Between June, 2016 and June, 2018 I climbed all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4000-foot mountains. This is called “peak-bagging” by local climbers. Most of my climbs were solo, but sometimes I hiked with a friend or two.
During that time, I wrote a series of blog posts in which I described, chronologically, the ascent of each of these peaks in words and images. Along with a climb, in each post I shared some reflections on my work in international development during the MDG era: what it was like in the sector as it boomed, and evolved, from the response to the Ethiopian crisis in the mid-1980’s through to the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.
After finishing climbing all of the 48, with the ascent of Mt Jefferson on June 28, 2018, I have revisited these mountains – often in different seasons and using different trails. I’m writing these climbs up separately.
This post contains descriptions of my later climbs of Mt Jefferson (5716ft, 1742m), in reverse chronological order.
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As I mentioned, Mt Jefferson had been my 48th, and final climb of the 4000-footers. I had climbed it solo, on a beautiful, crisp, clear cool June day. In my original post, along with a description of that first climb, I took time to thank some of the many people who had helped me, supported me, or mentored me along the way – from Peace Corps in Ecuador through ChildFund in Australia, with many stops in between.
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August, 2023
My third climb of Mt Jefferson (at least since 2016) was on 25 July, 2023, and it was a monster: up Great Gulf Trail to Six Husbands, and then very steeply up to the summit, looping back down Sphinx Trail to Great Gulf, and back to the trailhead:
As you can see, this hike took nearly 11 hours, covered 13.9 miles, and involved almost 4400ft of elevation gain and loss. Notice the seemingly-vertical section of the hike around “F” – the upper reaches of Six Husbands – that I’ve highlighted here:
It was Six Husbands Trail that did it, that nearly broke me, particularly around point “F” on the GPS track, also highlighted on the elevation record, above: I seriously contemplated turning around at several points (feeling completely depleted) but, in the end, I got to the summit.
When I got home, the experience led me to discover an interesting list: the “Terrifying 25”. These are the most-challenging trails in the White Mountains, including Six Husbands! (And, by the way, the Sphinx Trail, which I would also take that day!). So, I covered nearly 10% of the “Terrifying 25” in one brutal day.
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Having left Durham fairly early, I began the hike at about 9:30am. The trailhead of the Great Gulf Trail is at the parking area off of Rt 16 (A), just past Pinkham Notch:
The trail immediately crosses the Peabody River, over a beautiful suspension bridge. It had been a rainy summer, so the river was high:
Much of the hike that day would be VERY wet.
The hike up the Great Gulf Trail was pleasant, ascending moderately for about 4.5 miles. I entered the Great Gulf Wilderness at around 10am (B)…
… reaching the major junction with the Madison Gulf Trail and Osgood Cutoff at 10:45am (C):
Then I crossed the Chandler Brook Trail (D) at about 11:30am:
Taking a right turn (northwards) on the Six Husbands Trail at just before noon, I left the Great Gulf Trail for the moment, beginning the long – E through M on the GPS track, above.
Six Husbands trail is referred to as “steep, rough, and challenging” in the White Mountain Guide, which is true. But, at first, it was a pleasant walk, gently upwards, turning left, west, at (E). Very muddy, though, resulting from the long stretch of rain in previous days.
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As I reached the really steep part, there is a section of huge boulders, several of which require the hiker to crawl under; tight fits, even for a svelte guy like me. Signage is lacking here, and it was easy to lose track of the trail, which I did several times. A fellow hiker (actually a trail-runner) passed me here, but he apparently got even more confused than I did, and passed me again a half-hour later!
I reached a series of ladders at around 1pm:
Just after the ladder section, the real torture began (F) – very steep, without any ladders from here to the top. But, nearing 2pm, I began to get some great views, over towards Mt Madison:
That viewpoint is at the top of the steepest section of Six Husbands, which I reached at about 2:30pm. Although the grade moderates here, I was completely exhausted at this point.
And soon the characteristic granite-strewn nature of Mt Jefferson’s summit cone emerged. Steeply up, now rock-hopping, which was rather challenging:
In this area I seriously considered turning around, several times. I was feeling light-headed, and worried that my state of exhaustion would lead to bad decisions and a risky fall. But my GPS app indicated that I was fairly close to the summit, so it seemed likely that it would be faster to continue to loop over Jefferson’s summit, and then descent the Sphinx Trail, as planned.
So I continued, trudging and trudging, resting after every dozen steps, or so.
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At around 3pm, I reached the junction of Six Husbands with the Edmunds Col Cutoff (G). From here the trail continues straight up the rubble to just before the top of Mt Jefferson:
Near the top, the trail flattens briefly before the final few yards up to the summit, a small pile of rubble very familiar from previous climbs:
The summit of Mt Jefferson:
Of course, the view from the top (H) was spectacular! I got there at about 3:30pm:
Mt Washington in the distance:
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Now to descend. I started down from the summit, optimistic that hiking down the Sphinx Trail would be much easier than climbing up Six Husbands.
Soon the Jefferson Loop ends at the Gulfside Trail; here I’m looking back at the summit from the junction:
Gulfside is the Appalachian Trail here, so there were a few hikers heading north. The short hike on the Gulfside Trail was spectacular: walking towards Mt Washington, descending gradually at around 5000ft:
I reached the Sphinx Col at about 4:20pm, and turned left (east) off of the Gulfside Trail and onto the Sphinx Trail, described as “steep and rough” in the White Mountain Guide. Here you can just see the Great Gulf in the lower right: I would head down there. Looking west:
The top of the Sphinx Trail is beautiful, with a short section walking along the side of a sheer granite wall, which can be seen in the image, below, looking east:
A few moments later, the view down into the Great Gulf appeared:
Soon I began to drop down much more steeply, and for a moment I was optimistic that I would pick up speed, because it was getting a bit late! But here is a brief video of what the trail soon became: just water running over granite rubble:
This dashed my hopes of a quick descent. To avoid falling and a twisted ankle, at best, I had to move very slowly. Feet completely wet. And I began to get a bit nervous about getting down to the trailhead before dark.
Slow going.
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At about 5:15pm, I came across a beautiful, small passage that the stream was cutting into the rock. Here, the view from above:
And from below:
Soon it began to rain. So even though the steepest section of the descent was behind me, the trail was still very slippery. I reached the junction with the Great Gulf Trail at just past 5:30pm (L):
Fifteen minutes later the rain had increased, as I crossed the West Branch of the Peabody River (M):
Luckily the rain tapered off from here, and soon stopped altogether.
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It was close to 6:30pm when I arrived back at the junction with the Six Husbands Trail, closing the loop that I had begun back around noon! Getting back down to the trailhead from there seemed to take hours. At 7:30pm I was back at the Osgood Cutoff (C), and it wasn’t until 8:30m that I reached the suspension bridge over the Peabody River, where I had begun 11 hours before (A):
As you can see, it was nearly dark. I never got out my flashlight, but it did occur to me!
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This was a monster climb. Why? Partly it was the nature of the Six Husbands Trail: well-known to be very steep and unforgiving. I guess one aspect of the challenge of Six Husbands is that the steepest section comes after the climber has walked many miles already, just getting there from the trailhead. The descent on Sphinx Trail is another challenge, especially the steep and (on this day) wet, slippery footing. Then 4400ft of elevation gain and loss is just the cherry on top of the cake.
Still, looking back, I recommend this climb very highly. Climbing Mt Jefferson on this route is a challenge, as I hope I’ve described here; but if the climber is in good shape, experienced and well-prepared, and gets an early start, you can’t beat it.
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September 2019
I climbed Mt Jefferson again on 9 September 2019, after having completed all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4000-footers late in 2018. This time I ascended from the west, up the Caps Ridge Trail. My plan was to ascend the Caps Ridge Trail to the top of Jefferson, and then loop around The Cornice Trail a bit, rejoining Caps Ridge a little bit below the summit:
This map shows my 2018 climb route in yellow, and the 2019 ascent in pink. The Caps Ridge Trail is one of the highest trail-heads in the White Mountains, so in some ways it’s a much easier way up Mt Jefferson than I had taken the year before. Plus, as can be seen, it’s much shorter!
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I left Durham around 8:15am on a partly-cloudy morning, stopping in Ossipee as normal for coffee and a sandwich. Due to road repair along the way, I didn’t get onto the trail until nearly 10:45am…
The Caps Ridge Trail starts out in forest, at just below 3000ft, and the walking was gently upward for some time, until I emerged into the alpine zone at about 11:15am. So, a quick walk up above the tree-line.
The trail was a bit challenging in some places, up bare rock which would be tricky when wet or icy.
The weather forecast had been for partly to mostly-cloudy, but the cloud cover above me seemed pretty thick. As I ascended up the alpine zone, I started to get into the fog, with the top of Jefferson completely obscured above me, and decreasing views to the west.
I reached the top of Mt Jefferson at about 12:45pm, just two hours after starting the climb. It was completely in the clouds, which was a bit of a disappointment.
But quickly things started to change! Firstly the view to the east, towards Pinkham Notch, opened up, and then Mt Adams emerged in a glorious vista to my east. Having just climbed Mt Adams (again) the week before, I was very happy to see it from this angle.
This is the summit:
I had lunch at the top, where it was quite cold for the season. But there were no bugs this time!
As can be seen in the video, the summit of Mt Washington never quite emerged, but I could see the Auto Road, and the Cog Railway. A spectacular view.
Dropping down to the The Cornice trail was tricky, rock-hopping; I was happy I had brought gloves, otherwise my hands would have gotten cut up a bit. The Cornice trail was great, with no other hikers and a great, peaceful feeling reminiscent of my walk along the Gulfside Trail after having climbed Mt Madison the second time (in this cycle).
Dropping down Caps Ridge Trail was fairly easy, just a bit complicated negotiating the steep, rocky patches on the way.
I arrived back at the parking area at about 3:30pm, so it had taken me just under five hours to get to the top of Mt Jefferson and back down.
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Links to the previous and next posts in this series are shown here, along with a link to a list of all posts and to my main blog page:
Mark McPeak 