1.
Mount Lafayette
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Mount Lafayette is a 5, 249-foot mountain at the northern end of the Franconia Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, United States. It lies in the town of Franconia in Grafton County, the mountains upper reaches are located in the alpine zone, an area where only dwarf vegetation exists due to the harsh climate. Mount Lafayette is the highest point in the Franconia Range, a line of peaks along the east side of Franconia Notch and it is the sixth highest peak in New Hampshire and the highest outside of the Presidential Range. It is the second most prominent peak in the state, on the western side, its lower slopes lie inside Franconia Notch State Park. The remainder of the lies within the White Mountain National Forest. The summit marks the border of the Pemigewasset Wilderness Area within the WMNF. A variety of lead up over 3,000 vertical feet to its exposed summit. The Greenleaf Trail begins at the lot for the Cannon Mountain tramway and ascends to the Appalachian Mountain Clubs Greenleaf Hut. The peak is at the junction of the Garfield Ridge Trail, which follows the ridge northeast to Mount Garfield, and the Franconia Ridge Trail, which leads south to Mounts Lincoln, Liberty, and Flume. Both the Garfield Ridge Trail and the Franconia Ridge Trail form part of the Appalachian Trail, a very popular hike is to make a loop combining the three most notable summits of the Franconia Range. The loop starts with the Old Bridle Path to the AMC Greenleaf Hut, from there, one takes the Greenleaf Trail to the summit of Mt. Lafayette. This loop is 8.9 miles long, with an elevation gain of about 3,900 feet. The mountain is named to honor General Lafayette, a French military hero who fought with and significantly aided the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War
2.
Mountain hut
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A mountain hut is a building located high in the mountains, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organisation dedicated to hiking or mountain recreation, Mountain huts can provide a range of services, starting with shelter and simple sleeping berths. Mountain huts usually allow anybody to access their facilities, although some require reservations, the Swiss Alpine Club has built huts since 1863. In the United States, the Appalachian Mountain Club built its first hut at Madison Spring in New Hampshire in 1888-89, the construction of refuges and shelters in the Alps date back to ancient times, when Roman roads led across the mountain passes. In the High Middle Ages, hospitales were erected along the routes, cottages. The long history of mountaineering from the 19th century onwards has led to a number of Alpine club huts as well as private huts along the mountaineering paths. These huts are categorised according to their location and facilities and they may have beds or a mattress room for overnight stays. Many climbing clubs in the UK have such huts in Snowdonia or in the Lake District, a well-known example is the Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut under the northern crags of Ben Nevis in Scotland - this is a purpose-built hut, high up the mountain. In the Slovakia there is a network of mountain huts in most mountain and forest regions. In the past they were managed by the official tourist union, official mountain huts are similar to guest houses and are run by full-time managers. The Norwegian Trekking Association operates about 460 cabins mostly in the mountains and in forested areas, many cabins are unstaffed and open all year, while the staffed cabins often are just open during summer. In Poland most of mountains shelters and huts are run by PTTK - Polish Tourist Society, only few of shelters belong to private investors. Most of mountains shelters offer only common sleeping rooms and refreshments, Polish mountain huts are obliged by their own regulations to overnight each person who is not able to find any other place before sunset, though the conditions may be tough. The hut shall provide each tourist or hiker with free boiling water for hot drinks, there are many huts in the United States, in the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains and other ranges. There are also many mountain huts throughout Maine, the Alpine Club of Canada operates what it calls the largest network of backcountry huts in North America. The New Zealand Department of Conservation manages a network of over 950 huts of all shapes and sizes, the mountains of Asia do not have a well-developed system of public mountain huts, although hiking, trekking and mountain climbing are common. In 2015, a competition was launched to design huts that could be located along trekking trails of Nepal
3.
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
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The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New England, the range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston and, to a lesser extent, New York City and Montreal. Most of the area is land, including the White Mountain National Forest. Its most famous mountain is 6, 288-foot Mount Washington, which is the highest peak in the Northeastern U. S. Mount Washington is part of a line of summits, the Presidential Range, that are named after U. S. presidents and other prominent Americans. The White Mountains also include the Franconia Range, Sandwich Range, Carter-Moriah Range and Kinsman Range in New Hampshire, in all, there are 48 peaks within New Hampshire as well as one in Maine over 4,000 feet, known as the Four-thousand footers. The Whites are known for a system of alpine huts for hikers operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Appalachian Trail crosses the area from southwest to northeast. It is not clear where the name White Mountains came from, there is no record of what Native Americans called the range, although pre-Colonial names for many individual peaks are known. The name and similar such as White Hills or Wine Hills are found in literature from Colonial times. According to tradition, the mountains were first sighted from shipboard off the coast near the Piscataqua estuary, the highest peaks would often be snow-capped, appearing white. An alternate theory is that the granite of the summits looked white to observers. The White Mountains are a section of the larger New England province. The magma intrusions forming the White Mountains today were created 124 to 100 million years ago as the North American Plate moved westward over the New England hotspot, widespread evidence of glaciation may be seen in the U-shaped form of various notches, or mountain passes. Glacial cirques form the heads of Tuckerman Ravine on Mt. Washington, glacial striations are visible at numerous locations, including on the exposed rocks at the summit of Pine Mountain in Gorham. The Mount Washington Auto Road and the historic Mount Washington Cog Railway ascend the ranges highest peak, heavily visited Arethusa Falls, the second tallest waterfall in New Hampshire, lies on a southwest flank of Crawford Notch. The Old Man of the Mountain, a formation on Cannon Mountain that resembled the craggy profile of a mans face, was a White Mountain landmark until it fell in May 2003. It remains the symbol of New Hampshire. The range also includes a feature dubbed The Basin, consisting of a granite bowl,20 feet in diameter, fed by a waterfall. The areas around The Basin are popular spots for swimming in the ice-cold mountain-fed water, some of the earliest maps of the White Mountains were produced as tourist maps and not topographical maps
4.
New Hampshire
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New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, New Hampshire is the 5th smallest by land area and the 9th least populous of the 50 United States. Concord is the capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state and in northern New England, including Vermont. It has no sales tax, nor is personal income taxed at either the state or local level. The New Hampshire primary is the first primary in the U. S. presidential election cycle and its license plates carry the state motto, Live Free or Die. The states nickname, The Granite State, refers to its extensive granite formations, the state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire by Captain John Mason. New Hampshire is part of the New England region and it is bounded by Quebec, Canada, to the north and northwest, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Massachusetts to the south, and Vermont to the west. New Hampshires major regions are the Great North Woods, the White Mountains, the Lakes Region, the Seacoast, the Merrimack Valley, the Monadnock Region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any U. S. coastal state, New Hampshire was home to the rock formation called the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in Franconia Notch, until the formation disintegrated in May 2003. Major rivers include the 110-mile Merrimack River, which bisects the lower half of the state north–south and ends up in Newburyport and its tributaries include the Contoocook River, Pemigewasset River, and Winnipesaukee River. The 410-mile Connecticut River, which starts at New Hampshires Connecticut Lakes and flows south to Connecticut, only one town – Pittsburg – shares a land border with the state of Vermont. The northwesternmost headwaters of the Connecticut also define the Canada–U. S, the Piscataqua River and its several tributaries form the states only significant ocean port where they flow into the Atlantic at Portsmouth. The Salmon Falls River and the Piscataqua define the southern portion of the border with Maine, the U. S. Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2002, leaving ownership of the island with Maine. New Hampshire still claims sovereignty of the base, however, the largest of New Hampshires lakes is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 71 square miles in the east-central part of New Hampshire. Umbagog Lake along the Maine border, approximately 12.3 square miles, is a distant second, Squam Lake is the second largest lake entirely in New Hampshire. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any state in the United States, Hampton Beach is a popular local summer destination. It is the state with the highest percentage of area in the country. New Hampshire is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, much of the state, in particular the White Mountains, is covered by the conifers and northern hardwoods of the New England-Acadian forests
5.
Appalachian Mountain Club
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Appalachian Mountain Club is one of the United States oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U. S. with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D. C. The AMCs 150,000 members, advocates, and supporters mix outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, additional activities include cross-country skiing, whitewater and flatwater canoeing and kayaking, sea kayaking, sailing, rock climbing and bicycle riding. The Club has about 2,700 volunteers, who lead roughly 7,000 trips, the organization publishes a number of books, guides, and trail maps. Appalachian Mountain Club was organized in 1876, incorporated in 1878, the group helped map the White Mountains and in 1888 built the first of eight High Huts in the range, modeled on Alpine shelters. It has converted a portion of the purchase to a preserve, logged a portion. The Club is considering purchasing more sporting camps in the vicinity, in September 2016, it was reported in The Boston Globe that Appalachian Mountain Club sold their Joy Street headquarters to a group of real estate investors for $15 million. The deal would turn the 22,000 square feet of space on Beacon Hill into residential units. Appalachian Mountain Clubs headquarters is located at 5 Joy Street in Boston, Appalachian Mountain Club employed 686 individuals in 2014. AMC estimated that 16,000 individuals volunteered for the organization in 2014, Appalachian Mountain Club earns over $13,000,000 per year from its outdoor program centers, educational activities, membership dues, trail activities, and advertising. Sale of products nets over $700,000 per year, Appalachian Mountain Club receives $11,000,000 per year of charitable contributions and $2,000,000 of revenue from its investments. In 2014, Appalachian Mountain Club paid two outside telemarketing firms $108,837 for fundraising services, the telemarketing firms raised $146,842 for Appalachian Mountain Club. Appalachian Mountain Club has chapters located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Appalachian Mountain Club owns and maintains a series of eight mountain huts in the White Mountains. Modeled after similar shelters in the Alps, the various huts hold between 36 and 90 people, hikers may reserve bunks, at most huts dinner and breakfast are included with an overnight fee. Although extremely popular, the huts are also controversial, facilitating thousands of hikers entering the back woods, Four years and an environmental impact statement were required to get the huts permits renewed by the U. S. Forest Service in 1999. A committee of Appalachian Mountain Club administers the Four Thousand Footer Club, anyone who has climbed to and from each of the 48 New Hampshire Four-thousand footers is eligible to apply for membership to the club. Members are given a patch and new inductees are invited to attend a celebration dinner. The Four Thousand Footer Club also recognizes individuals who complete the New England Four Thousand Footers, appalachia, the club journal, has been published since 1894
6.
Alps
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The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres, the altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe, in the mountains precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era, a mummified man, determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established, Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800 Napoleon crossed one of the passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, in World War II, Adolf Hitler kept a base of operation in the Bavarian Alps throughout the war. The Alpine region has a cultural identity. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, at present, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps derives from the Latin Alpes, maurus Servius Honoratus, an ancient commentator of Virgil, says in his commentary that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp and this may be consistent with the theory that in Greek Alpes is a name of non-Indo-European origin. According to the Old English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might possibly derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb hill, Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, Albania was a name for the eastern Caucasus, in modern languages the term alp, alm, albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a mountain pasture where cows are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where hay barns can be found. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in a 800 km arc from east to west and is 200 km in width, the mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km. The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, the range continues onward toward Vienna, Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the border of Bavaria in Germany
7.
Appalachian Trail
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The trail is about 2,200 miles long, though the exact length changes over time as parts are modified or rerouted. More than 2 million people are said to do at least one day-hike on the each year. The idea of the Appalachian Trail came about in 1921, the trail itself was completed in 1937 after more than a decade of work, although improvements and changes continue. It is maintained by 31 trail clubs and multiple partnerships, and managed by the National Park Service, United States Forest Service, the majority of the trail is in forest or wild lands, although some portions traverse towns, roads and farms. The trail conservancy claims that the Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking-only trail in the world. It passes through 14 states, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Many books, memoirs, websites, and fan organizations are dedicated to these pursuits, other separate extensions continue the southern end of the Appalachian range in Alabama and continue south into Florida, creating what is known as the Eastern Continental Trail. The Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail form what is known as the Triple Crown of Hiking in the United States. The trail was conceived by Benton MacKaye, a forester who wrote his original plan—called An Appalachian Trail, macKayes idea detailed a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers. The idea was adopted by the new Palisades Interstate Park Trail Conference as their main project. On October 7,1923, the first section of the trail, from Bear Mountain west through Harriman State Park to Arden, MacKaye then called for a two-day Appalachian Trail conference to be held in March 1925 in Washington, D. C. This meeting inspired the formation of the Appalachian Trail Conference, a retired judge named Arthur Perkins and his younger associate Myron Avery took up the cause. Andersons efforts helped spark renewed interest in the trail, and Avery was able to bring other states on board, upon taking over the ATC, Avery adopted the more practical goal of building a simple hiking trail. He and MacKaye clashed over the ATCs response to a commercial development along the trails path, MacKaye left the organization. Avery reigned as Chairman of the ATC from 1932 to 1952, Avery became the first to walk the trail end-to-end, though not as a thru-hike, in 1936. In August 1937, the trail was completed to Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, the ATCs trail crews and volunteer trail-maintaining clubs have relocated or rehabilitated miles of trail since that time. The completed thru-hike was much later recorded and accepted by the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association, in 1948, Earl Shaffer of York, Pennsylvania, brought a great deal of attention to the project by publicizing the first claimed thru-hike. The claim was criticized for the hikes omission of significant portions due to short-cuts
8.
Thru-hiking
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Thru-hiking is hiking a long-distance trail end-to-end within one hiking season. In United States, the term is most commonly associated with the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail, but also refers to other end-to-end hikes. Other examples include the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand, the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Lycian Way in Turkey, the Israel National Trail, and the Great Divide Trail in Canada. Thru-hiking is also called end-to-end hiking or end-to-ending on some trails, like Vermonts Long Trail or New Yorks Long Path and Northville-Placid Trail. Section hiking, on the hand, refers to hiking a trail one section at a time, without continuity. Thru-hikings origins date back many years, when long-distance foot travel as a means of transportation began to merge with hiking for its own enjoyment, one famous thru-hike involves the story of Lillian Alling, a young 27-year-old Russian immigrant living in New York City. She became homesick and decided to return to her family in Russia, lacking funds, but armed with a strong will, she chose to walk the 12,000 miles to Russia, traversing Canada and into Alaska. She was last seen preparing to cross by boat at the Bering Strait to Siberia, a thru-hiker named George W. Outerbridge completed the first section hike of the newly completed Appalachian Trail in 1939, trail promoter Myron Avery had previously section-hiked while trail blazing. Earl Shaffer became the first to have publicly thru-hiked the AT in 1948, a 1994 report claimed that a group of Boy Scouts had done so twelve years earlier, but these claims have never been adequately documented. Therefore, they are considered highly suspect in most hiking circles, a number of thru-hikers have achieved a measure of celebrity in backpacking culture. Perhaps the most famous was Emma Grandma Gatewood, who first thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1955 at age 67, thru-hiking a trail is a long and difficult journey, An AT thru-hike, for example, takes five months on average, covering 2,189.2 miles. A PCT or CDT thru-hike also entails several months of planning in order to prepare gear and these two trails also take 4-6 months to complete. Thru-hikers can organize supplies for the journey far in advance, and have friends and family mail packages to predetermined stops along the way and these caches-via-mail are usually referred to as supply boxes. The most popular however, is to resupply roughly every three to five days at a village or town that is close to the trail. This cuts down on unnecessary planning and offers a degree of flexibility. The Continental Divide Trail does not have one official route, as of 2013, about 76% of the trail has been completed according to the CDT Coalition. Many people choose to forego thru-hiking, due to time constraints or lack of desire, with the rise of backpacking in the United States, thru-hiking has become a minor industry. Thousands of hikers attempt to thru-hike the AT and other National Scenic Trails every year, roughly 150 end-to-end the Long Trail, and about 180 thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail each year
9.
Tree line
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The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and in frigid environments, beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions. The tree line should not be confused with a lower timberline or forest line, at the tree line, tree growth is often sparse and stunted, with the last trees forming densely matted bushes, known as krummholz. The tree line, like other natural lines, appears well-defined from a distance. Trees grow shorter towards the inhospitable climate until they stop growing. The climate above the line of mountains is called an alpine climate. In the northern hemisphere treelines on north-facing slopes are lower than on south-facing slopes because the increased shade on north-facing slopes means the snowpack takes longer to melt and this shortens the growing season for trees. In the southern hemisphere, the slopes have the shorter growing season. The alpine tree line boundary is seldom abrupt, it forms a transition zone between closed forest below and treeless alpine tundra above. Environmentally dwarfed shrubs commonly forms the upper limit, the decrease in air temperature due to increasing elevation causes the alpine climate. Skin effects and topography can create microclimates that alter the general cooling trend, however, the number of degree days calculated from leaf temperatures may be very similar in the two kinds of timberlines. A series of warm summers in the 1940s seems to have permitted the establishment of “significant numbers” of spruce seedlings above the treeline in the hills near Fairbanks. Survival depends on a sufficiency of new growth to support the tree, the windiness of high-elevation sites is also a potent determinant of the distribution of tree growth. However, snow accumulation in sheltered gullies in the Selkirk Mountains of southeastern British Columbia causes timberline to be 400 metres lower than on exposed intervening shoulders. In a desert, the line marks the driest places where trees can grow. These tend to be called the tree line and occur below about 5,000 ft elevation in the Desert Southwestern United States. In some mountainous areas, higher elevations above the line or on equator-facing and leeward slopes can result in low rainfall. This dries out the soil, resulting in an arid environment unsuitable for trees
