"Day one of the Presidential Range Traverse. The climb up Madison is a real bear, but it is worth it for the stunning views. All of the cols are above treeline, and the climb up Adams and Jefferson was just as beautiful. Excellent views into the Great Gulf also. The trail is very rocky, and there are many scree fields on Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. The trail up and over Clay was well worth it for the awesome views of Mount Washington. Washington was very tough at the end of the day on the way down but the trail up is less rocky and is very nice. We spent the night at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut." — elimihuta • Jun 27, 2025

"Presidential Traverse, NH - Day 2 - Lake of the Clouds Hut to Madison Spring Hut. Woke up early. Caught breakfast at LotC Hut and then gunned it up to Washington. Bought some stickers, snickers and a Red Bull then continued the traverse around to Clay, Jefferson, Adams and then dropped into Madison Hut for the night." — wiweasel • Jul 5, 2024

"As far as weather in the Presidentials go, could not have asked for a better day. Clear skies with only minimal cloud cover later in the afternoon, mild temperatures, and even the forecasted 10mph winds dropped to a light breeze. Car spot with a friend parking at the Base Station and I drove the group to Caps Ridge Trailhead. We set off from the trailhead just after 8am. Starting off at 3000ft. meant we were already in a subalpine forest and quickly emerged at the first optional "cap" about a mile in. After briefly dipping back into the trees, we entered the alpine zone and began scrambling up the caps. They weren't as intimidating as I expected and I enjoyed the variety in terrain. Soon after the last cap is the intersection with The Cornice which marks the beginning of climbing over boulders until we reached the summit just before 11:15am for my 14th NH 4000 Footer. The summit area is a relatively flat boulder field with 2 larger piles. The western pile is the true summit, and both were swarming with giant moth-like insects. We didn't stay at the summit of Mt. Jefferson for too long on account of the giant insects, so we climbed down the boulders on the Mt. Jefferson Loop, linked..." — JCalautti • Jun 16, 2024

"Long time wanting to get to these two. Added summits of the White Mountain National Forest High Point just off the Trinity-Gulfside junction and the Great Gulf Wilderness High Point, at the Great Gulf Trail junction along the way." — SteveM_StickMan • Jul 24, 2022

"Single-day Presidential Traverse to finish off 3 days of peakbagging and Appalachian Trail redlining in White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire. The Traverse, spanning Pinkham Notch to Crawford Notch, covered 25 miles and 8,300 feet of elevation gain in 14 hours moving. After Clay, the clouds lifted a bit for views down into the Great Gulf. " — wacbravo • Sep 9, 2019

"2 semaines solo de pure plaisir à faire du hiking à différentes places dont les Whites Moutains. LA grosse journée où je tente trois gros sommets dont le mont Washington. Ce fut une réussite de A à Z. En beaucoup moins de temps que je le pensais et aussi plus facilement que je m'y attendais. Je monte par la trail ammonoosuc jusqu'à la Hut, direction Monroe, ensuite retour vers Washington, pause diner, direction Clay: ensuite Jefferson, je vire de bord pour me diriger vers la Jewel trail jusqu'au stationnement... Oufff! Très belle journée malgré que les sommets avaient la tête dans les nuages, ce qui est normal pour les Whites... J'en conserver un très beau souvenir." — fsoucy76 • Sep 24, 2018

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Last week we got blown off of Madison before we could summit. This week we did a last minute change of plans as the weather looked favorable for a traverse. Temps were at least 30 degrees warmer (more if you include the lack of windchill). Just under 20 miles over the highest peaks in NH." — markst-john • Mar 26, 2016

"We started out thinking we were going to hike a full Presidental Traverse (~20 miles) but the conditions slowed us down. They refer to it as the 'tweener' season where there is ice, but not enough for spikes. By the time we got to Washington we decided to bail on the full traverse and hike down to Joe Dodge Lodge. We hit four of the five highest peaks in NH along the way - hiking just under 15 miles in a whopping 16 hours - a very long day. http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/3135049" — markst-john • Nov 28, 2015

"Despite the current weather conditions being pretty tolerable, especially for late November, just enough rain/snow had fallen overnight to coat the boulders going over the Northern Presidentials in a thin layer of ice, which slowed us to a crawl. But regardless we made a great day of it, hiking for over 15 hours! And bagged 4 more 4ks! " — matt-beard • Nov 28, 2015

"Enjoyed a great hike through the Presidential range - our first time in the Whites. We started at 6:00 am from the Applachia TH and made our way to Madison via the Valley Way and Watson Trails (beautiful trails) - arriving on summit ~ 9:30am. From Madison we descended the AT to the Madison Hut where we spent an hour checking out the hut. From here half of our group took the Star Lake trail and half took the National Scenic trail to the summit of Adams (11:45 am) where we enjoyed the summit for about 30 minutes (very busy summit). From here we would make our way down to Edmunds col and enjoy some time with other hikers and then around 1:30 head up to Jefferson (summit ~ 2:30) and then again stop for a quick break at the col where the trail splits where half of us took the detour on the Clay Loop trail to see the summit of Clay ( quick hike up, well worth the additional elevation gain) and the other half continuing on the Gulf side Trail towards the summit of Mt. Washington. Ultimately we all met up at Mt. Washington ( ~5 pm) where we spent an hour or so before descending about 3.2 miles to the Cog Rail TH. We arrived back at parking at 8:30 PM - total hiking time roughly 11.5 hours...." — deb-and-rob • Aug 22, 2015