Catskill 8 Peaks - Peekamoose to Wittenberg - 12/29

[Jim K]

Catskill 8 Peaks - Peekamoose to Wittenberg - 12/29

Our group of 10 (Chris O, Jim K, Sam S, Ben S, Rob H, Brice W, Melissa C, Jason R, Joe B, and Ken S) started from Peekamoose Road PA and took trail up to Peekamoose then over to Table. I forgot how looong this section of trial was - maybe about 5 miles with 2600' of elev gain - very gradual though so not too tough. The trail was packed and bareboot-able although traction devices would make it easier - insteps or stabilicers - showshoes not needed. Once we tagged Pekka and Table the real fun began. We started our bushwacking from the saddle between Peeka and Table. Snow was consolidated and most of our party used shoeshoes although some stayed with stabilicers and did a fair share of postholing. Snow base must have been 12-24 inches of consolidated wet snow. The higher elevations had received frezzing rain the night b4 so there was a nice thick coating on the trees - nice to look at but not nice to wach thru - we got real wet to say the least as the morning sun came out to melt off the coating. Lots of crashing could be heard in the woods from the hikers as well as the stuff falling off the trees. Bushwacked the 4 trailless peaks - Lone, Rocky, BC, and Friday - picking our way thru and trying to avoid the thick fir/balsam. No real difficulty with Lone and took the eastern side of the direct ridge to Rocky to avoid some of the thickest stuff i could remember when approaching Rocky from the Neversink years ago. Still though, many times we just had to lower our heads and bash thru. I feared the wack from Rocky to BC since i had never taken that direct route before but it wasn't that bad - pretty much the same ol', same ol'. Followed the developing herd path from BC to Friday - cliffs were fun - our group split up to find the umm best (or most fun) way up. Hit thick stuff off the north side of Friday and got bogged down going around dink - much better to go to the west around "dink" at the ~3400 ft level. Got back on the trail and followed it over to Cornell then Wittenberg as the sun was setting - I got some nice pics hopefully i can post them. Trail was packed and very icy on any small rocky ledges that the trail went thru. At one point our group had to use romp to lower each other down a particularly tricky part just E of the cornell summit - a lot of fun to do in the dark. Traveled the last 4 miles from Wittenberg to Woodland Valley under headlamp - some minor tiptowing over some small streams. A great hike with this group - kept our sense of humor throughout the day... next plan is the devils path in a day - we'll wait to spring I think for that one ...

 

[ColdRiverRun]

Hope are tracks from Friday-12/28 across that whole march was helpful. We threw in Slide after Witt for a nice climb to end a stellar day.

 

[MattC]

At one point our group had to use rope to lower each other down a particularly tricky part just E of the cornell summit - a lot of fun to do in the dark.

I believe that would have been the spot known as the Cornell chute/chimney/crack. Hard enough going up in the winter, let alone coming down. Was it loaded w/ lots of snow, a little snow, or just water ice?

Matt

 

[Jim K]

ColdRiver - we saw your tracks here and there - i think the rain/sleet from Friday night washed most of it away and made them hard to notice ... what was your route after leaving Friday? You did Cornel and Wittenbg then over to Slide? Wow!

Matt- Hey there .. i think we have a common friend in Jay H .. i take full credit in introducing him to the catskills back in 2001(?) .. if i remember correctly we did Wittenberg in December - Jay's first and my 3rd catskills hike .... the cornel chute was just real icy as were all the rocky ledges on both sides of the cornell summit ...

 

[Jay H]

Hey Jim, I don't remember whose idea it was at all, but I think I'm the one with the maps and the directions I think...

I still remember doing Balsam and Eagle later that winter when I got my snowshoes and you didn't. It was somewhat broken to Balsam and Eagle was a pure snowfest... I remember you hating life that day!

Jay

 

[MattC]

Jim,

Mtn. Goat, Doodles and I did the Woodland Valley to Slide traverse yesterday. It looked like your group was off-trail for part way down from Wittenberg? This seemed to be indicated by the most broken out track diverging from the trail for a while. Maybe we should have taken that line ourselves, because we were more or less breaking trail much of the way, which was pretty exhausting for me after a while.

We did need crampons to get up the Cornell crack, and one of mine fell off, forcing me to lower back down on Doodles' rope a little ways to grab it! Fun...
Other than that, we used snowshoes start to finish. A few pitches on the way up Slide might have been more easily climbed w/ crampons as well, but we managed w/o. The one rather sketchy pitch above a rock overhang we all went off trail to the left to avoid. Once we summited Slide, it was smooth sailing back down and out, since the trail was very well broken out, as expected.

There was one guy who had gone all the way from Woodland Valley to Slide and back, so he had at least laid down one set of tracks that far. We met up with this guy briefly near the top of Cornell. He must be an animal to have done what he did in mostly unbroken, heavy snow. We do know that he got out okay because his car was gone when we got back to Woodland Valley. It was a tough hike, but a beautiful day to be out.

Matt