Cliff, via Ed’s Pond, 28,02,09

[BlackSpruce]

Driving along the UW road seeing the numerous cars parked along the road at the Santanonis Trailhead Alex assumed that his four hours of non-stop trail breaking to the summit of Santanoni along a route close to the Tahawus Club herdpath was to be traveled by a large number of winter climbers out to enjoy another beautiful sunny day in the mountains. Consequently the trailhead at the very end of the road wasn’t very busy and neither was Adams/Allen’s. Due to the recent rain all of the high water bridges had to be used in order not to get wet. Traversing Flowed Land was a bit tricky due to the large amount of slush in places, crossing over the Opalescent itself was intimidating as we could see that it was only a new thin layer of ice over a very recently overflowing river whose edges were slushy. Still careful route choosing for knowing well the area helped us to safely reach the Eastern shore of Flowed Lands. Shortly after passing by the lean-to we were pleasantly surprised to see fresh tracks heading in our planned direction. As we climbed up a perfect and very direct path -which still looped to the right at the beginning to slab the lowest, steepest and usually very icy section of the drainage- we could tell that whoever was breaking trail knew the route perfectly. Sure enough, upon reaching Ed’s Pond, we met J. S., who calls the path he has taken numerous times the “155” for the obvious reason. As always the tiny pond which sits immediately below the tall ledges of the one before last Cliff Mountain false summit was a pleasantly sunny and wind protected rest area. Instead of crossing the pond and travel the woods a .1-m up to rejoin the regular herd path Jim contoured to the right of the rocky bump and then headed directly to the summit. It was just a perfect day in the woods with friends and Gary completed his 6th winter round on the summit.

*** Since Monday new few inches of snow cover it may be difficult to cross Flowed Lands safely from now on***