Last weekend I headed up to the whites to get another taste of real winter. This time I met up with a friend of mine and we got an early start on Mt. Carrigan. The first couple miles of the hike were along a road which is closed through the winter. The road climbed gently but steadily up into the valley. As it turns out, this really set the theme for the hike, and the gradual slope just about continued all the way to the summit. The climb was long and steady, and with the mild temperatures we had no trouble staying warm. At last we crested the ridge and got our first glimpse of the summit. The view from that exposed ridge was quite nice, even though the weather hid some of the more distant peaks.
Perhaps the strangest part of the view from this ridge was how little wind there was. It was actually quite peaceful to stand there and take in the views. After taking some photos we continued up to the summit and climbed the observation tower. This turned out to be where the wind was hiding, so we started back down relatively quickly. As we descended the weather slowly improved, and we were even treated to a touch of blue sky by the time we were navigating the river crossings back at the start of the trail.
All told the hike was 14 miles, with nearly 4000′ of elevation gain. We hiked out without incident and made our way back down south to get some well deserved pizza.
