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| Livermore Trailhead |
Finally, a weekend with no plans! Things have been extremely busy with the new house, weddings, and other activities so we haven't been able to hike quite as much as we would like to – a weekend with no plans has become a rarity so we needed to take advantage of it! On Saturday, Paloma, Joe, Julie and I decided to hike the Tripyramids, a set of three peaks in the Sandwich Range Wilderness of the White Mountains. Due to the rules though, only two out of the three count – North and Middle Tripyramid.
Joe and Julie picked up Paloma and I and we made the relatively uneventful trek up to the Livermore Road trail-head, located just past Waterville Valley ski area. The weather was cloudy and cool, with a 30% chance of rain – though the radar looked clear. As we approached the parking area we came across a triathlon that was taking place and watched as the triathletes came racing down the muddy road on their bikes. Great – we thought – another parking area that will be packed to the seams. We were hoping this wasn't turning into another fiasco such as the time we tried to park to hike the Wildcats while the Inferno race was taking place. Luckily, the lot was nearly empty when we reached it and stayed that way while we made our final preparations for the hike.
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| Snacks Before the Slide |
Our route for the day was to take the Livermore Trail out to the Mt. Tripyramid Trail loop, going up the rock-slide on North Tripyramid to the summit, across the top of the range to Middle Tripyramid, over to South Tripyramid, and then descending via the south slide back to the Livermore Road Trail – a total distance of 11 miles. I had read numerous accounts of this hike and how gnarly the hike up the slide on North Tripyramid is, so I was extremely excited and at the same time concerned about what lay ahead of us.
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| Paloma Starting the Slide |
We set off on the Livermore trail at 9:35AM. This trail is extremely easy and gradual, as it is on an old logging road. We passed a number of construction trucks and equipment towards the beginning of the road – apparently brought in to repair some of the bridges and trails that had been destroyed a few years ago during a hurricane. The Mt. Tripyramid trail branches off of the Livermore trail at the 3.6 mile mark – so this served as a good warm up before we began the real hiking. We reached the start of the Mt. Tripyramid trail at 10:15AM and sat down to inhale some granola bars and trail mix to fuel ourselves up for the hike up the slide.
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| Joe, Julie & Paloma on the Slide |
The first half-mile or so along the trail was quite overgrown, which was surprising as I assumed this was a pretty well-used trail. Julie decided at one point that it would be fun to lose her poles and topple over into a swamp. My brother and I to bite our tongues before we laughed out loud. As we came closer to the slide the trail changed from primarily dirt and roots to small, broken stones just waiting to sprain your ankle. We rounded a small bend and there in front of us lay the true test, the North slide.
Thankfully the weather was cooperating and the slide was dry, because in the rain this would have been borderline insane. I can now appreciate the warnings I have seen in nearly every piece of writing about the Tripyramids – only hike this when the weather is cooperating and never descend via the North slide. I wholeheartedly agree with these statements.
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| Steep! |
The slide travels at a 45 degree angle towards the summit of North Tripyramid, half of the trail is slippery, rock slabs, the other half loose crumbling scree. Getting proper footing was a treat, as was finding trees, shrubs, and outcrops to grab onto. I’m not sure if anyone has tried standing for extended periods of time with their feet at a 45 degree angle, but damn, it burns! We weaved and zigzagged our way up the open rock faces, contorting our bodies in all types of ways to maneuver. The views out from the slide were quite good but we couldn't spend too much time looking at them because it looked like rain clouds were approaching. Towards the top of the slide the rocks became very loose - you would take about three steps forward and slide one step back. We finally reached the top of the slide at 12:25PM, exhausted, and decided this was a good spot for us to sit down an eat lunch, looking down the beast of a slide we had just climbed.
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| Summit of North Tripyramid |
We quickly wolfed down our lunches - the standard PB&J sandwiches for Paloma and I, and a bag of spaghetti for Joe and Julie (weirdos) - and continued on our way to the actual summit of North Tripyramid, reaching it at 12:51PM. There were no views so we quickly made our way over to Middle Tripyramid. While the trail leading from North to Middle Tripyramid wasn't very difficult, the toll the North Slide took on our legs and energy definitely showed as we were all exhausted. We reached summit of Middle Tripyramid at 1:20PM and enjoyed some pretty nice views over to Waterville Valley ski area and the surrounding mountains. We set off shortly thereafter to summit the final mountain, South Tripyramid, reaching it 1:42PM.
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| Summit of Middle Tripyramid |
At this point all that laid in front of us was a descent of the South Slide and a few miles on the Livermore Trail. Easy, right? Wrong. The South Slide was just as treacherous as the North Slide. The rocks were extremely loose so every step you took would cause you to slide a bit. I was being cocky and thought that I could just rip down this section, only to have my legs slide out from under me at one point, as I took a crash landing on a rock directly on my tailbone. Yikes! It has been a week since that hike at the point of me writing this blog, and I can confirm that it still hurts! I took a couple more spills on the way down to add to the pain.
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| South Slide Descent |
The sign for the Livermore Trail was much welcomed as we were ready for the easy few miles back to the car. We reached the car at 4:18PM, packed up our stuff, grabbed some Iced Coffees and continued on home. Another solid hike in the books!
Hike Stats
Trails: Livermore Trail, Mt. Tripyramid Trail
Total Time (Including Breaks): 6:40
Distance: 11 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3,000'
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