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Thread: Steepest mile

  1. #81
    LT '79; AT '73-'14 in sections; Donating Member Kerosene's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LIhikers View Post
    The trail from the top of Wildcat Mtn. peak E down into Pinkham Notch is pretty steep.
    It's incredibly steep, according to the guidebooks. Of course, I get to tackle it in the first hour of my section hike next month. Oh goody.
    GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014

  2. #82

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    still doesn't have stairs bolted to rock. Cascades on the north side of Moosilauke still wins i think. 1900' of the 3100' of climbing in the first 1.5mi from Kinsman notch which has a fairly relaxed start. Wildcat A down to carter is definitely in the running though 1000' in .7mi

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    Quote Originally Posted by jakedatc View Post
    still doesn't have stairs bolted to rock. Cascades on the north side of Moosilauke still wins i think. 1900' of the 3100' of climbing in the first 1.5mi from Kinsman notch which has a fairly relaxed start. Wildcat A down to carter is definitely in the running though 1000' in .7mi

    pinkham to carter totally does have stares attached to the rockface. the big wooden ones if i remember. maybe not steel rungs but i dont see how it makes a difference.

    frankly ive always thought of moosilauke as the most overrated mountain in the whites as far as difficulty, and i went DOWN the hard part. the hard part is too short to bat much of an eye at as far as i'm concerned.

  4. #84
    Registered User Driver8's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tdoczi View Post
    frankly ive always thought of moosilauke as the most overrated mountain in the whites as far as difficulty, and i went DOWN the hard part. the hard part is too short to bat much of an eye at as far as i'm concerned.
    Might make a difference if you did it at the end of a long day. With fresh legs, probably less of a problem. I'm hoping to do the Moosilauke traverse SOBO before too long.
    The more miles, the merrier!

    NH4K: 21/48; N.E.4K: 25/67; NEHH: 28/100; Northeast 4K: 27/115; AT: 124/2191

  5. #85
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    I slackpacked the 26 miles from Franconia Notch back to the hostel at Glencliff in one day and went up Moosilauke SOBO in a driving rainstorm and I thought I was going to die.... It would have been fine had it been dry but I was sliding all over the place.

  6. #86

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    Quote Originally Posted by tdoczi View Post
    pinkham to carter totally does have stares attached to the rockface. the big wooden ones if i remember. maybe not steel rungs but i dont see how it makes a difference.

    frankly ive always thought of moosilauke as the most overrated mountain in the whites as far as difficulty, and i went DOWN the hard part. the hard part is too short to bat much of an eye at as far as i'm concerned.
    hardest, no. the thread is about steepest and on the AT. it is pretty damn steep. I find going down hills far harder than uphills so my difficulty "ratings" are all screwed up compared to other people. I went up and down the thing on a rest day from rock climbing...

    i didn't remember stairs down to carter notch.. rock stairs yes. wood steps on one of the southern Wildcats and the "chimney" everyone is afraid of..

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    Quote Originally Posted by jakedatc View Post
    hardest, no. the thread is about steepest and on the AT. it is pretty damn steep. I find going down hills far harder than uphills so my difficulty "ratings" are all screwed up compared to other people. I went up and down the thing on a rest day from rock climbing...

    i didn't remember stairs down to carter notch.. rock stairs yes. wood steps on one of the southern Wildcats and the "chimney" everyone is afraid of..

    ehh this is getting too confusing for me and i dont know which end of wildcat were talking about anymore. there was a post that mentioned pinkham notch (and i now realize perhaps they meant carter) thats where i was saying there were steps.

    to me length is part of steepest. the new rock steps on bear mtn ny are incredibly steep. every time you come to one they just go straight up, literally perpendicular.... for a foot or so at a time. i just remember moosilauke not living up to the hype, as far as difficulty/steepness/whatever.

  8. #88

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    haha we broke your brain the views on Moosilauke did not disappoint me, that we can probably agree on. And i think going down Bear mtn CT, down to Rt9 in VT, going down from Wildcats to Carter are all worse to do than go down Moosilauke unless it is wet/icy like 10K had

  9. #89
    LT '79; AT '73-'14 in sections; Donating Member Kerosene's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jakedatc View Post
    still doesn't have stairs bolted to rock. Cascades on the north side of Moosilauke still wins i think. 1900' of the 3100' of climbing in the first 1.5mi from Kinsman notch which has a fairly relaxed start.
    I was NOBO from Beaver Creek Shelter, so I descended the stairs bolted to the rock. Fortunately it was mostly dry, but I went down way too fast for my first full day, which blew out my quads at the start of a week-long trip, which resulted in knee pain, which probably contributed to a ruptured quadriceps a few years later, which now gives me daily pain. I would have preferred to climb.
    GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014

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    If there is anything steeper than the North side of Moosilauke I am buyiing a used parachute online now!

    Good thing with steep downs...............nobody seems to brag about how FAST they did them. Slow & easy for this old guy.

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    2 other steep climbs in the Whites that I didn't see posted are South Twin Mountain from Galehead Hut, 1102 feet in .9 miles, and Webster Cliff up from Crawford Notch (Rt 302), 2073 feet in 1.8 miles.

    One of the most disheartening descends comes from dropping down from Madison Hut to Valley Way tent site which you almost must do if you get caught in bad weather and Madison Hut is full or closed, 900 feet in .6 miles! Then you get to climb back up the next morning!

  12. #92
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    I'm just glad the AT didn't start at the base of Katahdin or Moosilauke. The AT drop out, or drop dead, rate would be much higher.

  13. #93

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    Yeah the climb up Katahdan was steep and the climb up Blue MT from Leigh Gap was steep but i always thought the climb from the N.O.C to the top of Cheoah Bald now that was Brutal.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RED-DOG View Post
    Yeah the climb up Katahdan was steep and the climb up Blue MT from Leigh Gap was steep but i always thought the climb from the N.O.C to the top of Cheoah Bald now that was Brutal.
    Talk about perspective. The climb from the NOC was cake for me - in fact I went from NOC to Fontana Dam in a day no problem. Katahdin was no big deal either and neither was SOBO up Moosilauke. The steepest and hardest thing for me was SOBO down into the Mahoosic Notch. By far the hardest day I ever had hiking.
    Pain is a by-product of a good time.

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    Quote Originally Posted by fredmugs View Post
    Talk about perspective. The climb from the NOC was cake for me - in fact I went from NOC to Fontana Dam in a day no problem. Katahdin was no big deal either and neither was SOBO up Moosilauke. The steepest and hardest thing for me was SOBO down into the Mahoosic Notch. By far the hardest day I ever had hiking.
    coming down mahoosuc arm

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    Quote Originally Posted by Blue Jay View Post
    The profiles on the AT maps are a complete fiction. Some of them are for mountains that are no longer even on the AT. It would be hard to beat the Big K.
    Some trail clubs do better than others. For example, the elevation profiles in Georgia seem very accurate. The profiles in SNP are accurate.

    Some other places, I've downgraded in my mind from "true" to "based on a true story", then to "inspired by a true store". And some seem to be complete fiction. There are some maps that you can see clear discrepancies between the elevation profiles and the trail map.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tdoczi View Post
    a 1:1 scale would be useless as it would be nearly flat for most of the AT. its vertically exaggerrated on purpose to make it useful. in spite of the exaggeration you can still accurately read elevation gain over distance
    Indeed. A vertical exaggeration of around 5:1 generally matches what the trail "feels" like.

  18. #98

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    Wildcat mountain section in NH always wears me out......swamp dawg

  19. #99

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    Quote Originally Posted by FlyPaper View Post
    Some trail clubs do better than others. For example, the elevation profiles in Georgia seem very accurate. The profiles in SNP are accurate.

    Some other places, I've downgraded in my mind from "true" to "based on a true story", then to "inspired by a true store". And some seem to be complete fiction. There are some maps that you can see clear discrepancies between the elevation profiles and the trail map.
    Ha!
    Welcome to the world of Appalachian Trail fiction.
    Guidebooks and maps, often referred to as the "Book of Lies" by grizzled old-timers.

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    Quote Originally Posted by FlyPaper View Post
    Some trail clubs do better than others. For example, the elevation profiles in Georgia seem very accurate. The profiles in SNP are accurate.

    Some other places, I've downgraded in my mind from "true" to "based on a true story", then to "inspired by a true store". And some seem to be complete fiction. There are some maps that you can see clear discrepancies between the elevation profiles and the trail map.

    oh wow, is it time already for another round of the "maps are wrong and i'm right" already? that ones my favorites!

    the "inaccuracies" in the profiles are largely a question of scale. lets say, for illustration, that some section of the trail had a sudden perfectly vertical drop of 500 feet into a gorge that was 10 feet across and the immediately regained that 500 feet just as instantly as it was lost. almost no elevation profile would show that this existed. less severe versions of this phenomena occur all the way up and down the trail. its not an error, its called SCALE. inaccurate is an apt way to describe it, but to imply that its blatant error or laziness or has to do with the skill of a given trail club or some other some failing beyond the amount of space one has to reasonably print an elevation profile is exaggerating.

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