You know what is both a great and terrible idea? Climbing a 4459′ mountain to watch the sun rise. On the one hand, you are guaranteed to get an unobstructed view of the horizon. On the other hand, you need to get up at 3:30 AM to leave enough time to get to the trail head and climb to the summit before the sun is up. Despite the early wake up though, I enjoyed it the whole time. It started off bitterly cold (-3 degrees Fahrenheit) from the trail head. It didn’t take long though for the trail to start heading up hill and I quickly warmed up a bit. The trail was pretty much straight up the hill, so it was just steady climbing for 3 hours to get to the ridge and my first glimpse of the pre-dawn sky.
From there is was just a short walk up to the summit itself. I quickly discovered that I had gotten extremely lucky, because even though it was only about 5 or 10 degrees out, there was no wind. As a result I was able to get set up right on the summit rock and take my time capturing the early light as it started to spill over the ridges around me.
The first view I took in was looking up the ridge to Mt. Lafayette. It hung over me as I climbed the last half mile to the summit, and was the closest peak around. It was neat to watch it change color, gain new shadows, and start to really glow in the morning light as the sun came up.
The second area to catch my attention was the view out to the west. Given how steep the descent back into Franconia Notch is, the mountains on the other side look so close, but also so separate from Mt. Liberty. The view was divided into two groups, with Mt. Moosilauke on the left, and the Kinsman and Cannon range on the right.
The most spectacular views though had to be to the east, where the rising sun created an incredible contrast between the dark and shadowed valleys, with the warm sun climbing into the sky. There were no clouds to light up, but seeing the ridges, snow, and rocks glowing with the first light was enough for me.
After spending a half an hour running around the summit with my camera, I took some time to appreciate the solitude and quiet of this place. The combination of the still air, piercing sun, and snow all around really made it feel like I had the entire mountain to myself. It made the early start completely worth it. Unfortunately, it had to come to an end at some point though, and I soon started back down the mountain. It was a quick and relatively easy descent with a mix of fast hiking and a bit of glissading. I started to pass more and more people the lower I got on the mountain, end even got a few puzzled looks as they thought about the timing of my descent.
Once I arrived at the trail head again it was back to our cabin for the morning to catch up on my sleep and relax for the day. We went out again in the afternoon for another hike and also went into town for a nice dinner again. Always a glutton for punishment though, I decided to head back out for a couple of photos of the stars at the Old Man of the Mountain historical site. Let’s just say I didn’t get up very early the next morning.
