MOUNT LAFAYETTE - We hiked on packed snow inside thick gray clouds for most of the morning. At around 5,000 feet elevation, the milky fog brightened for a moment, then the clouds suddenly parted to reveal the entire mountain.
Far below, ski trails across Franconia Notch looked like white scuffs down the flank of neighboring Cannon Mountain.
Just above us, the peak of Lafayette, at 5,260 feet, lay up a trail of blown snow, deep drifts, blue ice, and bare rock.
After giving us time for a few photographs, the hole in the clouds quickly closed, and my wife, Jennifer, and I were back in the mist.
Lafayette is an old friend I’ve summited many times in summer and fall, usually in a conga line of other hikers. The 9-mile loop hike on part of the Franconia Ridge Trail, over the tops of Mounts Lafayette, Lincoln (5,089 feet), and Little Haystack (4,780) is one of the most popular day hikes in New England.
But in winter conditions - this was the last weekend in November - Lafayette was mostly abandoned, and the up-and-back slog to its summit presented all the risks and thrills of winter hiking in the alpine zone.
Winter mountain climbing is not for everybody. There’s plenty not to like about it: icicles on your eyebrows, stepping into snow drifts and sinking to your zipper (known as post-holing because your leg leaves a hole you could plant a post in), extreme wind chills above treeline, and hydration bladders clogged by ice. After a few hours in your backpack an energy bar can be too stiff to eat.
And there is more danger in winter. In March 2004, an Andover woman died on Lafayette after taking a wrong turn in bad weather on what was supposed to be a day hike.
“The edge you’re balancing survival on is a little bit tighter in the winter,’’ says Bob Manley, 45, a photographer and experienced winter hiker from Sanbornton, near Lake Winnipesaukee.
The risk associated with winter mountain hiking, which can be reduced by proper planning, though never entirely eliminated, is part of the appeal. The winter makes everything more difficult. It can turn an old friend like Lafayette into a challenging climb, through scenery that is unrecognizable.
“It’s just spectacular some of the things snow and ice will do when blowing around the top of a mountain,’’ says Manley. “There are times when it’s like being literally on another planet. The conditions are so harsh and so violent and so strange and unfamiliar, and the gear you have on to protect yourself from those violent conditions is akin to a space suit.’’