Mt. Tripyramid 8/10/13

Mt. Tripyramid is a loop hike of 11 miles over three 4,000 foot mountains.  North Tripyramid and Middle Tripyramid each qualify for the list of 48 in the Waterville Valley area.  The AMC book time for this hike is 7 hours.  I had done this hike in the past and knew that the highlight of the hike was the North Slide Trail for the challenging climb and mountain views.

I met up with Kyle at the park and ride in Hudson for 5:00 and we arrived at the Livermore Road trail head parking area just past 7:00.  When we got there, a group of AMC hikers and a couple other hikers were already taking off for the trail.  Once we prepped our packs, we were off and hit the trail at about 7:20.  As we headed up Livermore Road there were side trails to "The Big Pines", "The Kettles" and "Norway Rapids" which we decided to hit on the way down. I was expecting the road to be boring, but trying to catch and eventually passing the AMC group made it interesting and at 8:35 we hit the trail junction for the North Slide Trail. 3.6 miles in 1:15 minutes with an elevation gain of 1,200 feet!

The beginning of the North Slide trail was wooded, overgrown and very wet because it had down poured the day before.  When we hit the actual North slide, the granite slabs were still wet and the lichen growing on them made for some very slick footing.  We both had to grab handholds in the slabs or use trees to pull ourselves up and maneuver through this part of the trail.  We climbed following different routes and both found ourselves in tricky spots to get by and either had to take a giant step up, sidestep or drop down a couple of steps and reroute.  When we got past the wet area, the trail opened up and we felt the 40 mph wind gusts predicted by the morning weather report. Even though the wind felt chilly at times, it made for some dry and gripping hiking conditions on the slabs. The views on the slide were just as awesome as I remember them.

Kyle making his way up the beginning of the slick north slide.

View of Mt. Osceola from the north slide.

Kyle boulder hopping to the heavens.

Looking down the slide.

I tried to capture the angle of the climb in this picture.

Kyle maneuvering around the slab section of the slide.

Looking down from the top of the slide.

Me on the top of the slide with Mt. Osceola behind me.

Once we took in our last view from the North slide, we headed over to North Tripyramid stopped to eat a snack and then headed over to the Middle and South Peaks.  The peaks were wooded and only offered a few view points.  But when we reached the South Slide the views were back.

A portion of the trail up on North Tripyramid.

Looking towards Mt. Pasasconway and Mt. Chocura in the distance from Middle Tripyramid.

A view towards Waterville Valley ski area / Mt. Tecumseh from the South Peak.

I busted out the hiking poles for the climb down the south slide trail.  Big steps off of boulders were needed at the top of the trail and it turned into smaller rocks and scree towards the bottom.  Climbing down the boulders were knee busters, but the scree made for some very welcoming soft footing.  When we got past the slide and back into the woods, the trail was fast leading into the junction of Livermore Road.  We flew down Livermore Road again and ran into a group of about 30 people who were standing in front of the Norway Cascades trail head.  It seemed that they had just visited them, but we didn't feel like dealing with a crowd of people if they hadn't.  We decided to bypass the Kettles side trail because it would be 0.8 miles and our legs were feeling a little weary at this point.  When we finally hit the "Big Pines" we went in to take a look.  They were big!  And there was a path which led to a river behind them.  Someone had built a bunch of little cairns along the embankment of the river.  I stopped to fill my water bottle with my good 'ole filtration pump while Kyle laid on his backpack and soaked up some rays.

A view of Sandwich Mt (left) and Welch & Dickey Mts. (right) from a vista point on the south slide.

Looking up to the bouldery descent of the south slide.

More views from the south slide towards Sandwich Mountain.

The Big Pines!

My pack next to one of the big pines for perspective.

Mini cairns on the Mad River bed.

A distant view of north slide as seen from Livermore Road

We got back to the car at about 1:15.  We had hiked 11 miles in about 6 hours not including the breaks we took along the way.  We finished so early that on the ride home I felt a little guilty because we were missing a great afternoon, but Kyle and I finally got a chance to enjoy a burger and beer after a hike at an UNOs in Concord, NH.