On the 19th of November I almost climbed Camel's Hump.
On the drive up to the trailhead it rained most of the time, sometimes heavily, but, as I had hoped, when I gained elevation it turned to snow. It was snowing lightly when I started off on Forest City Trail and continued to snow lightly for most of the hike.
There was no snow on the ground when I started, but as I got higher things turned white, and I was soon on microspikes, which I kept on for the rest of the trip. There were no views to speak of, since I was in a cloud when I was high enough, but it was never very cold.
I didn't see another person the entire hike.
After I got to the Long Trail I headed north. I could hear the wind in the tree tops, but it didn't seem like it would be too bad. When I crossed the treeline, however, the wind was strong enough that I had trouble keeping my balance. In addition, there were patches of ice that my microspikes had trouble grabbing on, but there was far too much rock to make putting on my crampons (which I had with me) worth while. I was making very slow progress, and I realized that since the wind was coming down to me from the ridge I was headed to it would probably get much worse once I attained the ridge. So I turned around, probably about 0.2 miles from the summit.
Camel's Hump has a bad weather bypass, which goes along Alpine and Monroe trails. I took that, stopping to look at the big airplane wing by Alpine Trail when I passed it. Going this way, instead of back the way I came, meant more elevation gain, since Alpine Trail loses elevation that Monroe Trail recovers, but it was out of the wind, so I was fine.
Monroe Trail crosses the Long Trail north of the summit and becomes Burrow's Trail. I took that back down. It got dark enough that I used my headlamp a couple of miles from the end, but Burrow's Trail had a lot of bootprints in the snow, and so was easy to follow. The final 0.7 miles was a stroll down a dirt road to the Forest City Trailhead.
Camel's Hump would have been number 57 for my project or resummiting the Northeast 111 in my 60s.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 56/115 (44/67, 11/46, 1/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 40/48; NEHH 89/100
LT NB 2009; CT NB 2017
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
On the drive up to the trailhead it rained most of the time, sometimes heavily, but, as I had hoped, when I gained elevation it turned to snow. It was snowing lightly when I started off on Forest City Trail and continued to snow lightly for most of the hike.
There was no snow on the ground when I started, but as I got higher things turned white, and I was soon on microspikes, which I kept on for the rest of the trip. There were no views to speak of, since I was in a cloud when I was high enough, but it was never very cold.
I didn't see another person the entire hike.
After I got to the Long Trail I headed north. I could hear the wind in the tree tops, but it didn't seem like it would be too bad. When I crossed the treeline, however, the wind was strong enough that I had trouble keeping my balance. In addition, there were patches of ice that my microspikes had trouble grabbing on, but there was far too much rock to make putting on my crampons (which I had with me) worth while. I was making very slow progress, and I realized that since the wind was coming down to me from the ridge I was headed to it would probably get much worse once I attained the ridge. So I turned around, probably about 0.2 miles from the summit.
Camel's Hump has a bad weather bypass, which goes along Alpine and Monroe trails. I took that, stopping to look at the big airplane wing by Alpine Trail when I passed it. Going this way, instead of back the way I came, meant more elevation gain, since Alpine Trail loses elevation that Monroe Trail recovers, but it was out of the wind, so I was fine.
Monroe Trail crosses the Long Trail north of the summit and becomes Burrow's Trail. I took that back down. It got dark enough that I used my headlamp a couple of miles from the end, but Burrow's Trail had a lot of bootprints in the snow, and so was easy to follow. The final 0.7 miles was a stroll down a dirt road to the Forest City Trailhead.
Camel's Hump would have been number 57 for my project or resummiting the Northeast 111 in my 60s.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 56/115 (44/67, 11/46, 1/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 40/48; NEHH 89/100
LT NB 2009; CT NB 2017
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
