Mt WA - Big Wall route - Washington, United States

Another beautiful weekend in the Northwest! Went up to the Mt Washington trail again. Easy to get to, nice trailhead and you can get to snow (currently) in 2 miles. A great place to play in the snow, snowshoeing, practice with crampons & ice axe, and test out new gear. Since I just climbed Mt Washington a couple weeks ago I tried the Big Wall trail route variation. I was surprised to see no fresh tracks. The trail is a bit more challenging than the Mt WA trail and with no fresh track to follow I was a bit apprehensive. After about an hour one other hiker on snowshoes came up behind me, which was good as just at that point I was trying to determine my location and the route. I could then follow him. I hiked without snow shoes on the way up to practice normal snow/glacier travel where we don’t use snow shoes. However, I did use them on the way down (much faster). Had lunch in a nice cirque around 3,800’. Saw no one else in the cirque.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />