When you’re hiking the GRID — you know, tagging all the 4000-footers every month — the total summit count ends up at 576. We think in anyone’s estimation, that’s a considerable number of mountain summits. And with hiking being such a terrific low-impact workout, the affect it has on the cardiovascular system, the quadriceps, and the calves is significant. As a result, hikers often joke when they’re making their way up a mountain that “today is leg day.” Just like “leg day” at your local gym, it’s a focused workout, albeit with amazing views, sublime forests, and the freshest air imaginable — nothing like gym air.
One of our oft-returning guests has been focused on the GRID awhile and being well over half way done, we imagine his legs are rock solid and train-pulling tough. For him every month is “leg month.” On this hike he took on Mt Jefferson then scooted over to Mt Washington. The trip was meant to be even longer, but ground conditions up there are super difficult right now so they trimmed their trip. Redline Guide Chase Hall was leading this hike and offered the following summary.
The shoulder season is in full effect above 5,000 feet in the White Mountains. I wanted to take full advantage of the beautiful day and help our guest grab some really tough peaks, Jefferson and Washington, for November. In my opinion Jefferson is a very tough mountain to grab when Jefferson Notch Road closes. You can get to it multiple ways in winter but the quickest and easiest route is out and back via Jewell Trail. We started our day nice and early at 6:30AM so we could have all day to hike from Jefferson to Pierce. Once we reached the alpine zone on Jewell Trail, however, our pace began to slow down and our plans started to morph. The day was not lost, we simply changed our goals for the day and decided to grab Jefferson, head to Washington to check out the sunset, and leave the others for a different day. Once that decision was made, the pressure off, the day became a lot more enjoyable. —Chase
