Zer0-G
New member
Hi All,
Iron Horse and I headed out on Saturday morning from the parking area at Platte Clove Road up the Long Path and headed towards Indian Head on the devils Path. It was a crisp morning and since we were listening to the weather reports on the Weather Band radio in the car, we decided to leave our Snowshoes in the car and just take our Crampons along.
There was not a lot of snow cover so we were comfortably progressing up to Indian Head, bumping into a few people here and there along the way.
It was a good hiking day.
Due to the warmer temperatures of the preceding days and the subsequent chilling, the western descent off of Indian Head was treacherous at spots. We were happy to have our Crampons along. Finding a stable footing, even with Crampons, in places was difficult.
The same scenario played out on Twin and Sugarloaf. The eastern approach to Sugarloaf, in places, was devoid of any snow cover for some long stretches but the Western descent was extremely icy. There was one very steep section in particular where the trail was so completely iced that we had to bushwhack around a particularly ledgy section, almost literally hanging from trees and rocks to descend 10 to 15 feet a few times.
This slowed our progress considerably and as a result we did not get anywhere near our chosen destination for the evening. Instead we stayed by the Mink Hollow Lean-to.
Temperatures dropped pretty quckly and were at it's lowest, 10 or 12 degrees. We were warm and cozy and had a good nights rest. The Snow started falling sometime around midnight and by morning about 4 to 6 inches had fallen.
We left camp. It was 15 degrees and still snowing lightly to moderately. Very windy. Never snowed heavily for the remaining time on trail.
We made our way up Plateau very cautiously as with the new snow cover we had difficulty locating any tricky icy patches. We ran into a few icy patches on the way up. Nothing significant. The summit of Plateau did not get any significant accumulations. A little drifting of up to perhaps a foot. Mostly 5 to 6 inches, a few spots with approximately 8 to 10 inches. The western descent off of Plateau was very safe and not very icy but again, due to the fresh snow cover and not being able to see if there was any ice, it was slower going than what we would have preferred.
We reached rt. 214 at 12:15 pm.
There was a shade more accumulation on the western descent off of Plateau.
We never needed the snowshoes. Both of us (especially me) wished we had more aggressive crampons for the icier sections.
Iron Horse and I headed out on Saturday morning from the parking area at Platte Clove Road up the Long Path and headed towards Indian Head on the devils Path. It was a crisp morning and since we were listening to the weather reports on the Weather Band radio in the car, we decided to leave our Snowshoes in the car and just take our Crampons along.
There was not a lot of snow cover so we were comfortably progressing up to Indian Head, bumping into a few people here and there along the way.
It was a good hiking day.
Due to the warmer temperatures of the preceding days and the subsequent chilling, the western descent off of Indian Head was treacherous at spots. We were happy to have our Crampons along. Finding a stable footing, even with Crampons, in places was difficult.
The same scenario played out on Twin and Sugarloaf. The eastern approach to Sugarloaf, in places, was devoid of any snow cover for some long stretches but the Western descent was extremely icy. There was one very steep section in particular where the trail was so completely iced that we had to bushwhack around a particularly ledgy section, almost literally hanging from trees and rocks to descend 10 to 15 feet a few times.
This slowed our progress considerably and as a result we did not get anywhere near our chosen destination for the evening. Instead we stayed by the Mink Hollow Lean-to.
Temperatures dropped pretty quckly and were at it's lowest, 10 or 12 degrees. We were warm and cozy and had a good nights rest. The Snow started falling sometime around midnight and by morning about 4 to 6 inches had fallen.
We left camp. It was 15 degrees and still snowing lightly to moderately. Very windy. Never snowed heavily for the remaining time on trail.
We made our way up Plateau very cautiously as with the new snow cover we had difficulty locating any tricky icy patches. We ran into a few icy patches on the way up. Nothing significant. The summit of Plateau did not get any significant accumulations. A little drifting of up to perhaps a foot. Mostly 5 to 6 inches, a few spots with approximately 8 to 10 inches. The western descent off of Plateau was very safe and not very icy but again, due to the fresh snow cover and not being able to see if there was any ice, it was slower going than what we would have preferred.
We reached rt. 214 at 12:15 pm.
There was a shade more accumulation on the western descent off of Plateau.
We never needed the snowshoes. Both of us (especially me) wished we had more aggressive crampons for the icier sections.
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