A superlative hillstomp last week up Mt. Waumbek, one of New Hampshire’s 48, 4,000-footers. This was number 43 for me–five more to go and I’ll have bagged ’em all. Then I can die.

Even though it was still October, we got an early foretaste of winter as we hit snow less than a mile into the hike. At the summit and ridge, we were hiking in about 5″ of fresh snow and the temp dropped into the mid 20’s. We were hiking in our summer hiking boots and didn’t carry any special winter gear other than knee-high gaiters, but we stayed warm…as long as we kept moving. Check out all the pics from this excellent hike here.