Tom Rankin
Well-known member
We started out at 7:30 AM from Upper Works and got to Uphill Leanto at 12:00. It was COLD! It was Windy! The herd path was broken, much to our delight! BUT! Whoever it was turned back after less than 5 minutes! 
So we decided to go for it. We missed the turn off and got to the col, and were at least rewarded with a sight of the Cliffs on Cliff. We turned around and found the herd path. It was slow going. There was up to 2' of new snow with a crust underneath that kept breaking, tons of blowdown, steep icy cliffs, and ice encrusted trees all conspiring to keep us from our goal. We kept losing the herdpath and re-finding it, with much effort and loss of daylight and time.
Finally we made it to the 'first' bump at about 3:00 (this is less than 1 mile from the Leanto!) and could not find our way over to the true summit. We gave up at 3:15 and headed back. It only took 40 minutes to return to the shelter, having taken 200 minutes to ascend!
The walk out (3.5 hours) was filled with the starry host, a small compensation for the failed attempt.
On our way down the road, a vehicle approached with flashing lights, and then police lights. We stopped and rolled down the window. Our hosts at Aunt Polly's had called the DEC, worried that we were out too late in the frigid conditions. The ranger was very friendly and glad to see us safe. We felt bad that we had to cause an 'incident', but we forgot to tell 'Polly' where we were going and when we might return.
Lesson Learned: Always leave an itinerary!
Other lessons learned: Wait for PinPin to break the trail!
I was really surprised at the conditions of the trail. It looks like no one has been there for a long time?
So we decided to go for it. We missed the turn off and got to the col, and were at least rewarded with a sight of the Cliffs on Cliff. We turned around and found the herd path. It was slow going. There was up to 2' of new snow with a crust underneath that kept breaking, tons of blowdown, steep icy cliffs, and ice encrusted trees all conspiring to keep us from our goal. We kept losing the herdpath and re-finding it, with much effort and loss of daylight and time.
Finally we made it to the 'first' bump at about 3:00 (this is less than 1 mile from the Leanto!) and could not find our way over to the true summit. We gave up at 3:15 and headed back. It only took 40 minutes to return to the shelter, having taken 200 minutes to ascend!
The walk out (3.5 hours) was filled with the starry host, a small compensation for the failed attempt.
On our way down the road, a vehicle approached with flashing lights, and then police lights. We stopped and rolled down the window. Our hosts at Aunt Polly's had called the DEC, worried that we were out too late in the frigid conditions. The ranger was very friendly and glad to see us safe. We felt bad that we had to cause an 'incident', but we forgot to tell 'Polly' where we were going and when we might return.
Lesson Learned: Always leave an itinerary!
Other lessons learned: Wait for PinPin to break the trail!
I was really surprised at the conditions of the trail. It looks like no one has been there for a long time?
