DSettahr
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- Apr 23, 2005
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I only needed Basin for my winter 46 (in fact Saddleback was my very first winter high peak, way back in January 2006), but I'd never hiked the trail between Basin and Saddleback before, and decided to make a loop out of it.
Arrived at the trailhead at approxmately 6:30 in the morning, and started hiking in the dark. The trail was pretty slick and icy in spots, and I lost my balance a few times. Definitely microspikes are warranted at lower elevations in the present conditions! On the way in I took a quick side trip to check out the new location for the Deer Brook lean-to- looks great, and as usual, much thanks to the lean2rescue group for their hard work.
It was light out when I reached Johns Brook Lodge. Most of the recent tracks in the snow ended here. I continued on, making quick time to Bushnell Falls (where I heard a group getting ready for the day at the first lean-to). The crossing of Johns Brook at Bushnell Falls was pretty easy, facilitated by a pretty sturdy ice bridge.
I continued to make quick time to Slant Rock. Shortly before arriving, I passed a group of 2 guys headed out who'd been camped at Slant Rock. They said they'd done Marcy the day before, and that the views had been great but it had been a cold day.
Beyond Slant Rock, I took the Shorey Shortcut, and started to slow down a little bit. With only a 14 mile day, and no qualms about hiking the last few miles in the dark, I was in no hurry. When I turned off the Phelps trail, I left behind the most recent tracks in the snow, and was now following an old windblown set of tracks that looked to be nearly a week old.
The shortcut gets quit steep in spots, and I started to encounter some serious ice. I was about two thirds of the way to the height of land when I decided to put on my crampons at one particularly tricky ice flow.
In the past, I've found the Shorey Shortcut's loss of elevation before reaching the range trail to be pretty frustrating, but it didn't seem to bother me on this hike (perhaps since I knew I wouldn't have to return that way, climbing back up and over the shoulder of Haystack a second time). Soon, I was on the Range Trail proper and ascending Basin. By this point, I was pretty much in the clouds. I did encounter some exposed icy patches, but nothing I found to be too terribly difficult with crampons.
The summit of Basin on this day was pretty god-forsaken. Zero views, covered in a thin but solid coat of ice atop which numerous crystals of rime ice were perched, and very windy. Fortunately, the temperatures were quite warm, and so even with the wind chill, I still felt pretty comfortable.
I didn't stick around on Basin for very long since there wasn't much to see. Almost immediately after leaving the summit, I encountered an ice flow that looked like it'd present some difficulty. A long, steep flow that ended at a shallow ledge where the trail turned sharply to the right on top of a decent sized cliff. While I don't think that the ice would've posed any serious difficulty, a mistake would have certainly sent me sliding down the ice, picking up enough speed that there was no way I'd be able to stop before I hit the ledge and was thrown out into the murky gray clouds. I opted to take a short 200 foot bushwhack around this section of trail.
The remainder of the trail down into the col between Basin and Saddleback went quickly and easily. Some more patches of ice here and there, but nothing major.
Of course, the cliffs on Saddleback had been on my mind all day. It wasn't long after I'd started climbing uphill again that I reached them. At first, they didn't look too bad. I imagine in the summer that they are more psychologically difficult than they are technically difficult- it's pretty obvious that there are plenty of hand and foot holds as you climb. There certainly is a lot of exposure, however, which can definitely be pretty intimidating.
As I started to climb the cliffs, I became aware of two things. The first was that, while the first pitch or two of the lower section of the cliffs had seemed easy, now that I was midway up, due to the ice any mistake would result in my rapid descent back to the base of the cliffs, surely resulting in serious bodily harm. The second factor that I became keenly aware of was the ice. There was just enough of it that every exposed rock surface was slick- there was nothing I could grab on to with my hands; I was reduced entirely to using my ice ax to support my upper body. The ice was thin, however, so thin that being able to get any kind of grip with either my ax or my crampons was next to impossible.
With each pitch, I stopped to carefully consider my route, since any single failure was not an option. In one case, I chose a route that looked more difficult, but was far less likely to result in a dangerous long distance fall should I not succeed in maintaining my grip. I worked my way up slowly, searching around carefully for any bit of snow and ice that I could get a grip on with my ice ax that wouldn't fail. In that moment, I probably would've agreed to a trade with the devil- my soul for an extra ice ax. There were a few moments where my all of my weight was on only one single point of contact with the rock, and I certainly was not entirely comfortable with being in that predicament. While I did persevere, and eventually made it to the summit of the peak, it was more through brute strength than any amount of technical skill.
I ran into numerous fresh tracks on the summit of Saddleback. It seems that this peak is a much more popular winter destination than Basin. Soon after crossing the summit, I ran into a guy and girl ascending, and not long after a group of 2 girls at the junction with the Orebed Brook trail.
I kept my crampons on for the descent, as I wasn't sure what I'd encounter once I reached the new slides. It turned out that crampons were probably overkill on the slides (snowshoes or microspikes seemed to suffice for most hikers), but since I had them on, I was able to get out into the middle of the slide and take some pictures. Definitely a pretty impressive display of nature- that entire side of Saddleback seems to be more slide now than forest.
Rather than follow the trail on the descent, I opted to walk down the slide and then Orebed Brook. Given the amount of footprints I saw in the snow, it was clear I was not the only one who'd decided to do this, and I'm sure that in winter the slide will become the preferred approach on the lower sections of the mountain. Once the brook leveled off some, I stopped to finally remove my crampons.
I returned to the Johns Brook ranger station right at dusk, and began the hike out. When I was about a half mile from the trailhead, 2 other hikers caught up to me in the dark. It turned out that they were SummitHat and Jim46er, returning from ascents of Big Slide and Lower Wolfjaw. It was great to meet you guys and spend a some time chatting!
I reached the trailhead at approximately 6:15, so the hike took a little bit less than 12 hours.As far as conditions go, snow depths varied from about an inch at the trailhead, to 2 inches at Bunshell Falls, to 3 inches at Slant Rock, to 6 or 7 inches in the col between Basin and Saddleback. There were spots that I could have used snowshoes, but I made the decision to keep use my crampons for most of the day due to the ice I encountered, and I think that was the right choice. In retrospect, the boots that I was wearing probably weren't the best for some of the ice flows I'd encountered- the soles were pretty flexible which made front pointing with the crampons pretty difficult, and I was forced to mainly either plant my feet flat against the ice or side step my way up/down. I think that for the Saddleback cliffs especially, mountaineering boots with a rigid sole, and a small climbing ax in addition to my mountaineering ax would've been very beneficial. It certainly could be interesting to return to the Saddleback cliffs in late winter- I wonder if they get easier once the snows get deeper and ice becomes less of a problem. I would have to imagine that this is probably the case...
I now only have 8 winter high peaks left... Cliff, Redfield, Skylight, Gray, Macomb, South Dix, Hough, and Dix. Next up will be at least some of the C/R/S/G combo- I'm on the fence about either doing all 4 as part of a single overnight trip, or doing C/R and S/G as two separate day hikes. We shall see.
