H
HikerBob
Guest
Karen hadn't had a White Mountain outing since Poison Ivy's 48th on Carrigain last October so after looking at my remaining 4ks I decided we would give Moriah by way of the Carter Moriah trail a shot.
Nine miles round trip and nothing too difficult. What could be easier? Ha!
We arrived at the trailhead, geared up and walked the 50 feet from the van to the trailhead. One look beyond the plowed wall of snow told us it was going to be a snowshoe day. Unbroken snow, and plenty of it.
Right from the outset we were breaking trail in 8" of dry powder. The trail is well blazed in blue and the only head scratching happened near the start where the trail bears right (I remembered this from the WMG) but looks like it wants to go straight. A good streamer of blue flagging tape lures the unsure but ignore that and go right and blue blazes will confirm the choice.
My prediction that the snow amounts would diminish as we hit higher ground were firmly trounced by reality and the going got tougher and tougher. Where were all the faster hikers who always catch up and overtake us? I kept looking and thinking I heard voices. But no, we had the trail, and the trailbreaking, to ourselves.
After a while we decided on a 100 step rotation of trail breaking duty, with a few breather breaks in between changeovers. This worked pretty well and we marched onward and upward.
By the time we had reached 2,000 ft and neared Mt Surprise we knew Moriah would be for another day. We were now breaking trail in a consistant 18+ inches of powder and that just sucks the strength right out of you.
It took us around four hours to do the two miles to Mt Surprise and we decided that was as good a place to turn around as any. Going further was pointless as we would never get to Moriah by our turnaround time. We dropped pack and had lunch in the shelter of the little box canyon then headed down.
Although the descent was much easier it was still an effort. The powdery snow had backfilled some of our earlier work and warmer temps seemed to have softened things up a litle and we were still compacting the trail.
The descent took considerably less than the ascent but we were mighty glad to be done.
No 4k today but when is any day in the mountains a bad day?
To anyone heading up the Carter Moriah soon - your welcome! But be prepared for some hard work beyond Mt Surprise
Bob
Nine miles round trip and nothing too difficult. What could be easier? Ha!
We arrived at the trailhead, geared up and walked the 50 feet from the van to the trailhead. One look beyond the plowed wall of snow told us it was going to be a snowshoe day. Unbroken snow, and plenty of it.
Right from the outset we were breaking trail in 8" of dry powder. The trail is well blazed in blue and the only head scratching happened near the start where the trail bears right (I remembered this from the WMG) but looks like it wants to go straight. A good streamer of blue flagging tape lures the unsure but ignore that and go right and blue blazes will confirm the choice.
My prediction that the snow amounts would diminish as we hit higher ground were firmly trounced by reality and the going got tougher and tougher. Where were all the faster hikers who always catch up and overtake us? I kept looking and thinking I heard voices. But no, we had the trail, and the trailbreaking, to ourselves.
After a while we decided on a 100 step rotation of trail breaking duty, with a few breather breaks in between changeovers. This worked pretty well and we marched onward and upward.
By the time we had reached 2,000 ft and neared Mt Surprise we knew Moriah would be for another day. We were now breaking trail in a consistant 18+ inches of powder and that just sucks the strength right out of you.
It took us around four hours to do the two miles to Mt Surprise and we decided that was as good a place to turn around as any. Going further was pointless as we would never get to Moriah by our turnaround time. We dropped pack and had lunch in the shelter of the little box canyon then headed down.
Although the descent was much easier it was still an effort. The powdery snow had backfilled some of our earlier work and warmer temps seemed to have softened things up a litle and we were still compacting the trail.
The descent took considerably less than the ascent but we were mighty glad to be done.
No 4k today but when is any day in the mountains a bad day?
To anyone heading up the Carter Moriah soon - your welcome! But be prepared for some hard work beyond Mt Surprise
Bob
