Last week, we had a grand plan to hike up into the white mountains for three days over the weekend. The weather, always fickle, seemed to give us space to hike Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Rain and snow showers were predicted with a mild probability, and we decided to go anyway.
It was absolutely spectacular. I took over 400 pictures.
As we started to approach the peak, other hikers said the trail was extremely slick near the top. It was very warm, in the mid 50s, and where we were, everything was soaking, dripping wet. After a while, we discovered that the wetness was melting ice, ice that covered the tops of the trees in a thick layer.
In the mountains, freezing temperatures mean freezing fog.
When we reached the top, the wind was stunningly cold. We took a group photo of us in t-shirts, and turned around. If we had continued, we would have had a 3-hour hike along a completely exposed ridge. If that ridge iced over the following day, we would probably not have been able to hike out on Monday.
I uploaded several of the best photos from that hike to a separate gallery page.