One of the Best Climbs in New Hampshire
Mount Chocorua is definitely one of the best mountain climbs in all of New Hampshire and could easily be mistaken for a 4,000-footer because of its very steep, rocky, and rugged terrain up top. It is one of those mountains that looks like a real mountain from a distance, especially when you see that sharp summit rising above Lake Chocorua.
There are many trails going up, including the Piper and Liberty trails, and I hiked the mountain many times over the years. It was very close to the hostel in Conway Center, so if I was in New Hampshire and only had half a day, Chocorua was always one of those mountains I could run up for a quick hike. But the truth is, once you get near the top, it is so interesting that you really want a full day.
All photographs added to this page will be full-size and clickable. I will weave them between the narrative sections rather than place them in a gallery at the bottom.
A Mountain Made for Wandering
The summit is the ultimate. Chocorua is the perfect mountain for rock hopping, scrambling, and climbing off route because of that huge bald summit cone. In that way it always reminded me of Mount Monadnock. There are established trails, of course, but once you reach the open rock near the top you can wander around almost anywhere you want without impacting vegetation, as long as you make a serious effort to stay completely off the plants and remain on the rock.
There are cliffs, ledges, steep slabs, little protected places out of the wind, and dozens of spots where you can sit for a while and take in the views. You can scramble around on the ledges for hours. Few mountains in New Hampshire have such a large, open, rocky summit area, and that is why I never really thought of Chocorua as a mountain to simply climb, tag the summit, and head back down.
Jim Liberty Cabin and Those Early Years
There is also a really cool place to camp on Mount Chocorua called Jim Liberty Cabin, and I stayed there several times over the years. Some of those trips were during my early hiking years with Dan and Ricky in the mid-to-late 1980s, when the White Mountains were rapidly becoming a huge part of my life.
Compared with some of the open lean-tos where Dan and I stayed during our early winter backpacking trips, Jim Liberty Cabin felt almost luxurious. It had a wood stove and four good bunks. By our standards at the time, that was almost all the comforts of home.
Those were the years just after Dan and I had really begun serious hiking. The Columbus Day weekend hike in 1985 up the Old Bridle Path on Mount Lafayette to Greenleaf Hut had helped launch us into a winter when we were in the White Mountains nearly every weekend. We were still learning, sometimes the hard way, and we certainly did not have the equipment or experience that I developed later.
The Night the Radio Caught Fire
One of my strongest Jim Liberty Cabin memories was a trip when Dan, Ricky, and several of us started partying sometime around midday and kept going long after dark. There was beer, some pretty good booze, and music going until one or two in the morning. We had a little portable radio that did not play very loudly, but it was enough for the cabin, and at some point it was sitting next to a candle.
Eventually everyone fell asleep.
Then the radio caught fire.
I remember waking up to popping and crackling and complete chaos inside the cabin. Someone grabbed whatever liquid was nearby and threw it on the burning radio. I have always thought it might even have been alcohol, which probably was not the smartest firefighting decision any of us ever made. The fire went out, but the cabin filled with horrible smoke and fumes from the burning plastic and electronics.
The inside of Jim Liberty Cabin became something like a toxic steam bath, and we all had to get outside into the cold darkness while the cabin aired out. It was one of those completely ridiculous nights that becomes funnier with every passing year, although at the time the burning radio and poisonous smoke were pretty real.
Dan, Ricky, and the “Sandinistas”
Dan and Ricky also told me about another night at Jim Liberty Cabin when I was not there. It was around eleven at night when roughly twenty people wearing military-style clothing and apparently from South America arrived at the cabin. Dan and Ricky were understandably a little nervous when this huge group suddenly appeared in the middle of the night.
They jokingly referred to them afterward as the “Sandinistas.” Eventually they realized there was no danger, but the story became another one of those Jim Liberty Cabin memories that was retold for years.
Those early trips with Dan were also part of a much bigger learning period for me. Dan and I had two serious hypothermia close calls around Mount Passaconaway and Mount Whiteface. We were still wearing too much cotton, hiking in cold rain, and learning winter mountain safety through experience. Both times Dan was the one who made me get up, eat hot food, and get near the fire when I was becoming dangerously cold. Looking back, those early mistakes taught me lessons that stayed with me for the rest of my hiking and climbing life.
Bernie, Sean, and Noel
I also climbed Chocorua with Bernie and her boys, Sean and Noel, back early in our hiking years when Bernie and I were first dating. It was a pretty strong and strenuous climb for the boys, but they loved it.
That was one of the things that made Chocorua such a great mountain to share with other people. The climb was difficult enough to feel like a real accomplishment, but once you reached the open summit rock, the whole mountain became a giant playground. You could scramble, wander, find a ledge, get out of the wind, or just sit and stare across the White Mountains.
Again, once you are up top, it is absolutely the ultimate.
A Mountain I Kept Returning To
I climbed many bigger mountains in New Hampshire and eventually worked my way through nearly all of the 4,000-footers, but Chocorua never needed to be on a list for me. I went back because I liked the mountain.
Sometimes it was a quick day trip. Sometimes it was a cabin trip. Sometimes I was with Dan and Ricky, and later I was introducing Bernie and the boys to the mountain. Other times I simply wanted to spend a day scrambling around on that enormous rocky summit.
For the effort, the scenery, and the amount of freedom you have to wander around on the open rock, Mount Chocorua is still one of the best hikes in New Hampshire.
