Do these warm springtime days in Boston fill you with dread? Do the runners by the Charles in their short shorts make you yearn for frigid summits? Do you hate being able to feel your fingers, toes, and nose all at the same time?

Come camp with us on top of a mountain!

**Cold and suffering is not guaranteed. Offer not valid for all possible weather forecasts. Side effects may include: questioning your life choices, frozen water bottles, a poor night sleep, and the satisfaction of drinking coffee above the clouds at sunrise.

We’ll be heading up to the fire tower on top of North Kearsarge. We’ll try and sleep in the tower itself but may have to switch to a backup option if another group is already there. The hike is fairly short ~3 miles each way, but quite steep covering over 2500 ft!

You can see the route and some pictures here: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/new-hampshire/mount-kearsarge-north--2

We will aim to leave Boston around 10am Saturday and arrive at the trailhead by 2pm. We'll make our way up to the Kearsarge Fire Tower (hopefully) in time to enjoy sunset and then make dinner, hang out, watch the stars, and philosophize. If nobody else is at the fire tower, we'll be able to sleep in it, otherwise We may camp somewhere else that isn't within 0.25 miles of the fire tower. There is a forest protection area around the tower itself so we may have to hike back to the cars and stay elsewhere if the tower is full.

We’ll have a chance to practice melting snow for water (trickier than you think!), cooking on stoves, staying warm overnight, and hopefully catch a nice sunrise from the summit in the morning. We’ll aim to head out soon after sunrise and get back to the trailhead by before 10am.

Note that this is a relatively rugged trip: there are no facilities, tent platforms, running water, cooking areas, or outhouses at Kearsarge. If you're looking for a glamping adventure, you'll have to stay tuned for future trips when the weather is warmer. However, if you've been curious about trying out backpacking or other longer outdoor trips, this is a great chance to practice some core skills and test your fitness, equipment, pack loadout, etc.

Prerequisites: You should have experience camping including setting up and sleeping in a tent at least once before. You should also have gone on at least 1 previous winter hike and feel comfortable carrying a 30-50lb bag for 3 miles up a steep, potentially icy hill.

We will have a mandatory pre-trip meeting Thursday likely around 6 or 7pm at the MITOC office so you can rent gear during office hours if you need any. You should ideally only sign up if you can make the pre-trip meeting. We will be reviewing participant experience to make sure it aligns with the trip difficulty, so the more thorough you are about your previous camping and hiking experience, the more confident we can be that you're a good fit. We'll start out with three participants and may consider expanding depending on participant experience and cars, but tbd.