percious
Well-known member
Two days of ice climbing left my forearms raw enough to forego another pump-fest. Besides, it was -5*F and my partner took a nasty lead fall the day previous and did not feel up to chopping away for a third day.
After narrowly avoiding an oncoming traffic we found ourselves at the "App Gap." It was sufficiently blustery to scare my friends away, so I headed off solo. Realizing after about 10 minutes that the trail was mellow I ran bag to grab my skis. I cranked up the music and started in for the second time. I donned my skis and made a feable attempt at walking down the trail, falling countless times on the narrow snowshoe trail. The snowshoes went back on. At least the trail was well broken out.
After passing a few nice overlooks of camel's hump and the valley below I arrived at the ridgeline. I caught up with a couple who had started up ahead of me. Their dog was barking at a large moose standing nearby. I had a look, was stared down, and promptly headed southbound on the LT.
Next up I ran into the northern summit of Mad River Glen. The trail was hard to locate coming off from the top of the resort, but I discovered it after asking a few guys in an "interesting smelling" warming hut. The trail over to the southern summit was well broken with ski tracks, and had better clearance for the skis which stretched far above my head. Again I struggled to find the trail, but found sufficient snowshoe markings to continue on down the corridors of spruce. The going was tough as many low branches caught my skis as I walked. I passed a MRG ski patroller just as I caught my first view of Ellen. She looked formidable, but not too far away, with her shoulder exposed by the sloping ski trail.
The going got harder from here, but there was still a rough snowshoe trail. The problem became the ever present snow drift. I don't know if the snowmaking from the ski resorts contributed to the problem, but there were VERY high drifts. Since the drifts were more recent than the snowshoe tracks, it was necessary to search for the trail at the onset of each drifted section of snow.
The drifts got deeper and deeper as I approached the top of the first false summit on Ellen. Since I was wearing my "fast and light" 7x21s and had an estimated 35lbs. on my back the going was tough. Spruce traps abounded, and a few times I thought for sure I had lost one of my snowshoes to them.
I arrived at the Jeruselum trail junction. The snowshoe tracks carried on, the sign said 1.9 miles to the summit. I was in great spirits, it was a blue-bird day and the mushroom snow formations were breathtaking. For the next half hour or so the trail was reasonably easy to follow. Soon after I found myself in a maze of snowshoe tracks with no clear exit. I searched every dead end, finding a tree circled by snowshoe tracks, an obvious indication of the previous souls turnaround point.
I was getting a bit tired at this point, took a short break to grab some food and look at the time. I determined that my turn-around time co-incided pretty well with the last song playing on my iPod. I decided that if I had not found reasonable indication of a trail I would turn around. I left my pack briefly, as I found that the snow would hold my weight if I was not over burdened. I searched and searched, finally returning to my pack. I decided to drop down into this mini ravine which was obscured by a blowdown. I was convinced that the blowdown had obscured the trail. Since the trial followed the height of land according to the map I knew that if I kept blue sky on either side of me I would eventually find the spruce corridor out. The problem was that the shadows were getting longer and I knew the sky would not be blue forever. It was disheartening to think of being be-nighted due to the fact that I knew my friends would send help had I not contacted them by 8pm.
After narrowly avoiding an oncoming traffic we found ourselves at the "App Gap." It was sufficiently blustery to scare my friends away, so I headed off solo. Realizing after about 10 minutes that the trail was mellow I ran bag to grab my skis. I cranked up the music and started in for the second time. I donned my skis and made a feable attempt at walking down the trail, falling countless times on the narrow snowshoe trail. The snowshoes went back on. At least the trail was well broken out.
After passing a few nice overlooks of camel's hump and the valley below I arrived at the ridgeline. I caught up with a couple who had started up ahead of me. Their dog was barking at a large moose standing nearby. I had a look, was stared down, and promptly headed southbound on the LT.
Next up I ran into the northern summit of Mad River Glen. The trail was hard to locate coming off from the top of the resort, but I discovered it after asking a few guys in an "interesting smelling" warming hut. The trail over to the southern summit was well broken with ski tracks, and had better clearance for the skis which stretched far above my head. Again I struggled to find the trail, but found sufficient snowshoe markings to continue on down the corridors of spruce. The going was tough as many low branches caught my skis as I walked. I passed a MRG ski patroller just as I caught my first view of Ellen. She looked formidable, but not too far away, with her shoulder exposed by the sloping ski trail.
The going got harder from here, but there was still a rough snowshoe trail. The problem became the ever present snow drift. I don't know if the snowmaking from the ski resorts contributed to the problem, but there were VERY high drifts. Since the drifts were more recent than the snowshoe tracks, it was necessary to search for the trail at the onset of each drifted section of snow.
The drifts got deeper and deeper as I approached the top of the first false summit on Ellen. Since I was wearing my "fast and light" 7x21s and had an estimated 35lbs. on my back the going was tough. Spruce traps abounded, and a few times I thought for sure I had lost one of my snowshoes to them.
I arrived at the Jeruselum trail junction. The snowshoe tracks carried on, the sign said 1.9 miles to the summit. I was in great spirits, it was a blue-bird day and the mushroom snow formations were breathtaking. For the next half hour or so the trail was reasonably easy to follow. Soon after I found myself in a maze of snowshoe tracks with no clear exit. I searched every dead end, finding a tree circled by snowshoe tracks, an obvious indication of the previous souls turnaround point.
I was getting a bit tired at this point, took a short break to grab some food and look at the time. I determined that my turn-around time co-incided pretty well with the last song playing on my iPod. I decided that if I had not found reasonable indication of a trail I would turn around. I left my pack briefly, as I found that the snow would hold my weight if I was not over burdened. I searched and searched, finally returning to my pack. I decided to drop down into this mini ravine which was obscured by a blowdown. I was convinced that the blowdown had obscured the trail. Since the trial followed the height of land according to the map I knew that if I kept blue sky on either side of me I would eventually find the spruce corridor out. The problem was that the shadows were getting longer and I knew the sky would not be blue forever. It was disheartening to think of being be-nighted due to the fact that I knew my friends would send help had I not contacted them by 8pm.
