Come isolate with us

Leaders
Bjorn Poonen (B), Jason Jong (C)
WIMP
Andrew Fasano (he/him)
Program
Winter (outside IAP)
Type
Hiking
Terrain level
B
Trip date
Sunday, February 27th, 2022
Difficulty rating
Advanced
Prerequisites
Physical condition for a hike of this length, and winter hiking experience.

Ordinarily, Mt. Isolation is difficult to reach because it is deep in the Presidential Range-Dry River Wilderness and involves five potentially difficult stream crossings. But by exploiting two bushwhacks, we can shorten the trip by 4 miles and avoid unnecessary crossings and unnecessary ups and downs! Mt. Isolation is a NH 4000-footer with a panoramic view of Mt. Washington and the Southern Presidentials. The forecast currently predicts 8-9 inches of new snow Friday, so following the bushwhack paths and even the official paths may be a challenge if they are not broken out - we may have a chance to practice our map and compass skills (or our cheat-with-GPS skills). Part of the second bushwhack has deep snow requiring snowshoes.

Hike: 10.6 miles, 3000 ft. elevation gain. Approximate route: https://caltopo.com/m/F4RVL

Our required pre-trip meeting will be Thursday at 7pm at the MIT Student Center, and you can rent snowshoes and other gear there.

We’ll leave Cambridge early Sunday morning and stop for a quick breakfast along the way.

We can discuss on Thursday whether we want to hike on Saturday instead of Sunday. On Saturday the weather may be sunnier, but it is more likely that the trail will not have been broken out after the Friday snow.


Signup

Algorithm
first-come, first-serve
Maximum participants
8
Signups opened at
Feb. 22, 2022, 9:10 p.m.
Signups closed at
Feb. 24, 2022, noon
Notes
  1. What is the longest hike you have done, in any season, during the past year?
  2. What winter hiking experience do you have?
  3. What kind of exercise do you do regularly?
  4. Which of Saturday and/or Sunday are possible for you?
Signups for this trip are closed.