Trip Overview
Mt. Tecumseh is located in New Hampshire’s Southern White Mountains, more specifically Waterville Valley. From Boston it is only about a 2-hour drive which makes a for a great day trip. In terms of trailheads, you can access summit routes via Tripoli Rd or from the Waterville Ski Resort. The Tripoli Rd is closed during the winter months, so for this reason, we took the Mt. Tecumseh Trail Head from the Waterville Valley Ski Area Rd. The below Google map location is spot on and can be used for easily finding the trailhead and parking. Parking off of Waterville Valley Ski Area Road is free, however, fills up quickly on a good ski day.
Note: Tripoli Rd is closed during the winter months so plan your trailhead access accordingly
From the Ski Area Parking Lot, you will climb 2,200ft in about 2.5 miles to the summit. Overall this is a moderate to easy hike and at 4003ft it will check off one of your NH 48 peaks over 4k. Not sure if I would go back to repeat this during the summer, but it’s a great winter peak and deserves a summit visit. If you bag it early enough, you can get some laps in at Waterville Valley Resort making it a full adventure.
Gear
- Kahtoola Microspikes
- MSR Lightning Ascent Snowshoes (Click here for Review)
- Black Diamond Trail Pro Shock Trekking Poles
- Arcteryx Atom LT Hoody (Click here for Review)
Log
We did this hike in mid-January on a fairly mild day with hi temps in the upper 20s. Earlier that week the mountain received around 5″ of snow, but the trail had experienced enough early morning traffic that it was easy to navigate. Despite the boot pack, we used a combination of snowshoes and microspikes to summit.
With the multiple stream crossings, pine glades and decent summit views its a fun and laidback winterhike. Not everyone in our crew had snowshoes and they were able to rent at the Waterville Valley Adventure Center. Keep in mind that this is located about 2 miles from the trailhead (Ski Resort) parking lot, we learned this the hard way assuming it was at the Waterville Valley Ski Lodge. The adventure center is on our list for a standalone return trip. Their Cross Country Skiing center looks to be a solid setup…next time.
-Happy Wildernessing!
Discovering | New England | Wilderness 