Mount Madison

"Hiked with Bob. Weather was good. Some occasional clouds but the summits remained clear. Temps in the 30s wind 20 or so. Met quite a few through hikers going in both directions. Tough climb but the views were incredible!" — kevin-kilpatrick • Sep 30, 2018

"Began the Presidential Traverse on 08/22 but the weather was too bad to attempt the summit. Stayed overnight at the Madison Springs Hut and made the summit the next morning. It was much nicer then but very windy." — dmcosker • Aug 23, 2018

"My first peaks above treeline for November and also helps a lot for my 6th loop. Encountered a bunch of redliners on the way up Valley Way. Some blowdown damage from the Oct 29-30 storm but not bad. Beautiful day to be up. No ice encountered. " — newenglandwarrior • Nov 8, 2017

"Beautiful day for a hike! Up the Valley Way Trail to the Madison Springs Hut, dropped a few non-essentials on my bunk, and headed the .5 miles to the summit. Afterwards, walked up to Star Lake for the beautiful views, had a great dinner, then did a little star gazing before settling in. Up in the morning to almost catch the sunrise - clear views to Mt. Washington and undercast clouds in the valley. I love staying in the huts when I can afford them, you can experience more of the mountains when there's no rush to get back to the car." — PJSelmer • Sep 18, 2017

"Valley Way to Osgood, the whole way up and down. Trail is in good shape, we snowshoed it. But used spikes on Osgood. Brilliant blue skies. Hardly a breeze. Sat at the hut and basked in the sun for quite a while." — Alohabuffy • Mar 26, 2017

"AWESOME day with beautiful skies, temps in the 40's and sun. Couldn't have asked for a better day in February in the presidentials! This was a meetup group hike with the AMC. We got a late start and slower travels so I had hoped to bag Adams too but it wasn't in the cards....another day! " — shay-shay • Feb 22, 2017

"Solo. First peak of my northern presidential traverse. Took Valley Way from Appalachia and then Watson Path to the summit. Winds were 60-70 mph at the summit and visibility was non-existent. Luckily, the conditions would get a little bit better for the rest of the day. " — LGH-Tom • Oct 19, 2016

"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

"A chance to hike with other people despite already having Madison and Adams in the winter. Went up Valley Way and did Madison. Marielle was struggling on the way up. After Madison, both her and Denise headed back down while myself, Sarah, and Frank did Adams. Great day to be up there." — newenglandwarrior • Mar 6, 2016

"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

"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

"Second trip up Madison as part of a stellar Northern Presi loop. Clouds started to roll in during my climb down from Adams to Madison, but they were plenty high enough to still get the ridiculous views. " — npweeks • Nov 21, 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 coll 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 via the Cog Rail maintenance trail which is about 3.2 miles. We arrived back at parking at 8:30 PM - total..." — deb-and-rob • Aug 22, 2015

"Doing some red-lining, so did a loop for a bunch of trails. Osgood Tr, Parapet Tr, hit Madison Hut before the summit of Madison, Osgood Tr, Daniel Webster Tr, Grand Gulf Link. The new term of the day: Crazy Hazy. Badly disrupted views despite it being sunny, so visibility was poor. " — newenglandwarrior • Jul 9, 2015

"Tough hike up with lots of boulder climbing and rock scrambling with Jack and Aaron. Definitely easier to do Rock scrambles on Madison Gulf going up rather than coming down. With a dog, definitely a challenge unless they are good at rock scrambles/jumping and climbing - we had to hoist Jack up a few of the scrambles. The rocks at the peak and Osgood ridge are very rough, too. Jack's paws held up (most likely due to the fact he's used to walking on asphalt/concrete in the city) but I could see a dog not used to tougher surfaces having trouble on these rocks without some sort of footwear. " — maureenfh • May 24, 2015

"i hiked up mt jefferson and across the whole adams family to the madison spring hut. spent the night there and then hiked up mt madison the next morning. the weather was fantastic and it was so beautiful." — Hufflepuff • Sep 20, 2013

"Mags me and Roo left the Appalachia Trail Head at 7am ready for our Presi Traverse. Got to Madison Hut around 10, left our heavy packs and bagged Madison. Tenley did great for her first above treeline summit. We headed back to the hut for soup and brownies- and left on the Gulfside Trail to summit Adams. Weather was iffy with off and on rain, but we figured we had time to summit Adams and get down below the trees to the Perch to crash." — KDRupert3 • Jul 3, 2013

"Beautiful trip up, just enough snow on the ground, cold but not too windy, views behind us. Then we hit treeline - 50+ mph winds, no views, snow blowing everywhere! Trip down was great & quick - sliding on the snow! " — PJSelmer • Jan 22, 2013

"Just a great day hiking trip to the top of Mount Madison. We took the old Daniel Webster Scout Trail which was a little bit of a night mare trying to find the trail head. Well needless to say we found it and began our trip up the mountain. This 4 mile hike would have been easier for both of us if i had not been sick the next day and my buddy JR wasn't binge drinking before our track up the mountain. We need to stop to let JR paint the forest in hang over black. I felt bad for anyone on the trail that day that might have smelled what had came out of him. Well after our stop the trail started to getting mighty steep but pressing on we made it to the top in a little under 3 hours. There were talks about continuing on but it was already late and we didn't want to be hiking down in the dark. So Mount Adams you will have to wait. " — elbesto • Aug 14, 2012

"My friend Courtney and I did 5 of the Presidential Peaks in a day hike. We started the 14.5 mile hike at 4:50 am at the Pine Link Trail and ended at 5:15pm on the Ammonoosuc trail. A great hike! The start of the hike was dark for about an hour. It was awesome breaking the tree line with the sunrise. The trail was a steady climb to the summit of Madison. Adams was a very steep climb, and required a lot of careful footing. It was a challenge. Jefferson was just slightly less challenging. We headed toward Washington around noon. We arrived at the summit around 2pm. As we sat down for lunch we were told that a thunderstorm was moving in quickly with golf ball size hail. (It is true the weather changes fast!) We had one more peak we wanted to get in (Monroe). We decided to summit and try to beat the storm , once at the top the storm was upon us. We ran down Monroe and headed toward tree cover. By now it was raining and the thunderstorm was in full force. It felt as though lightening was all around us. We slide/crabwalked down the steep trail in search of tree cover, which could not come soon enough. Some moments were very sketchy. But with a lot of prayer we made ..." — CarissaJean • Aug 21, 2011