New Hampshire - Artists Bluff vs. Bald Mtn

[kirkmallory]

Teresa and I did the short loop hike over both Artists Bluff and Bald Mountain in New Hampshire on Monday. Both are listed at 2,340 feet on Lists of John, but Artists Bluff is considered the ranked peak - probably because its contour is slightly bigger. There is not a view of Bald from Artists Bluff due to trees, but Bald's summit is open. It appeared to both of us that we were standing much higher than the treetops on Artists Bluff. Do any other New Englanders who have climbed both think that Bald is much higher?

[hikenewhampshire]

I would have thought that Bald Mtn is the higher point but the old 15' quad seems to show it lower and I expect the contours in a civilized area to be good although more remote areas of this map are terrible
http://docs.unh.edu/NH/frcn32nw.jpg

It's not that hard to climb both and be sure :-)

[kirkmallory]

Interesting. If this was what the current topo looked like, Artists Bluff would be listed at 2368 and Bald would be listed as 2330 on LoJ.

Glad we did both! We did this short hike after the Franconian Traverse, and were going to just aim for Artists Bluff since it's the higher & ranked peak, but saw that Bald was open & likely had the better view - which it did! Nice loop. Bald was a much nicer peak with some cool slabs below the summit.

This picture shows the view of Artists Bluff from Bald. The closer trees are on the summit of Artists Bluff. It really looked as though those treetops were much lower - not sure if this picture really shows that. The apine peak in the distance is Lafayette, with Eagle Cliff in between.