Route: White Mountains Hut Traverse (NH)

The White Mountains Hut Traverse is a gnarly 49-mile route that links 8 huts operated by the Applachian Mountain Club (AMC), between Carter Hut and Lonesome Lake Hut. Fast trips on the route go back at least to the 1930s (see below, and this site, and here). Until recently, Matthew Cull was thought to hold the fastest time, 13h9m set in 1993. Cull obtained signatures from the crew at each hut along the way, and his progress was monitored by the hut crews via radio. He published an account of his trip in the Dec. 1993 - Jan. 1994 issue of Running Wild magazine, which is posted at the bottom of this page. Cull believed the previous record to be 14h05m, set by Bob Biddle in 1981. [Biddle confirmed this as follows (2020): "I did do a hut traverse in 1981 which was fast for back then. Four of us started together, all from the AMC trail crew, three guys and one woman, and all four of us finished, but I finished first. The woman Leslie Wright finished in around 17 hours which might have been the women's FKT back then. We started at Carter, ended at Lonesome, and did take breaks and got help - food - drink at the huts, which were included in the overall time. We skipped Pinkham as it is not really a hut."]

In 2007 it was reported on the Views From the Top forum that Alex MacPhail had run the Hut-to-Hut in a time of 12h11m, set when he was a hut "croo" person way back in 1963! Later, in 2010, MacPhail wrote a history of the Hut-to-Hut traverse (whitemountainsojourn.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html), including earlier speed records and a detailed account of his own 1963 trip. However, there are discrepancies in some of the details (splits) reported by MacPhail in 2007 and 2010. In an email exchange with me, MacPhail explained that he never intended to claim a record for the traverse, and had done his run purely as a personal challenge and for training. He explained that some of the details were from memory, which was obviously subject to error after 45+ years. He did indicate that the total time of 12h11m was accurate to the extent that his watch was accurate. Finally, MacPhail said "I do not feel comfortable with anyone using my time as 'the record' ".

On this page, Jeff List discusses some more about the Hut-to-Hut route & times. Importantly, he breaks the Hut Traverse into two variations, the "Standard Hut Traverse", which includes the 8 huts defined by the AMC today (and was the route run by Matt Cull), and the historic "MacPhail Hut Traverse", which includes a 9th destination at Joe Dodge Lodge in Pinkham Notch, and is about 5 miles longer than the Standard route used by most runners and hikers today.

Adam Wilcox wrote a nice trip report on his 13h53m "standard" Hut Traverse of 6/16/2012: http://adamiata.blogspot.com/2012/06/racing-sun-amc-huts-traverse-6162012.html. Wilcox said, "I'll also throw my two cents in and say that yes, "brutal" is the right word for this route. The footing makes it much more difficult than the numbers would suggest. This aint no western trail!"

Support Style: A big part of this route is the community, including visiting the huts & resupplying there. Also, traditionally people have had friends accompany them on part or all of the route - another expression of the community aspect.  Normally having a "pacer" for any distance makes you Supported, but that doesn't seem like a good reflection of the traditions of this route. So for this route only, we respect the traditions, allow pacers, use the huts, and deem it Self-supported. Trips are Unsupported if one takes only water from the Huts. Supported would mean taking support not provided by the huts, but so far no one has done this. 

Jeff Colt made the following comments about support styles on the Hut Traverse, which make a lot of sense to us: "The Hut Traverse is meant to be a route that connects 8 points in the mountains where hikers can find services. We run this route differently say than another 50 mile backcountry route because of this. The huts offer services to everyone: clean potable water, restrooms, shelter, and if you want food, coffee, or lemonade. Water is the primary service the huts offer. I hope we don't reach a point when folks are doing the Hut Traverse and filtering their own water. But I do advocate for having a single FKT for the Hut Traverse if you take water from the huts."  

Winter Trips:  This is a rare route where we have established a Winter Variation, also due to local tradition, and because New Hampshire winters are seriously different than summer.  Only 3 of the huts are open: Carter Notch Hut, Zealand Hut and Lonesome Lake Hut. 

Winter is the astronomical definition:  Winter Solstice (about December 21) to Spring Equinox (about March 20).

We have two Winter Variations (thank you to Will Peterson for this clarification): 
"Winter Open" - Goes past the three open huts, for 42 miles with elevation gain of 13,500 feet (approximate).
"Winter Standard" - Same as the summer route, which is approximately 48 miles with 16,000 feet of elevation gain.

Editor: Please note that two options are possible between the Presidential range and the Peabody River (lower part). Either following the Peabody Brook crevice or over Mt. Madison via Osgood ridge. The latter is preferred for Winter traverse.

MacPhail added the following valuable information about historic Hut Traverse trips:

Two years ago I was planing to write a definitive story for the Resusitator on the Hut Traverse from 1936 to 2007. There is a story in the 1936 December Appalachia titled "On Breaking One's Own Record" by an H.L. Malcolm who crystalized the Traverse in my mind when I read his article in 1953 at my summer home on Lake Winnespesaukee. He begins that article by exclaiming that his interest in 24 hour mountain marathons "was aroused in 1931 by the Marshall brothers, and other hikers in the Adirondack Mountains." Malcolm next heard that two AMC croo, Batchelder and Loomis, completed the AMC hut traverse in 1933 in 23 hours, 15 minutes.

Malcolm set out on his own attempt on July 7, 1936. He left Carter at 12:04 am and finished at Lonesome at 10:07 pm, or 22 hours and 3 minutes. Two weeks later on July 22, 1936, he repeated his traverse, leaving Carter at 6 am and hiking first to Pinkham via the Wildcats and then to Madison via Osgood Ridge. He also went over all the summits. He arrived at Lonesome in 21 hours and 43 minutes, hiking 55 miles with a vertical rise of 19,000 feet.

In the late 1950's and early 1960's there were several new records set on the Traverse by some well known hikers including Tom Deans and Chris Goetz. Chris, I believe, did the traverse west to east in just over 16 hours. Tom Deans did not complete his traverse because of jock rash. I have some other names as well.

I completed a traverse on August 16th, 1963, after training for two weeks. I started at Madison at 5:30 am (first light) on that day and ran down Madison Gulf to 19 Mile Brook, up to Carter, over the Wildcats and down the Wildcat Ski Trail to Route 16. I ran to Pinkham on the road and then up to Lakes via the Tuck Trail. I made it from Pinkham to Lakes in 47 minutes but stopped to vomit twice after eating too fast at Pinkham. From Lakes the run was pretty easy. I went via the Mizpah shelter so that my Traverse would include Mizpah after it was built. I got to Lonesome, the old hut, in 12 hours, 11 minutes. I hardly mentioned it to anyone as I was using the traverse pretty much as a training exercise. I have all my hut to hut times documented in a notebook that I kept.

I've heard of others completing the traverse in good times but I think Malcolm and the others before and after him included Pinkham in the Traverse. -- Alex MacPhail

Alex MacPhail posted a detailed history of the Hut Traverse here:
whitemountainsojourn.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

White Mountains Hut Traverse Picnic:

(from Keith Nadeau) This is a multi-sport variation of the classic White Mountains Hut traverse. Scott Livingston and his wife Debbie did this route in 2011 and wrote about it on the FKT site. They didn’t submit as an FKT route due to a few logistics that made it not a true single push. Thanks to them for creating the idea and sharing. It is fascinating that this variation allows for a true solo adventure of the Hut to Hut traverse because you can do the whole thing without support. The bike portion starts in Franconia Notch at the Lafayette - Old Bridle Path/Falling Waters trailhead and ends at Nineteen Mile Brook trailhead on Rt. 16. Suggested path is: First ride up the bike path to Rt. 3, then right onto Rt. 115, then right onto Rt. 2, then a right on Rt. 16 all the way to Nineteen Mile Brook trailhead. There is a good spot to stash the bike in the woods, and at that point it’s time to switch to foot. Start with the 3.9 miles up to Carter Notch Hut and then follow a standard hut to hut traverse all the way to Lonesome Lake Hut. To finish simply backtrack from Lonesome Lake Hut to where you parked and thats it! You could also do the bike portion after the hut traverse but both have advantages and disadvantages. The Hut to Hut is such an amazing historical route and doing it in this style allows for experiencing all of that and then some while doing it solo. The added bike makes your legs feel like wet noodles and the extra foot miles adds to the already gnarly challenge! 

Distance: 101.7mi

Elevation Gain: 20,093ft