Baldpate West Peak 3662'

Headed once again to Western Maine's Grafton Notch for another assault of the park's numerous peaks. I love that place.
Not only is it close by, no one is there. This makes for a great hiking experience in my book.
My goal was to get to both the East and West Peak of Baldpate, but I wasn't sure my late start time of 1pm would allow for it.

I was surprised to see that the trail was broken, but not since the last storm. This made for about 4-5 inches underfoot. Fairly easy going on snowshoes.
My suspicions were correct when I hit the Table Rock turn. More traffic had gone that way than on the AT, which was the direction I was going.

Often times, the trail was drifted in and I had to either look for the White Blaze or just kind of guess whether or not I was on the trail. The White Blazes were more often than not covered by snow.
I got to the hut and realized I had gone too far, because there was no visible trail anymore. There were some ominous dark clouds rolling in so I just kind of sat in the hut, eating and drinking, trying to decide whether to bag the trip or not.
It was 2:15. I figured I had enough daylight, and if the clouds produced anything, I would just turn around.

Backtracked about 200 yards and found the trail sign hidden behind a snow-covered pine tree. No one had been this way in a while.

It was only a mile to the top, but it was a slog. The blazes were only visible every once in a while, so it was kind of a matter of following where there were gaps in the trees. The snow was knee deep most of the way and at times I was forced to scramble on hands and knees on some of the steeper parts. 1 mile took an hour.
I didn't hang around at the top. Took a picture of the East Peak, which looked way cooler, and headed down.
That mile down was so fun. I slid on my snowshoes almost the whole way. Going up: 1hour. Going down: 15 minutes.

Another hour later, and I was back to the car.
Total trip time: 3.5 hours.
Very strenuous because of the snow, specifically the last mile to the peak.

Highly recommended, but take more time to stop and smell the roses.
I need to break my habit of rushing these things.
Peace out!
krp