Piercing Eisenhower
- Leaders
- Aoife Troxel (B coC), Blox Bloxie Bloxham (C I S n’t)
- Program
- Winter School
- Type
- Hiking
- Terrain level
- C
- Trip date
- Sunday, January 11th
- Difficulty rating
- L3/ Moderate+
- Prerequisites
- Prior winter hiking experience, recent hiking experience of at least 8 miles long and with 3000' elevation gain
We'll be hiking Mount Pierce (4,310') and Mount Eisenhower (4,760') via the Crawford Path. Both Presidentials have exposed summits and the potential for great views.
8.6 miles and 3300' elevation gain. The trail is smooth and rises steadily, but conditions may be variable following mixed precipitation Saturday and another overnight freeze. We'll likely be using multiple types of traction (snowshoes and microspikes).
We will be above treeline briefly on Pierce and again for a significant amount of time on Eisenhower. Everyone will need a FULL FACE COVERING (goggles and balaclava or other lower-face covering with no gaps). We will check face coverings at the pretrip meeting, please make sure you are able to bring yours. Let us know if you have any question about your experience and readiness!
This trip will have a mandatory pre-trip meeting at 6:00pm on Thursday (before the safety lecture) somewhere outside the MITOC Office (W20-461).
Signup
- Algorithm
- first-come, first-serve
- Maximum participants
- 5
- Signups opened at
- Jan. 7, 2026, noon
- Signups close at
- Jan. 8, 2026, 11:59 p.m.
- Notes
- Have you done a winter hike of at least 8 miles and 3000' elevation gain in the past year? If not, what's the longest you've done? (Note this hike will be slightly longer and have more elevation gain than that and have difficult trail conditions, so you should be ready for something a little more.)
- Do you have a full-face covering system that you're confident in? (We can help you fine-tune!)
- Do you have a car and are you willing to drive others from Cambridge? (Please also update your lottery preferences as such).