7:40am: Put on my thermal shirt, followed by my second thermal, and then a third heavier thermal to finish off my under layers.
Gloves, check. Scarf, check. Windbreaker, check. Thermal socks, check.
Finish packing my equipment bag, protein bars, camera equipment, drone, etc. Time to hit the road.
9am: We set out for the 2 hour drive to Franconia Notch, home to the Franconia Ridge, which we heard had gotten "some" snow on the peaks in the last couple of days. Well, that was an understatement.
11:10am: We arrive in the notch, and sure enough, we see snow capped peaks. There's excitement, as well as worry, exactly how much snow is there? Do we have the right equipment to make it? How bad are the trails? No matter. Onwards, and upwards; but first, a quick drone flight!
12:30pm: Well, there was snow; lots of it. The higher we got, the deeper the snow got. The beginning of the trail was quite icy and made the river crossings by walking across stones and logs a bit tricky with the ice on them. So the snow was quite welcome over the icy path below.
1:30pm: It's hard to identify where on the trail we are, due to the heavy snow cover, I can't recognize how close to the summit I am, or how far. But the snow is getting thicker, and the trees getting thinner, and the deepest blue sky I've seen begins to make more appearances through the tree tops.
2pm: Finally, the trees begin to part, and our true elevation becomes obvious, as we look over the other nearby mountains, as if they are mere hills. We're only a few hundred feet from the summit now.
2:15pm: The wind appears. My beard freezes instantly, as well as my mustache. What was before just mild cold, is now deep, penetrating cold. There is no more trees offering shelter, just bare stone and ice now, as well as wind whipped snow. We have made it to the summit.
My first goal is to fly my drone. I find a decent spot and set up. All looks good and I launch and begin to record. But something is off, the video feed is very weird. Is it the drone? Then, the iPhone shuts off and dies, assumingly from the sheer cold. Great. Now I'm flying blind. I fly for a couple of minutes, trying to record at least a couple of shots, then I land. I did manage to get about 30 seconds of decent footage that perhaps I'll share later on here as well. Plus, after 2 minutes of flying, with 1 gloveless hand, it's already numb, bright red, and can barely move my fingers. I quickly put my glove back on and headed back behind a rock for cover from the wind.
Now it's time to grab some photos of the landscapes so we can head back off this frozen summit, and also make it back down before the sun sets.
But first, gotta take a selfie...or 5.
Once I had a few of those, it was time to get to work on this surreal frozen world.
After that, we began our descent back down the mountain. It was an amazing adventure, with incredible views, I only wish I was able to get more with my drone, and even to photograph more, but my gloves weren't quite up to the task apparently and as my hands froze, the more I wanted to just get back down and away from these winds and cold.
Hope you enjoyed! Be sure to check me out on Instagram @SeanGoldPhotos and my website for more info and prints at www.SeanGold.com