Meghan Sarbanis, COTP model
Friday, April 4th
At 11:45 this morning, I met my good friend Meghan in the Waterville Valley Ski Mountain parking lot. Accompanying me was my dog, Tilda, known colloquially as "Chick Magnet" because everyone needs a trail name and she's certainly climbed enough mountains to earn one. Just last fall, she finished climbing her 48 4,000+ foot mountains of New Hampshire.
Meghan, Chick Magnet, and I started hiking without knowledge of trail conditions. I'd climbed this mountain in March of 2024 and it was pretty soft yet the snow was deep. That wasn't the case today. After about a half mile we ditched our snow shoes behind a tree and put on microspikes, and people descending confirmed this plan to be a good one.
Meghan and I stopped for some scenic pics and to see the ski mountain when it comes very close to the trail. Additionally, we could see the Osceolas from time to time which was also pretty cool. We'd hiked those together in October of 2023 and Meghan is a hiking newbie, so I wanted to point our proximity out to her. She's a total beast athletically but the mountaineering is new to her.
The trail continued to get steeper but eventually flattened out some as we approached the sign for our left turn to the top of the ski mountain. I'd done this little side trip last year and Chick Magnet got a LOT of attention that day from surprised skiers and lifties. Today, we decided not to do the side trek because we each had to get home. If you are wondering, yes, Chick Magnet would have wanted the extra mileage.
Shortly after the trail junction we approached the summit where Meghan changed clothes and the dog got to play fetch. We made a few videos and took some pictures before descending in record time at just over an hour, using gravity to our advantage.
All told, this was a great COTP type of day. More to come for sure...