peak_bgr
New member
Well winter is definatly here. Brian and I got out of the car under a pretty heavy snowfall, while watching what looked to be a newby hiker battle his snowshoes and his pack. We started the hike at 7:30am at the AMR parking. I was looking forward to nailing these three peaks for a while, lucky Brian already has two of them-so, we saved the one he didn't have for last. You know, to give him something to look forward to.
The Lake Road was very hard packed from some serious snowmobile action over the last couple days so we made really good time to the Baver Meadow Falls cutover trail. The trail has a hard pack under about 3 inches of soft powder, slightly pushed aside by two hikers ahead of us. This section is short to the falls but to me it always seems to take forever, but today was different, we were standing at the base of the falls in what seemed like minutes. Must have been Brians exhilerating conversation.
The steep climb up the ladder to the top of the falls was very slippery, not ice but a thick crust layer, we barebooted it knowing that crampons are a little overkill of a long section of this trail. The snow was getting deeper, but still powder, so it really didn't effect anything but it was approaching 5". About 3/4 of the way up this trail Brian found an instep crampon, must have be from the group ahead of us, maybe we catch up to them, they're gonna need it for Gothics anyhow. We did catch up to them but not until the col, where they were about to go over to Gothics, this one guy with one crampon. Hell, one leg wouldn't know what the other was doing like that.
Anyhow they left their packs (I don't recommend) and headed to Gothics, breaking trail of about 6" of powder. We went off to Armstrong, breaking trail in 6"-8" of powder. Easy, we bare booted it all the way to the summit. The summit was a little socked in, but we could see Upper, Gothics, and Saddleback pretty easy. Wind was pretty strong I would estimate a steady 20 mph-probobly not that high, but it was cold too. 10 degrees acording to my handy dandy thermometer. We glissaded back down very fast to the col.
We decided since Gothics is a much steeper climb from here we would get our crampons out. As we were doing that I could feel my fingers getting frost bit again from last weeks freeze fest in the Santanonis. Just before we took off a group of four came up to the col, and we got chatting a little. Come to find out one guy was only four away from his winter finish and another guy was on his fourth round of the winter 46. The trail to gothics was only slightly broken by the two guys prior, but not a big deal, as all the other trails there was a hard base up to "winter tree line" but at that point the snow was already covered in. Oh, that guy, he dropped his crampon again near the top, we still have it. Never did see them again after we passed them on the way up Gothics. The snow drifts were pretty deep, but it obscured the trail and I found myself fighting a few small spruce traps as I stepped from the hard pack. The summit again had limited views, but great views anyhow, I was looking forward to Pyramid.
The wind along the ridge to the trees was unbearable without a face mask, but it was too damn cold to stop and put it on, so I ran and suffered the thawing effect of my cheeks on the way down. We passed another group of four on the way up Gothics, "windy up there?" He could see it in my face-still can actually. The summit of Pyramid is never a disappointment, only slightly smaller than Gothics, but with a top 3 view in the Dax.
We took off our crampons packed them away and planned a fast glissading descent of Pyramid, that it was. We were at the trail junction with Sawteeth and our route down. On our climb of Sawteeth we passed two gentleman as they were coming down. They couldn't believe we were barebooting it, and no crampons. We didn't need them, hard base, small amount of powder, great traction. "That's gonna be fun going down" one said. "Exactly" was my response. They don't glissade, the one guy said when the going is too steep he goes down backwards in his snowshoes. That can't be easy. We were on top pretty quick, but I have to admit my legs were getting tired. It took us 10 minutes to glissade the half mile back to the junction. Then another 45 minutes to get back to the lake 1.7 miles away. Very fast going down hill, conditions are perfect for it.
Back at the lake now was a 4 mile road walk back to the car, with even more snowmobile tracks. If you ski, right now the road is well groomed. As are most of the trails from me butt sliding.
The Lake Road was very hard packed from some serious snowmobile action over the last couple days so we made really good time to the Baver Meadow Falls cutover trail. The trail has a hard pack under about 3 inches of soft powder, slightly pushed aside by two hikers ahead of us. This section is short to the falls but to me it always seems to take forever, but today was different, we were standing at the base of the falls in what seemed like minutes. Must have been Brians exhilerating conversation.
The steep climb up the ladder to the top of the falls was very slippery, not ice but a thick crust layer, we barebooted it knowing that crampons are a little overkill of a long section of this trail. The snow was getting deeper, but still powder, so it really didn't effect anything but it was approaching 5". About 3/4 of the way up this trail Brian found an instep crampon, must have be from the group ahead of us, maybe we catch up to them, they're gonna need it for Gothics anyhow. We did catch up to them but not until the col, where they were about to go over to Gothics, this one guy with one crampon. Hell, one leg wouldn't know what the other was doing like that.
Anyhow they left their packs (I don't recommend) and headed to Gothics, breaking trail of about 6" of powder. We went off to Armstrong, breaking trail in 6"-8" of powder. Easy, we bare booted it all the way to the summit. The summit was a little socked in, but we could see Upper, Gothics, and Saddleback pretty easy. Wind was pretty strong I would estimate a steady 20 mph-probobly not that high, but it was cold too. 10 degrees acording to my handy dandy thermometer. We glissaded back down very fast to the col.
We decided since Gothics is a much steeper climb from here we would get our crampons out. As we were doing that I could feel my fingers getting frost bit again from last weeks freeze fest in the Santanonis. Just before we took off a group of four came up to the col, and we got chatting a little. Come to find out one guy was only four away from his winter finish and another guy was on his fourth round of the winter 46. The trail to gothics was only slightly broken by the two guys prior, but not a big deal, as all the other trails there was a hard base up to "winter tree line" but at that point the snow was already covered in. Oh, that guy, he dropped his crampon again near the top, we still have it. Never did see them again after we passed them on the way up Gothics. The snow drifts were pretty deep, but it obscured the trail and I found myself fighting a few small spruce traps as I stepped from the hard pack. The summit again had limited views, but great views anyhow, I was looking forward to Pyramid.
The wind along the ridge to the trees was unbearable without a face mask, but it was too damn cold to stop and put it on, so I ran and suffered the thawing effect of my cheeks on the way down. We passed another group of four on the way up Gothics, "windy up there?" He could see it in my face-still can actually. The summit of Pyramid is never a disappointment, only slightly smaller than Gothics, but with a top 3 view in the Dax.
We took off our crampons packed them away and planned a fast glissading descent of Pyramid, that it was. We were at the trail junction with Sawteeth and our route down. On our climb of Sawteeth we passed two gentleman as they were coming down. They couldn't believe we were barebooting it, and no crampons. We didn't need them, hard base, small amount of powder, great traction. "That's gonna be fun going down" one said. "Exactly" was my response. They don't glissade, the one guy said when the going is too steep he goes down backwards in his snowshoes. That can't be easy. We were on top pretty quick, but I have to admit my legs were getting tired. It took us 10 minutes to glissade the half mile back to the junction. Then another 45 minutes to get back to the lake 1.7 miles away. Very fast going down hill, conditions are perfect for it.
Back at the lake now was a 4 mile road walk back to the car, with even more snowmobile tracks. If you ski, right now the road is well groomed. As are most of the trails from me butt sliding.
