Pig Pen
New member
- Joined
- May 23, 2004
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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BSP Triathalon
February 24, 2008
Having our slightly modified group of four (Rollie, Onestep, MarkL, and Pig Pen), and having apparently won the weather lottery, we made the decision to "go" on the previous Wednesday. Actually the first issue to arise on this trip was that we got late word that there was an additional person interested in doing the trip. So I called the BSP office on Wednesday to add this person to the roster. The request was denied because the rules say that you need five days notice to change a roster; apparently because they need to time let the rangers know who is in the park. I will try to rise above my temptation to use this as an opportunity to take cheap shots at the BSP rules. After all everyone can see the danger in allowing someone to join the trip who has only climbed Mt. Rainier, been on a Denali expedition, and done all but 9 of the Northeast 4000s in winter . And since they transmit the weather forecast into the park everyday there clearly would not be any room in the radio bandwidth to tell them that there was another person on the trip with 4 days notice. So I am not going to be critical.
Rather than my usual hackneyed description I will just publish an approximate timeline for the triathlon:
Under bright blue skies the triathlon went something like this:
First event: Skiing from Abol Bridge to Abol Campground: 5:25 to 7:30
Second Event: Snowshoeing from Abol Campground to the base of the Abol Slide: 7:45 to about 8:45.
Third Event: Cramponing: 9:00 am – Bottom of Slide, 11:05 am Tableland, 12:05 pm Baxter Summit, 1:30 pm Hamlin Summit, 3:00 pm Top of Abol Slide, 4:00pm back to our snowshoes.
And then we reversed the events. We got back to Abol Bridge at about 7:00 pm.
Comments:
The slide was in great condition. Lots of boilerplate snow with little ice. Our crampons bit real well. The snow had softened up a little by the time we went down making for a nice descent.
The wind was very steady at about 30-35mph (wild guess) on the tableland. A little more on Baxter Summit and in the Saddle. Warm temperatures made it tolerable for the most part.
We did not see anyone who had come up from Chimney Pond. We thought this was a little odd, since the weather was so nice. We saw two other groups who had camped at Abol.
We were a little chicken to strictly follow the Saddle trail on the way down from Baxter. There was a lot of glare ice on it and the rim of the Great Basin is not far away in spots.
For some reason that gentle hill on the Tote Road seemed like the headwall of Tuckerman’s Ravine going down in the dark. We divided our group into two sub-groups going down the hill; those who carried their skis, and those who got out of control and had to plant their butts to stop. No roster of the two groups will be published.
And finally; beware of the snowmobile trail-groomer at the end of the trip. A couple of us almost got run over as we were finishing up.
February 24, 2008
Having our slightly modified group of four (Rollie, Onestep, MarkL, and Pig Pen), and having apparently won the weather lottery, we made the decision to "go" on the previous Wednesday. Actually the first issue to arise on this trip was that we got late word that there was an additional person interested in doing the trip. So I called the BSP office on Wednesday to add this person to the roster. The request was denied because the rules say that you need five days notice to change a roster; apparently because they need to time let the rangers know who is in the park. I will try to rise above my temptation to use this as an opportunity to take cheap shots at the BSP rules. After all everyone can see the danger in allowing someone to join the trip who has only climbed Mt. Rainier, been on a Denali expedition, and done all but 9 of the Northeast 4000s in winter . And since they transmit the weather forecast into the park everyday there clearly would not be any room in the radio bandwidth to tell them that there was another person on the trip with 4 days notice. So I am not going to be critical.
Rather than my usual hackneyed description I will just publish an approximate timeline for the triathlon:
Under bright blue skies the triathlon went something like this:
First event: Skiing from Abol Bridge to Abol Campground: 5:25 to 7:30
Second Event: Snowshoeing from Abol Campground to the base of the Abol Slide: 7:45 to about 8:45.
Third Event: Cramponing: 9:00 am – Bottom of Slide, 11:05 am Tableland, 12:05 pm Baxter Summit, 1:30 pm Hamlin Summit, 3:00 pm Top of Abol Slide, 4:00pm back to our snowshoes.
And then we reversed the events. We got back to Abol Bridge at about 7:00 pm.
Comments:
The slide was in great condition. Lots of boilerplate snow with little ice. Our crampons bit real well. The snow had softened up a little by the time we went down making for a nice descent.
The wind was very steady at about 30-35mph (wild guess) on the tableland. A little more on Baxter Summit and in the Saddle. Warm temperatures made it tolerable for the most part.
We did not see anyone who had come up from Chimney Pond. We thought this was a little odd, since the weather was so nice. We saw two other groups who had camped at Abol.
We were a little chicken to strictly follow the Saddle trail on the way down from Baxter. There was a lot of glare ice on it and the rim of the Great Basin is not far away in spots.
For some reason that gentle hill on the Tote Road seemed like the headwall of Tuckerman’s Ravine going down in the dark. We divided our group into two sub-groups going down the hill; those who carried their skis, and those who got out of control and had to plant their butts to stop. No roster of the two groups will be published.
And finally; beware of the snowmobile trail-groomer at the end of the trip. A couple of us almost got run over as we were finishing up.
