Type 4 Fun!

One of the ways I am planning to prepare for my marquee event of the year, Ultra Pirineau 100k in October, is this wildly dumb plan to climb a whole bunch of mountains!

The White Mountains of New Hampshire feature 8 huts and 2 visitor centers maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club. These huts are really terrific. You can book them for overnight stays, they provide food for purchase, water, and great views. Additionally, AMC runs shuttles throughout the area to help hikers get from trailheads to trailheads. It’s really fantastic and so I’ve decided to do all of it.

My traverse will not be for speed. There is a designated route for a Hut 2 Hut traverse with a fastest known time that Jack Kuenzle set in 2021, finishing the traverse in under 10 hours. I won’t be attempting to beat that, nor will I even be running that particular route. The FKT route follows the huts exclusively and in the shortest route possible, which is still a hefty 45.25 miles with over 16,000 ft of gain. My modified route will have designated start and finish locations as well as deviate from the shortest distance in order to capture a few extra peaks along the way, including the tallest peak in the Whites, Mt. Washington. This will add over 10 miles to original FKT route as well as bumping that vertical gain to nearly 24,000 ft.

I will start in the very early hours of the morning from the Lafayette Place Campground where I will staying for the weekend. I’ll reach Lonesome Lake Hut first and from there I’ll complete a loop around the titular lake before heading back to the campground.

My first deviation will be at the Galehead Hut where I’ll summit Galehead before moving on to the Zealand Hut. The next stop is the Highland Center but before reaching it I will take the opportunity to summit Mt. Tom, the northwest summit of Mt. Field, and Mt. Avalon. After Highland Center and the Mitzpah Spring Hut is the Lake of the Clouds Hut – which I simply can not stop referring to as the Land ‘O Lakes Hut in my head because my brain is broken. I will make sure to not miss the Mt. Monroe West peak before deviating once more to summit Mt. Washington.

After Mt. Washington, there are only three more stops to go. The first is the Madison Spring Hut with the Carter Notch Hut to follow. In between these two huts is the highway, meaning a long descent from the mountains to a short jaunt along the highway before climbing back into the mountains.

I’ll take the Carter Dome trail to Mt. Hight and Carter Dome before reaching the Carter Notch Hut. With that comes the homestretch, a descent into the Pinkham Notch visitor center where hopefully I will be able to get a rid back to camp!

I’m in still in the early stages of planning, so there will be more details to come. I’m still figuring out an exact timeframe and what a goal completion time will be, as well as researching and considering all the clothes, gear and nutrition I’ll need to bring.

That highlights an additional challenge that will be new to me. I have never done a self supported adventure of this scale before and have always been able to rely on aid stations to have water and additional nutrition to get me through the day. Maintaining in-range blood glucose will be an important contribution to the success or failure of this adventure.

I’m really going to need to dial it in and be able to carry everything that I will need as there will only be a few opportunities for resupply at the huts. Water will be available at the huts 24/7 but the snacks for purchase will only be available for a short window. Part of the logistics of this mission will be to time my start and calculate a pace to maximize the number of huts I can reach during these open hours.

This is a really ambitious undertaking that I am super stoked about, so stay tuned!