I’ve climbed Greylock during winter in the past and that ascent was a full on deep snow ordeal. Snowshoes were mandatory. My daughter had MLK day off and I decided to take it off to hike it again knowing this time would be more spring like. I did ping some helpful folks on Instagram to get the current conditions and as suspected, snowshoes were not needed but Microspikes were mandatory. Off I go to EMS to grab a pair for my daughter.
I like the Thunderbolt Trail since it is the shortest way up and really
Our route
smacks you into shape right out of the gate. I also wanted her to see it and if she’d be interested in skiing it under better conditions. We parked at the Theil Road lot and went up the Thunderbolt and came down Bellows Pipe.
It was a beautiful day! Low 20’s F when we left the car but we were pulling off layers in the first half mile and were down to a shirt in no time. Got maybe .25 miles before the Microspikes were mandatory. A lot of ice on the trail.
Happy girl with new Microspikes
The trail up is steep in places… really steep. The pictures do not capture the slope angle but when covered with a layer of snow and ice you know a fall will result in a nice little slide.
Conditions going up
We arrived at the Thunderbolt Ski Hut in a little over 2 hours and had lunch and fired up the stove for coffee and coco. It got cold in the hut and in hindsight we should have eaten outside in the sun. After lunch we explored the tower and summit before heading back down. The tower clean-up this past summer really shows. in fact, the tower seems too new. I love being up here in the winter when the cars and crowds are gone and highly recommend it.
That’s the Thunderbolt Hut on the left
The shiny clean war memorial tower at the summit
We chatted with someone up top who suggested the Bellows Pipe trail to descend to mix things up a little and avoid the steep down and this turned out to be a great idea. It was maybe a mile longer but much easier on the knees.
All said and done we logged 6.75 miles, ~2,500 ft elevation gain and total time of 3hr : 58m including lunch and pictures.
C
Hike, Peddle, Climb, and Paddle 