Mt Abraham is a 4000 footer on Vermont’s Long Trail about 3.7 miles south of Mt Ellen, another 4k peak. It’s a 6 mile out and back, climbing the ridge from the west via the Battell Trail, just outside of Lincoln, VT. I climbed it last weekend with a group of 8 hikers from the Green Mountain Club, led by a longtime SectionHiker reader named Jill. We had clear skies, great views, and a spry group that was a lot of fun to hike with.
I’ve climbed Mt Abraham a few times already, but never in January. And while I haven’t committed to gridding out the Vermont 4000 footers (climbing all five peaks in every calendar month of the year), I’d be lying if it hasn’t crossed my mind. But I’m not in hurry to tackle that as a goal yet and instead, I’m enjoying exploring Vermont without a fixed agenda, other than a desire to meet other hikers that I can hike and backpack with. The Green Mountain Club groups I’ve been going on hikes with (and leading) are a convenient way to meet local hikers and learn the lay of the land.
Learning the lay of the land is important for me, since I do a fair amount of solo hiking. In winter, that comes down to understanding how to predict the weather and trail conditions which are important in deciding how much risk to take on. When I winter hiked in New Hampshire, I was spoiled by having excellent weather forecasts and easy access to a plethora of trail condition reports since the White Mountains hiking community is so large and online. That’s not the case in Vermont, which is sparsely populated and has highly variable and localized weather conditions. There just aren’t that many winter hikers in the state and no well-used online clearing house for trail conditions reports such as New England Trail Conditions (NETC). While NETC does have a section for Vermont trip reports, a handful of hikers use it.
Vermont has a lot of snow this winter, so we all packed snowshoes for this hike expecting to need them. But the base of the trail was broken out, so we opted for Hillsounds instead. The sun was out and the temperatures were in the mid-twenties, even though the forest at the summit was expected to be brisk with temperatures plunging into the single digits later in the evening. I hate wearing long underwear, so I donned a warmer pair of softshell pants for this hike, my KUIU Attack Pants, which have zippered vents along the thighs. They’re great winter hiking pants if you run a little cold.
The climb up the Battell Trail is steep and pretty relentless for the first two miles up to the Long Trail shelter. We stopped for a snack at the shelter and adjusted our layers before continuing the last 0.9 miles to the summit. As we neared the ridge, the trees were increasingly burdened by snow and ice, signs of the wild weather near treeline. The trail became increasingly narrow and it was all we could do to keep the snow overhead from falling down our necks as we passed.
The final approach from treeline to Abraham’s summit is quite short, maybe a 100 yards and still well protected form the wind. We soon topped out to the summit which is flat with 270 degree views of the Adirondacks and the Long Trail peaks to the north, including Mt Ellen and Camel’s Hump. We layered up and took in the views, before heading back down below treeline and downhill back to the trailhead. This was a fun group and I look forward to hiking with the people I met again.
This hike took us about 4 hours round trip (6 miles, 2000′ of elevation gain) which is quite doable even during the short days of winter. In other words, there’s a lot of bang for the buck and good weather protection all the way to the summit..so if you’re looking for a moderate Vermont 4000 footer to hike, Abraham is a good choice. The roads leading to the trailhead, though unpaved, are easy to drive and there’s ample parking for a half dozen cars.
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