East Dix Attempt from Rt 73

[Ashfordite]

January 10th. We followed a faint path of previous hikers for the first few miles. No difficulties with the brook crossings. The further we went, the more difficult it was to follow the previous tracks because of increased snow. We made it to the ravine, mostly on the established herd path. Once in the ravine, there was no sign of the herd path. . We made our own way through, crossing and re-crossing the brook, which is not solidly frozen. We followed the ravine to a point where we thought the herd path departed. We then used the GPS to aim for the base of the slide in hopes of reconnecting with the herd path. The snow was deep and powdery, very slow climbing. The forest thickened as we climbed and eventually we were fighting our way through thick growth. We encountered the northern of the two slides (we were aiming for the southern). We were only a tenth of a mile from the southern slide, but I thought it would be dangerous to cross to the other side of the northern slide. We decided to switch to crampons and make our way up the edge of the northern slide. We went up about a tenth of a mile before we decided to turn back. We had run out of time and energy. Conditions on the slide varied from deep powder, crusty snow, glare ice and a little bare rock.

I don’t think the positions of the slides are shown accurately on my topo map. I believe that the slides extend down the mountain further than shown. When finding our way to the base of the southern slide, we were aiming too high up the mountain. Don’t follow our tracks out of the ravine unless you are prepared to cross or climb the slide.