Desolation Shelter, Carrigain Notch
Where: Desolation via Carrigain Notch When: Winter, 1987/88 With: Chip We'd come in from the West , we'd come in from the North , so it was time to try a new approach to Desolation shelter. The first time we'd gone in, we shared the shelter with a group of college kids from Dartmouth who skied in through Carrigain Notch. If they could do it, so could we. The plan was to drive up north, go over the Kancamagus highway, cross over to route 302 on Bear Notch road, and then drive up Sawyer River road to the trail. Well, when we pulled on to Bear Notch road, we were met with a gate and a sign saying it was unmaintained in the winter. In other words, unplowed and impassable. We continued down the Kanc to pick up route 16, which would take us through Conway and onto 302. Here we hit our second problem. North Conway, heart of ski country, was one long traffic jam that Saturday. We crawled through town, swearing all the way. Finally we hit open road and made some good time do...