Mt.Chocorua and the Three Sisters

Surprisingly, I've never climbed Mt.Chocorua until today. I've always heard of all the crowds and school groups coming up so I figured no one like that would be up there in the winter. For anyone who doesn't climb mountains and don't see the reason for one mountain to have so many crowds, I'll let this picture explain this mountain's popularity.

Mt.Chocorua taken from the Three Sisters

We chose to go up Champney Falls Trail which I highly recommend. Of course you can find Champney Falls on this trail. It's on a small side trail that meets back up with the main trail about halfway up. Pitcher Falls is also in the same area, and it's actually a lot better of a waterfall than Champney. Pitcher falls into a small gorge from an incredibly steep cliff with enormous icicles. We had to walk on ice bridges over the river to access them.

Looking into the gorge at Pitcher Falls.

The trail became a little steeper but it wasn't a problem at all in the winter. A few switch-backs later, we came to the junction with the cutoff, and then the junction with the Piper Trail, which took us to the summit. There wasn't much snow on the summit area itself. It got pretty steep as we went up the summit-cone. The views from the top were incredible. We could see Mt.Carrigain, Mt.Shaw and Kearsarge North to name a few. 

The Three Sisters from the summit.

I wanted to knockout two 52 With A View during this hike. The list 52 With A View is a hiking list in New Hampshire of 52 peaks with views under 4,000 feet, and Mt.Chocorua and Middle Sister are on that list. The nearby Three Sisters are only about an extra half mile, so it wasn't that bad to add on. We came to the First Sister and it had great views looking back at Chocorua. But the Middle Sister had the best viewpoint.

The summit area of Middle Sister with Mt.Chocorua in the back.

On top of the Middle Sister there's an old foundation to a fire cabin. The staircase is still present on the side of the foundation. To the right of the foundation, there's a antenna with solar panels on it. I don't know what it is but it just doesn't fit in. 

Gallery

The namesake of the trail, Champney Falls.

The trail running along the spine of Mt.Chocorua.

Looking into the North Conway area.

The view from the First Sister.

This thing.

Looking northeast from Middle Sister.

The view from a lower ledge.

On the way down, we used the sleds and had a great time. We had multiple nice slopes to go down with them. We were able to have the peak all to ourselves for a while. In my opinion, Mt.Chocorua is a better winter hike than a summer hike. The entire hike itself is under 10 miles, and I would recommend this route to anyone.