Mount Monadnock Stats
- Mountain Range: Appalachian Mountains
- Peak Elevation: 3,165 ft
- Peak Prominence: 2,150 ft
- Location: Jaffrey and Dublin, New Hampshire
- First Summit Hike: Samuel Willard in 1725
Each year I find myself hiking Mount Monadnock as a sort of warm-up for the season. Different in 2020 is that I hiked the mountain in late December instead of in the Spring. The experience was much different, as you can probably imagine.
The trail conditions started fine, free of snow for the most part. The fallen leaves were frozen under my feet and just a little slippery. I opted not to wear crampons or spikes, which in hindsight I regret, because, while the trek up was fine without them, the opposite was true coming down.
I set out from the parking lot at about 8 am, and at that time, there were about 10 or so others there. It was a cold morning, temps in the mid-’30s.
It wasn’t long before I saw more snow and frozen ground, about an hour into the hike, when I reached the former Halfway House site.
On the ascent, I came up behind two other hikers but other than that, I had the trail to myself that day. The final push to the summit from the Halfway House site became icy due to water melt from some earlier snow we received in the northeast. Not difficult to navigate around the ice, though I did take a spill avoiding ice and tripping over an exposed root.
Halfway House Site
The Halfway House location is named after the original structure (an Inn) was built literally halfway up the mountain. So from this point, you know you are 50% to the top; you can make out the peak in the picture above.
When hiking Mount Monadnock, I typically take the Parker Trail to Toll Road to White Arrow to the top and then White Dot trail down, which creates a sort of loop instead of doing an out and back hike. The White Arrow trail sees much less traffic in the summer months because most people will hike the White Cross trail up since it’s the main trail from the parking area.
Hiking Mount Monadnock is not easy the closer to the top you get, especially on the white arrow trail. Surprisingly, this mountain is the third most climbed in the entire world, with 125,000 people hiking it each year. Monadnock is second to only Mount Fuji and Mount Tai for the annual number of hikers.
The final push to the summit is where you see the most vertical gain on this hike. It’s here that I noticed the temperature drop a few degrees, especially at the expose “false peak” you come upon at Monadnock. Personally, I think the view from here is just as great as those from the actual summit.
Final Push To The Summit
The final four or five-tenths of a mile of this hike actually becomes technical, at least when approaching from the south slope as I did. I saw more people when coming to this section; they were coming down and having a hard time because everything at this altitude was frosted over and quite slippery. On more than one occasion, I had to use both hands for grip to pull myself up the final few yards.
The slippery nature of the rocks at this point of the hike was enough to make me fully aware of my feet placements. With all this going on, I could not help notice at that moment how beautiful everything looks with the frost on it. Here are some of my favorite photos from where I stood just south of the summit.
Frost Near The Top of Mount Monadnock
Final Thoughts Hiking Mount Monadnock
I have hiked this mountain 5 or 6 times and always in the warmer months, which means I have never stood on the top of this mountain alone until this time.
It was a special moment, and I stood there baking it into my memory for a while (you can see the joy on my face in this pic). Eventually, the two guys I passed back near the Halfway House joined me at the summit, and then there were 3.
For those who have hiked Monadnock, it’s possible you missed all the engravings the are all over the rocks directly at the top of the mountain. I know I did. The frost made all the hiker carvings really pop out of the rocks, and there was no way not to notice them.
I did some reading and learned that the oldest name/initials carving at the top is “S. Dakin, 1801” and is attributed to a local town clerk (Wikipedia). I didn’t know this at the time; otherwise, I would have tried to locate it. Here’s an example:
All in all, this was a very memorable hike, considering it’s one I have done many times in the past. If you don’t typically think about going for a hike in the colder months, I recommend checking it out. There are fewer people, the technical components of the hike change, and the views are different. For me, hiking Monadnock in December made it a different hike altogether from what I experience in May or August. Oh, and no bugs in the winter!
Hope you enjoyed this recap of my experience. Here is a video to help me wrap it all up.
