While some of the team was in the Northern Presidentials leading and recreating, Redline Guide Debra McCown was leading another returning guest on the famed Franconia Ridge. What follows is a short summary and photos of this amazing tour…
On Tuesday, it was impossible to contain the joy. Every hiker I saw had a big, immovable smile plastered across their face. This is what happens when it’s sunny and double-digits above zero with a clear blue sky and almost no wind on one of the biggest stretches of continuous above-treeline terrain on the East Coast.
You can’t crunch along on top of the snow on Franconia Ridge in those conditions, looking at 360-degree views into northern New Hampshire and Vermont, without the joy showing. To top it off, I kept running into people I recognized. I ran into a hiker I knew in the parking lot at the beginning, another on the summit of Mt Lafayette, and one more in the parking lot at the end.
The last one just happened to be — like Tuesday’s guest — a participant in last winter’s Mt Washington Observatory overnight climb. So, they’d been on a Redline guided trip with me together before. What are the odds?! This guest absolutely hit the jackpot with his choice of the day for winter on Franconia Ridge. It was truly a day made for walking on ridgelines — and I was happy to be there for it. —Debra
