Month: March 2022

Mount Waumbek, February 4, 2022

There’s something primal and ancient about snowshoeing. You hear and feel the crunch of snow under your feet and the sensation courses up through your body and engages all your senses. Every snowshoe step is intentional and takes thought and effort. Just the act of walking is a mindful exercise.

Snowshoeing has been around for some 6,000 years. Though today’s snowshoes are made of lighter, hardier material than the old wooden slabs, the act of snowshoeing remains remarkably similar to how it has been practiced for its entire history.

I was appreciating this history and the fundamental nature of snowshoeing as I plodded up Mount Waumbek a month ago. It was a weekend plan, February 4-5, to snowshoe a couple of New Hampshire’s 4,000-footers (Mount Waumbek qualifies at 4,006 feet) with my friend Kevin. Mount Cabot (4,167) was slated for Sunday.

A widespread snowstorm had just dumped a blanket of the stuff across New England and temperatures remained stubbornly below zero.

The Waumbek climb was gradual and moderate. We hit the trail at noon after my morning drive up from the Valley.

Temperatures hovered around zero and a consistent wind well below, but we sweated our way up the mountain exerting with every step. Thankfully, a couple of snowshoers had preceded our hike earlier in the day and broke trail for us, making the passage much easier.

The view atop Waumbek were spectacular dressed in mid-winter snow and ice. While the Mount Waumbek peak isn’t bare, the trees thin out to a point of providing vast, open views across the northern New Hampshire valleys, across to the Presidential Range on one side and Franconia Ridge to the southeast.

Waumbek is an up-and-back hike and the cold didn’t allow a long respite at the top. We descended at a fast pace stoked for a night’s rest and another hike tomorrow.

Mount Cabot, February 5, 2022

Mount Cabot, Kevin informed me, is often one of the last trails climbed by those who endeavor to hike all of the 48 4,000-footers. It’s an isolated trail, as we found out when we turned off the main road and drove five miles deep into the woods on a snow-covered gravel road.

“Temperature: 12 below zero,” Kevin announced when we parked near the trailhead. We would need to get moving to generate warmth.

After a couple hours of steep climbing, his information about Mount Cabot was proved spot-on. We were enjoying the summit and its rustic hiker cabin when we met another pair of snowshoers just reaching the top.

“That’s number 48,” exclaimed a woman as she set foot on the snowy summit, announcing her completion of the state’s high peaks, all hiked in winter. Mount Cabot was indeed her final peak.

Every time I hike up and back down a New Hampshire peak, no matter the season, I always leave with determination to return again soon. Inevitably, too much time passes between the last one and the next. And it’s happened again. I’m due to return to the high peaks of the White Mountains.

Night Snowshoe, Arcadia Wildlife Preserve, February 25, 2022

Finally, on February 25, we got a real snowstorm in the Valley, though not what was predicted. Still, a fresh coat of 4-5 inches blanketed the forest floor and beckoned a snowshoe outing.

It was a Friday, so following a day of work, my friend Karen and I donned snowshoes, headlamps and poles and headed through my backyard into the darkness of Arcadia Wildlife Preserve.

Night snowshoeing is its own special category of adventure. The crunch of snow still accompanies every step, but you navigate by the singular beam cast by a headlamp, slipping through shadows and the blackness of tree cover and night sky.

The trails of Arcadia are familiar to me after five years of living next to them. But at night, in the snow, they take on a different, more mysterious, ambience. I lose my familiarity and at times have to stop and decipher where I am. It adds a dose of excitement and discovery to the adventure.

This night snowshoe was about 3.5 miles, through the woods to a circular trail deep in the forest where the carcass of a 1930s-era truck remains. How it got there I have no idea. In the night snow the old truck sat forlorn, barely recognizable as a once-useful vehicle. The ghost of a driver behind the intact steering wheel could be sensed in the haze of the dark.

A night snowshoe through Arcadia out my backyard has become an annual pilgrimage. Already looking forward to next year’s.

When it’s time to strike out on adventure, which holds more benefit, going it alone or having a partner or multiple companions?

A solo adventure can be exciting and scary in a way group adventures are not. You might find yourself completely alone and isolated, subject to the whims of nature with no one to get you through except yourself. That can also have advantages.

Alternatively, adventure with others could compromise the outing beyond your acceptance, having to appease others’ tastes and comfort levels, or go at a pace not to your liking. Companionship on an adventure doesn’t guarantee safety either. Sometimes, depending on who you’re adventuring with, it could be a detriment to your safety.

Whether it’s better to go it alone or with others depends a lot on the particular adventure. There are some activities that simply require more than one person. If you’re rock climbing up a sheer face using ropes and harnesses, you’ll need at least one partner to be able to belay each other. Skydiving, scuba diving, heli-skiing and canoeing are other examples of activities better done with at least one partner.

But there are times when striking out on your own is exactly what’s needed. When uninterrupted contemplation is what’s called for. A solitary hike through the woods. A night camping in the desert. Fishing. A road trip.

It Depends

In other words, the answer to whether it’s better to adventure solo or together is the same answer given to so many of life’s questions: it depends.

It depends on the adventure and the activity. It depends on your mood and what you need from it. It depends on the specific people involved and whether they are good adventure companions or not. The weather, the time of day, your location, the cost.

All of these factors will have bearing on whether to go it alone or not.

Still, amid this salad of dependent factors, some generalities exist. In general, there are advantages and disadvantages across the board of solo adventure versus group adventure.

Here is a breakdown of some of the benefits and drawbacks of both scenarios.

Solo Adventuring – Pros

1. Your Own Pace. When you adventure by yourself, you are the only one you have to keep up with. Go slow when you need to, go fast when it feels right and you won’t have to wait for anyone to catch up.
2. Inner Reflection. There’s nothing better than solo adventure for looking deep inside and getting to know your interior self. When you go solo, there’s no one there to interrupt your self-exploration.
3. Meet Different People. When you’re alone, you attract different people out on the trail, the road or the water. Some adventurers are more likely to approach a lone person than they are a duo or group. Often, those are the more interesting ones!
4. Go When You Want, Where You Want. No arguing over which course is better. No debating which attractions to see. When you adventure on your own, the plan is all yours, no compromising, only what you want to do when you want to do it.

Solo Adventuring – Cons

1. Loneliness. The number one drawback of solo adventure. No one to talk with, no one to share with, no one to witness your accomplishments. For some people, their own company gets old fast. For them, not having someone else along can drive them crazy.
2. More Danger. In the unfortunate event something bad happens – a sprained ankle, a broken arm or toe, hypo or hyperthermia – you have no one to assist, or, in extreme cases, go for help. Especially when attempting risky endeavors, it’s safest to go with a partner or partners.
3. No One to Push You. Studies show when people exercise in groups, they exercise harder and release more endorphins as a result. That’s partly because it takes on a performative and competitive aspect when others are present. You are incentivized to push yourself harder, if only to impress other people.
4. More Expensive. When you go it alone, you shoulder the entire cost of an adventure. That means paying for single rooms or campsites, all the gas and meals. Sharing the costs of overnight accommodations, gas and food can cut down substantially on the adventure price tag.

Adventuring with Others – Pros

1. Company and Conversation. Conversation makes the time go by faster. It’s also a good barometer of how hard you’re exerting. If you’re on your way up a steep climb, it’s best to set a pace at which you’re able to carry on a conversation without running out of breath.
2. It’s Safer. See above. Depending on the risk of the adventure, going with someone else as opposed to alone increases the safety margin considerably.
3. Distribution of Weight/Chores/Work. If you’re hiking, biking, paddling or ski-camping, being with others allows the opportunity to spread some weight around, even out the loads you’re carrying, or taking shifts between light and heavy carrying, extending your endurance.
4. Accountability. If you have an adventure or distance goal you want to attain, you’re more likely to reach it if you attempt it with others. It’s much harder to give up on a goal when you will affect someone else by doing so, and just the act of announcing your plan strengthens your volition.

Adventuring with Others – Cons

1. No solitude. See above. If it’s solitude and quiet reflection you’re after on the day you’re venturing into nature, it can be difficult to get that in the company of a companion. However, it can be done.
2. Someone Else’s Pace. When you adventure in a group, or even with one other person, you will move at the pace of the slowest person. If that happens to be you, you might feel pressure to push yourself faster than your comfort level.
3. No Sense of Discovery. One of the joys of solo adventure is the feeling of discovering something – a path or a way through – for the first time, a route that no one else has taken. If you’re with other people, you lose that sense, that you are the first one to go this way.
4. May be Harder to Meet People. When you’re with other people, especially if engaged in conversation, it can signal fellow adventurers not to stop, to keep on moving. But this depends on the adventurer; some are more likely to approach solo travelers, others to strike up conversation with a couple or a group.

Just Go

As you can see, adventure alone or adventure together, they both have their ups and downs. Which is better depends on several factors, including your mood and what you want out of it.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that much whether you go by yourself or with others. The main thing is to go, to get out and discover. Take the adventure.