The Krypteia - Mission Complete

18 Miles; 2 Days; Mt. Whiteface & Middle Tripyramid from the Kanc

You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner.
I tend to think of myself as a one man wolfpack.
My wolfpack grew by 5 this weekend.

20 miles looks great on a map, not so much from ground level. Not with 65 lbs strapped to your back and 3000 feet of elevation laughing at you from above the clouds. This past weekend was one of legend, toughest hike I've ever attempted, still can't believe we all survived. My calves look like Popeye's forearms, my feet bottoms look like the meat lovers pizza I violated upon my return.

We had a good start. Jesse was at the house by 730 and we were at Sabbaday Falls by 930, movin on the trail with the rest of the pack by like 1030. Oliverian Brook wasn't really difficult until we reached Square Ledge, and thats where I should have noticed a few things. We weren't making good time at all. Nobody was dogging practice, and we were all moving at a pretty good clip, but the elevation was bearing down on us like the midgets attached to our backs. All of us had way too much weight in our bags, and I had planned this trip with a dayhikers brain, looking at stats and fun peaks to climb, not really leaving room for error or forgiveness. We reached the junction with the Dicey's Mill trail and decided Passaconaway was not in the cards if we wanted to camp with any daylight. After a quick fill up at a stream not on the map we crossed onto the Rollins trail towards Whiteface. The Rollins trail turned out to be a rollercoaster ride, killing morale and momentum with every decline. Finally passing the stack of rocks at the Whiteface summit, light was getting scarce. We reached the Kate sleeper with barely any light, set up tents, built a fire, and drank some well deserved whiskey after a long day.

SVEA!

After a night of ski slope dreams and warm snuggling we awoke to a good breakfast and some java. After Saturday we were full of confidence, we knew we drank and ate a good few lbs off our backs, and we all thought most of the elevation was behind us. We were dead wrong. Kate Sleeper was a mistress of pain that sunday morning, a one-two punch we weren't prepared for, South Mid finishing up an already tired crew around noontime.The Sleeper trail meets the mids near the top of the south slide, giving the first real open outlook of the weekend. Mt. Welch & Dickey is a favorite dayhike of mine, and those two mountains looked like ants from where we stood, Waterville valley stretched out in front of us. At this point the sun was up, and those packs weren't really as light as we had predicted. Day2 with those packs felt like bears instead of midgets, straps tearing into flesh like nothing I've ever experienced. We pushed ourselves over Middle Tripyramid, but we all knew North mid wasn't going to happen this day. A camping trip had turned into a quest, and a waterfall was nearly in our grasp.

click if you like em big

First we had to conquer Sabbaday herself, but she wouldn't go down without a fight. Those last few miles were the longest, dehydrated and out of water since Middle Tripyramid. By the time we hit Sabbaday we were all ready to go home, but that last 4.9 was a true endurance test. My knee brace wasn't taking the edge off the Sabbaday, and when we finally found that first bit of running water I collapsed. The rest of the trip to the falls slogged along like the Battan deathmarch, and the forest just wouldn't let us go. That sign saying you cant swim 500 feet near the falls would've been firewood had I the energy for it, but I probably would've drowned had I tried to swim, all for the best I suppose. Got to the car about 7, ManchVegas about 9, humble, tired, and hungry. After a rumble in the jungle I was a sad Joe Frazier.
Mountains 1; Erick 0.