Castles stormed: Northern Presis on 5/25/2009

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Fat Tuesday

New member
Joined
Sep 6, 2008
Messages
122
Reaction score
50
Location
Dorchester, MA
Lriz, Eric Explores y yo.

Larisa and I woke up at Barnes to blue and calm. Quick coffee stop (one of us got a coffee and the other got a turbo-something-something…. Hmmm) and we were off to Appalachia to meet Eric at 8:00. We left a car there and continued to the Castle Ridge Trailhead. What a pleasant trail. Flat and gradual for over a mile, and then a gentle climb up through woods. We emerged on ledges and pretty suddenly we were having fun storming the castles.

As soon as we reached the junction with the link we entered the wind vortex. Slow half mile up to Jefferson. I foolishly waited too long to put on a wind layer, and thirty minutes after I did so my hands were numb and slow to warm. We found a pocket of calm on the south side of Jeff and climbed up to tag our first summit. Quick snack break. Down to Edmands Col where we crossed the snowfield. Snow was soft and unintimidating. Until you looked down. Snowfield became snow trench almost as tall as me.

Oppresively windy all the way to Adams. Passed two backpackers who had come from Nauman. We’d only seen one other couple all day. Up Adams. Dark clouds came, but passed quickly. There was one crazy wind gust- maybe in the mid 50s – on the cone of Adams that almost psyched me out. But I kept going as Larisa was ahead of me and unfazed. Summit of Adams was… windy. We didn’t stay long. Hiked down to Madison Hut where we met a group of about eight. Snacked again. Left our packs and went up Madison. Forceful gust continued, pushing us up the mountain until we rounded south and- ahhh- respite from the wind. And then back into it as we emerged on the summit. We hung out longer here, took some photos and video and down we went. We wanted the Valley Way as it would provide shelter, but accidentally took Airline. We were glad we did, as it wasn’t half as windy as on the ridge and provided sweeping views of King Ravine. Requisite rocky presidential descent and we arrived at the car, nine hours later.

Great hike, beautiful day! Fun to meet Eric, and Larisa and I were long overdue for a successful hike. Posting photos within a thread is above my pay grade, Larisa promises to reply with her shots.
 
What a stellar day to climb the Northern Presis. It's amazing that I was actually able to take pictures given just how windy it was. We encountered so few people on the ridge that it felt - at times - as if we had the mountains entirely to ourselves. A real treat.

My twelve customary shots from the day. An additional 48 pictures can be found here.

Thank you Mardi and Eric for the excellent company... and of course for putting up with my incessant picture/video taking (movie can be found on facebook). As many can attest, this girl is far too easily amused...


































 
Two more (vertical) pictures. I'm feeling a bit nitpicky and couldn't bring myself to post them with the horizontally-aligned ones... ;)




 
Nice hike, and wonderful pictures as usual. I figured you ladies MUST be hiking someplace...seems everyone else on here was too. :)
 
That snowfield a couple of weeks ago didn't have that nice deep rut- we crossed it in thunder and lightening. One year Sapblatt and I saw a guy shoeveling a path in it for safety.

But the real point of my post was to say I liked the title of your post, Castle's Stormed .... :cool:
 
Nice;)

That rut is what kept me from falling off the Cliffs of Insanity, at the end of which there would have been no difference "between mostly dead and all dead" :)

I'm sure someone shoveled that rut as it began exactly at the point where the path started to go down. I actually slipped on my arse right there, because I wasn't using my poles, because of the safety of the trench....

so thanks to whoever shoveled it!
 
Markk is da shovel man

Markk of VFTT is da man with the shovel. The very same fellow who shovels snow to build the tower on Mt Hale. He pm'd me to invite to shovel snow here, but I had to decline. He says he didn't have time to finish the trench and is going back this weekend?? Here's a picture I took of him on Mt Hale from top of his tower.

2735019690088087945S600x600Q85.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
Last edited:
The spiky hairstyles ( or is that just really stiff gel?) suggest the wind was a was of the zesty westy variety.

Looks like it was a lively day to be in the Prezzies :D
 
As of yesterday the trench is still there, the cut steps still step-shaped, and very, very much appreciated. :)
 
Top