Are you tired of waking up at 4am to hike in the White Mountains? Join us late risers on the classic Franconia Ridge Loop. Unfortunately, because we’ll be starting our hike in the afternoon, and sunset is early, we’ll have to run.

(We’re flying in from San Francisco the night before this trip, and we’ll die if we try to wake up at 4am EST.)

The plan

Our goal is to run Franconia Ridge (~ 9 mi, 4,000 ft of vert, significant above-treeline travel) with an elapsed time of 3 hours. For comparison, a typical MITOC hike of the ridge is 7.5 hours long.

Concretely, we’ll power-hike up to Little Haystack (~3 mph, ~3000 ft. of gain), slow-jog along the ridge (~3.5 mph, ~1000 ft. of gain), and then jog down from Lafayette (~4-5 mph). We won’t stop to eat food (eat while moving), and will aim to take only short breaks (~1 minute) as necessary (drinking water, adjusting gear, bio breaks). Eating while moving can be a bit tricky; we’ll allow ourselves to slow down slightly while eating as necessary.

Prerequisites

To make sure this trip is a good fit for everyone who attends, we will ask everyone who wants to join to email us and describe their winter hiking / running experience.

We don’t have strict/inflexible prerequisites for this trip. Here are some things that would make us very confident that you’d have fun on this trip:

• Have done ≥ 2 hikes above treeline (i.e., MITOC C-level) in the winter — so we know you are comfortable in harsh above-treeline winter conditions
• Have done ≥ 5 winter hikes or trail runs overall — so we know you can self-manage your clothing and food/water intake in a variety of winter conditions with ease
• Have hiked/ran up ≥ 3K of elevation gain in less than 90 minutes elapsed time — so we know you know what it’s like to be moving fast
• Have done a trail run ≥ 5 miles at a pace at least as fast as 13 min/mi — so we know you can move efficiently over tricky terrain
• Are currently in good shape

Safety

This trip is subject to the same safety rules as a MITOC hike. As a group, we will carry all the required gear for C–level trips, and as individuals, you should carry gear to be comfortable hiking (in case there is an issue and we need to slow down from our running pace to a hiking pace) above treeline.

Because we’ll be carrying all this gear, we’ll be power-hiking and jogging, rather than running (where a typical pace might be 5-7 mph).

Logistics

There will be a required pre-trip meeting at 6:30pm on Thursday (1/30) to review gear and logistics, in the student center. We’ll send details by email after the lottery runs about exactly where to meet.

We will need a couple drivers for this trip! Please update your car status if you can drive (put "willing to rent" if you can rent — MIT provides discounted car rental, and we'll evenly split rental/gas costs).

Contingency plans

We’ll look at the weather forecast on the Tuesday night (1/28) before the lottery runs and make adjustments to the plan if necessary.

• If it’s too cold: if the windchill is < -20°F, we might switch to a fast hike (e.g., aiming for a 4 or 5-hour time) and start a bit earlier in the day.
• If it snows on Saturday: if we’re going to be breaking trail in deep powder, we might switch to a snowshoe power-hike (e.g., aiming for a 4 or 5-hour time) and start a bit earlier in the day.
• If it is going to snow on Sunday: if it seems too dangerous to drive, we’ll cancel/reschedule.