection of Glend Boulder Trail and Davis Path and then headed down Davis Path.

View from Boott Spur; lots of blue sky (and ice)

At the intersection of Isolation Trail and Davis Path, I took a short break, ate a snack, and then kept moving. It was cold enough that if I stopped moving, I quickly became chilled and couldn't feel my toes or fingers.

From here, I hiked onward, dealing with a lot of blowdowns. With the snow, wind, cold, and blowdowns, I managed to miss the unmarked spur trail for the summit. In my defense, the spur trail went upward on a rock face, so it just looked like more trees and snowy rock, rather than a trail. I overshot by a mile and it wasn't until the trail descended for a bit that I realized it wasn't a dip before the summit but I was actually descending the mountain. After going back up and then over some of the blow downs, I finally found the spur trail and got a spectacular view to pay me for my trouble.

I then turned around and hiked back. It took me until 4pm to return to my car, maybe half an hour before sunset. As it was, the mountains were limiting the light and it was starting to get towards dusk.