Exploring the Old Man Stump: Franconia Notch - Expedition 1

Articles, Climb Safe, FAQ, Procedures

The Fallen
An Etching by Robert Viana (Printmaker, Painter - Artist).
Image courtesy of RobertViana.com

The Old Man of the Mountain was a geological artifact that hung on the side of a prominent cliff at Franconia Notch on Cannon Mountain. When viewed from the side, this prominence presented the appearance of an old man’s face in profile. This formation was at least 200 years old, perhaps much more. Five years ago the rocks that made up this artifact fell away from the cliff and the state of New Hampshire (the Live Free Or Die state) lost the physical manifestation of its emblem.

Image of cliff upon which the Old Man of the Mountain used to grace. Now only the stump of the formation persists.

Our principal interest in climbing the Notch is to explore the Old Man’s Stump for planning purposes, in order to eventually conduct a geological survey of the feature to answer questions relevant to the possibility of rebuilding it — but also relevant to preservation of the entire mountain. Since its fall in the spring of 2003, there has not been a formal geological survey conducted of the site, though the committee charged with determining the fate of the site claimed it had relied upon such a survey in coming to its decision not to permit its reconstruction.

Curious about the Old Man of the Mountain’s stump, it seemed only reasonable to set about visiting it on the most easily accessible and well known trails. We contacted Franconia Notch Park visitor center and asked what the easiest way to visit the Stump would be.

We were advised that the easiest way up would be to take the tram ride up the Cannon Mountain at a cost of $12 per head and to hike to the Kinsman Trail from the top of the Tramway. Then from there, follow the Kinsman Trail across the saddle of the mountain, to either take the Kinsman Ridge Trail down to the left, or to go right and bush-whack over the top and down to the Old Man site.

Tramway up the northern side of the Cannon Mountains.

Trail map section showing the recommended route (red), and the deviation of the route taken (blue).

Taking the Kinsman Ridge Trail down to the left would have entailed getting off the trail at the correct elevation and bush-whacking a great distance around the sides of the mountain. It therefore seemed easier to do the latter and bush-whack over the top and down.

Fine topographical map of mountain top near the Old Man site, showing rough detail of trail taken (purple) to the Old Man Stump.

As it turned out, this approach was fraught with danger. To start, you have to climb down a boulder trail from the top of the Cannon Mountain onto the saddle (or col), on the topo map it is labeled the Ridge. The saddle is nothing more than a large expanse of boulders with low growing brush and trees on it that connects two adjoining peaks on the mountain. The trail across it has perilous footing and when you get into the trees, there is dirt and standing water on the trail that is deep enough to lose sight of your hiking boots in. Standing water with jagged boulders and rocks just below the surface is not good ground to walk on.

The lower peak that tops the mountain, upon which the Old Man used to hang, is covered with large slabs of granite. Near the top, these slabs are more or less on the horizontal, but, as they near the sides of the mountain, they tilt ever more to the vertical. At the steeper places around the sides of the mountain they frequently slide off in a process known as sloughing. One could easily step onto a slab with too much of a pitch and fall off the side of the mountain, or step onto one that is precariously balanced and become an unwilling passenger to an unplanned destination.

Image of slabs near cliffs edge on Cannon Mountains.

Note the puddle in the foreground for scale, a pair of size ten and half mountain boots could fit in this puddle.

The slabs are caused by the natural forces of hydrology, gravity, temperature variations, and possibly some chemistry conspiring to erode away the rock. The water seeps into the granite’s pores, and leaches away minerals and opens cavities in the stone. When water in the rock freezes, it expands and causes cracks to occur, and further expands existing cracks. The minerals that are leached from the rock can be deposited in the cracks and are very slippery when water is introduced.

In the image above, a group of slabs has been caved from the mountain and sit at the cliffs edge tilting left of vertical center, probably pinned in by some debris. The entire stack looks poised to fall. This image illustrates how slabs are caved and in a very slow migration are sloughed from the mountain as a result of hydrological processes. Eventually, whatever is pinning in these slabs will give way and most, if not all, of them will fall to the bolder field between the base of the mountain and the valley floor below.

When water is present on the rocks, it moves the residual minerals around, and deposits them in concentration as it dries. The expansion and contraction of the rock due to temperature adds to the process, and can influence how and when a boulder is created and moved. Further, when icing occurs things get really dangerous on the mountain. As ice builds up in the cracks, it acts in such a way as to jack the boulder up a very small amount, and allows for more water to flow and for further buildup of sediments in the expanded interstice. Large and small boulders are produced and moved in this way, and the mountains’ sloughing of them is largely driven by it.

This was the fate of the Old Man feature on the Cannon Mountain. The night before it fell, there was rain and a freeze. The Old Man was composed of five layers of fractured granite that were stacked upon the chin and balanced such that the center of gravity of its mass was just behind that of the balance point of the chin. The chin was held in place by a small outcrop of stone that kept it from slipping away. While the chins center of mass was forward of the wedge of stone that held it up, the weight of the stones above it kept it from falling forward. It is thought that in the early morning of that fateful night, the water, upon freezing, and in combination with the wet viscous mineral residue, expanded just enough, and provided just enough lubrication, that the chin slipped out and the feature collapsed as a result.

For the type of site that the Old Man Stump is, we needed an experienced climber. We inquired with friends who had some experience in climbing and eventually were referred to Brian Faucher, who is an excellent climber and mountaineering EMS specialist. We explained to him what our interest in the site was, and the importance of apprehending first hand the conditions of the mountain at the Stump.

Brian agreed to be the expedition lead climber and we determined that we should hike to the site to reconnoiter as an initial step in conducting a more rigorous preliminary survey. This preliminary survey would consist of scaling the Stump to ascertain working conditions for an eventual formal geological survey.

After several false starts, attempts to visit the site that weren’t executable, which failed mainly due to weather, we finally had a day that was suitable for being on the mountain. On July 27th 2008 we met at the base at around 2:15PM and took the tram to the mountain top, arriving around 2:30PM. We set out from the top of the tramway and first hiked up to the top of the Cannon Mountain’s 4100 foot peak. The top of the tramway is just above 4000 feet, with the valley floor 2000 feet below. The top of the mountain at this point is less then 180 vertical feet up.

A Google Earth view of the norther peaks of the Cannon Mountains, including a good view of the col.

We then began our trek down the Kinsman Trail onto the saddle. The trek down was difficult, as there was no clear path, though now and then there was a paint swatch on an occasional boulder. Just enough to remind us that we were generally headed the right direction. Though with so few properly marked queues, there is a tendency to take wrong turns and be forced to backtrack up the mountain again.

Brian led, and he was quite vigorous at pursuing the trail, as we were late in the afternoon and needed to be back by 5PM to catch the final return tram ride. Otherwise we would be faced with returning to the lower peak of the Cannon Mountain to take the Kinsman Ridge Trail down, possibly having us hiking on the mountain in the dark. Something we were not prepared to do.

Aside from Brian and me, we were accompanied by Carol Jens, who was along to help in our assessment of the Stump. While Brian knew what to bring in terms of proper footwear, Carol and I were mistakenly wearing shoes more suited to general trail hiking. I wore tennis shoes that lacked ankle support and had just rubber soles, and Carol wore a boot that was too loose and had very slippery rubber soles. The best shoe would have high ankle protection and either a Vibram or stealth rubber sole.

Mainly because of the difference in shoes, but also physical fitness, Carol lagged behind, and was slower on the trails. She couldn’t get sure footing anywhere, and wasn’t able to maintain the pace. Brian was pushing far ahead, while I was pulling double duty, catching up and then going back to ensure that Carol was in good stead and able to continue.

When we finally made it to the juncture of the Kinsman Trail and the Kinsman Ridge Trail, Brian and I went to explore the east side of the mountain top in hopes of ascertaining where the Old Man Stump was located. Carol, on the other hand, hadn’t made it off the clearing on the saddle yet – the halfway point to where we were.

Finally, it occurred to us that Carol could literally be in peril, if we went further without her in our company. We determined that I should return to bring Carol in, as this part of the mountain was mainly steeply sloped slabs leading down to a cliff face that dropped several hundred feet. Anyone slipping in this area could potentially roll right off the cliff.

Brian thought that we may have come out north of the Stump and headed south exploring along the slabs nearer the cliffs edge, as I headed back to find Carol. When I finally caught up with her, she was just coming into the wood at the low point of the saddle. I hastened her along, and we made our way to the east side of the mountain to find that Brian was nowhere in sight.

Having a good sense of how far I had traveled since our splitting up, and how fast Brian moved, it seemed that he could be anywhere in either direction. The logical thing to do was to retrace his steps to the south, until it was clear whether the Old Man Stump was in that direction or not.

Carol and I made it down the slabs in a more northerly tack from due east, but found that route wasn’t passable. We climbed back up and tried again moving more due east down the slabs, which was more difficult, but not impassable. It was only a matter of which route to the slabs nearer the cliffs edge was passable, and heading down a northeasterly diagonal seemed the easiest route when viewed from the top.

Carol didn’t have the strength or body sense at the time to navigate the slabs properly and soon had to turn back to safer ground. Strength and motor skills are acquired quite readily in mountaineering through repetition and training. In our subsequent expeditions, Carol’s abilities improved dramatically. It was impressive how far along she was able to go on this first expedition. But, this being her first time out, I was forced by circumstances to take her back up before heading down again to find Brian. I had only just made it down to the cliff’s edge when I could hear voices from up above calling down to me.

Brian had returned from who knows where and was urging us to abandon the mountain in order to get to the tram in time. I climbed back as far as I could, while Brian came down to assist my return ascent. At several junctures going down, it had been necessary to jump off of one slab onto a lower one. At about the time that Brian and I met up, I had come to an impassable return point, where I was ill equipped to climb unassisted up the slab I had come down from. Luckily Brian was at hand, otherwise, I’d have had to scout another approach to getting back up. I was able to get part way up, and he gave me a hand up for the last part.

We stayed together, all three of us, until we reached the branch for the return across the saddle and up the slope on the other side to the tram. At this point we cut Brian loose to ensure that the tram would be held until our return. This last leg was particularly exhausting for me, as all of the back and forth trekking had worn me down. By the time we returned to the tram, I was completely spent.

In our time apart on the sloping slabs of the mountainside, Brian had doubled back to the north and located the Old Man Stump. He said that it was a very difficult passage and not a suitable route for our purposes. He explained that he had had to bush-whack for a good part of the way. At several points he had found it necessary to bodily climb over the top of the impassable brush on the northeast side of the mountain. At other times he pushed through such thick brush that he’d torn his clothing and gotten cuts. We had to find a different route. We’ll go into what Brian found further on.

We returned to the tram at exactly 4:55PM, and were able to rest a bit before it returned like clockwork at 5PM. When we reached the guest center at the bottom, it was necessary to wash my hands, arms, face and neck in the washroom, to refresh myself. While standing there drying my hands and face with the air blower, a very affable and helpful Park Ranger happened by. I explained to him that we had just been out trekking to the Old Man Stump, unsuccessfully, and asked if there wasn’t another route that would be easier.

The Ranger advised that there was the Kinsman Ridge Trail, but for climbing the Stump, he suggested using the Old Climbers Trail. When I told him that it wasn’t marked on any map that I had seen, he said that it was a well kept Park secret. He explained that it was a trail that had been cut in and was maintained by climbers, and that it was a much better trail than either of the Kinsman trails. I asked where it was located and he said it was just off of Profile Lake. He said that the next time up, if we were interested, that we should just ask and they would be happy to show us where specifically it was located.

Brian had managed to take pictures of the site. He had even found a helicopter landing pad, which had been constructed for the preservation work that had taken place on the Old Man long before its collapse. He reported that the pad appeared to be in serviceable condition. He had even managed to take some video of the site. As we drove away from the parking area at the base of the tram, Brian was able to take several pictures through the window of the moving car. These pictures actually turned out quite good, considering.

In the weeks following this expedition, Nelson Piper found someone who knew of a climber’s trail off the Pemi Trail that follows the base of the mountain between the woods and Profile Lake and along the creek running south from the lake. Believing this to possibly be the Old Climbers Trail, it would become the subject of our third & forth expeditions into Franconia Notch Park. But we were unable to acquire exact details of its location and were forced to try taking the Kinsman Trail up the mountain from the northwest side in our second expedition.

admin @ January 13, 2009