Did Garfield Ridge E+W and Garfield Today 11/18
Hi Beth,
You may not see this before you take off on your trip - but just in case, here are highlights from pretty much the same outing done today. Our route was up Gale River, do the two NHHH ridge peaks, Garfield, and down the Garfield Trail. A completely easy bareboot until proceeding W from E Garfield Ridge, where there were steep exposed ledge pitches on the trail, completely covered with glare ice. That was the worst, but there were several other challenging ice spots on the way to Garfield.. Microspikes worked fine for these. The Garfield Trail down was trouble free.
Only other thing out of the ordinary to report is that the jar on W Garfield Ridge fell off its bracket and was stashed in a rock nook a few feet away. This worked fine for the three seasons, but will not be viable in the winter, as not only the nook but all the rocks, will be under 4+ feet of snow. What's needed is some sort of band with which to attach the glass jar (roughly 4" across) to a vertically oriented bar on the tree. 2 3' pieces of duct tape wrapped round and round it and the bracket would probably be more than adequate for a couple of years. If you see this in time, please do come prepared to make this fix!
Enjoy your trip!
Alex
