Southern Presidentials- Pierce, Eisenhower, Franklin

Set out from Crawford Path parking lot on Saturday afternoon, late. The first half to 3/4 mile is wet and rocky. The Fallsa re beautiful and flowing nicely. The ice and snow start on the climb up towards Mitzpah Cutoff and its a monorail of quickly loosening packed snow about 2 feet deep in spots. After Mitzpah Cutoff is just a matter of slogging up to Mitzpah Hut. We arrived to find the Hut open. Nauman tentsite had platforms with 2-3 feet of snow and ice. We got shovels and had to dig out a spot for the tent. There was some pretty thick ice. So we cooked dinner and had some time to just hang out but it got chilly so we got Grayson ready for his first night in the tent. We prepared for barking and restlessness. As soon as he crawled in, he went right to sleep and slept through the night. He loved sleeping next to us! I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and the stars were incredible. What a gorgeous night.
We woke up about 5:30 am and had a great breakfast. We had to fuel up for being above treeline. Grayson ate really well too. The climb out of Mitzpah was a sluggish snowy mess. Once we came out above treeline the temps rose. We kept taking off and puting on microspikes as there was still deep snow in between the summits. The views were amazing so Ill just let the pics speak for the rest of the blog. We did see folsk without traction turning around at about 3000 feet. Traction will probably be necessary for the next month for above 3000 feet, especially on the Presidential's.

Crossing the bridge on Crawford Path

Grayson hitting the trail

The monorail

Before pic of tentpad at Nauman

After pic Nauman

Morning coffee

Ready for some hikin

Taking it all in

Close to the summit of Mt Pierce 

Team ChacoPak on Mt Pierce

The AT along the Southern Presidential Range

Eisenhower in front, Washington in back

Franklin, Monroe and Washington

Looking south towards Pierce

Mt Eisenhower Summit

Mt Franklin looking towards Monroe and Washington

Chaco Taco on Mt Franklin