Aesop74
New member
My good friend Todd Wilson and I started out from the end of Moon Haw Road in the last parking lot on the right before the gated home. Hiked up into the col from 1:00 - 4:45, a gain of 2149'. Camped around 3370' in pretty severe wind and a mix of snow, ice and rain. Started out in boots but switched over to snowshoes around the 1st ledge on the Friday ridge around 2550'. The col between BC and Friday still has 3' of snow in places. Someone had recently attempted to posthole both mountains. From the registers it was hard to tell if they made it.
We climbed up the rim ledge to the left of the traditional spot after straying too far left from Whale Rocks. It was a crazy steep climb up through ice falls and blowdowns which made things exciting.
We summited Balsam Cap at 7:33 a.m. with limited views due to the clouds but we did spook a snowshoe hare around 3500' which was exciting. That explains the bobcat tracks we saw in the area as well. After BC we made our way through a portion of the col before ditching off the rim ledge and heading down to about the 3300' mark skirting the lower ledges of Friday. Similar to returning to Whale Rocks but we did not descend that far. We then came back up the rim ledge to the final ledges on Friday. The headwall near the 3550' mark was pretty awesome. We went up the left side very steeply and then switched over the chute to get on top of the final ledge. Walked our way around the north side of the mountain before following a pretty well worn trail on mostly hard pack to the canister. We had amazing views of Samuels point, Overlook, Indian Head, Tobias, part of Twin, the Blackhead range in the distance, and Cornell and Wittenburg right next door. Made up for the cloudy viewpoint on Balsam Cap.
#'s 26 and 27 leaving 12 to go to complete the 39 required. Getting there.
We climbed up the rim ledge to the left of the traditional spot after straying too far left from Whale Rocks. It was a crazy steep climb up through ice falls and blowdowns which made things exciting.
We summited Balsam Cap at 7:33 a.m. with limited views due to the clouds but we did spook a snowshoe hare around 3500' which was exciting. That explains the bobcat tracks we saw in the area as well. After BC we made our way through a portion of the col before ditching off the rim ledge and heading down to about the 3300' mark skirting the lower ledges of Friday. Similar to returning to Whale Rocks but we did not descend that far. We then came back up the rim ledge to the final ledges on Friday. The headwall near the 3550' mark was pretty awesome. We went up the left side very steeply and then switched over the chute to get on top of the final ledge. Walked our way around the north side of the mountain before following a pretty well worn trail on mostly hard pack to the canister. We had amazing views of Samuels point, Overlook, Indian Head, Tobias, part of Twin, the Blackhead range in the distance, and Cornell and Wittenburg right next door. Made up for the cloudy viewpoint on Balsam Cap.
#'s 26 and 27 leaving 12 to go to complete the 39 required. Getting there.
