bryan
New member
date: 2/16/13
conditions: south arm road is plowed and in good shape the roughly 9.7 miles in to where the standard logging road route leaves to elephant (old country road to elephant mountain road all road and turns unmarked). there is a nice large plowed out area right at the start of the road with plenty of room to park. we followed the old country road for roughly .4 then turned left onto elephant mountain road bearing right around 1.1 and continued the 3 total miles to the usual summer parking area at on old log landing. 2-4 inches of snow on the roads over a hard base that has seen some snowmobile use in the recent past. from the summer parking we headed up hill and to the left on an older log road (cairn visible above snow) to another landing where we started up the usual route to the left (another cairn visible). ignore the blue flagging marking the old clearwater brook trail that leaves to the right and continue up through the cut. the openings are a bit different in the winter, but we continued trying to avoid thicker areas with 6-8 inches of heavy powder snow over a consolidated base. rather than trying to head direct for the summit we continued more on a north bearing finding good woods up to the prominent road around 3350ft. we stayed on roughly the same bearing through more good woods with one nasty thick spruce area to the summit ridge just east of the summit. we followed the summit ridge through open woods to the highpoint with sign and register. we stuck to our tracks on the descent circumnavigating the one difficult spruce section on the way down. snow in the woods is pretty firm under the new powder with some minor spruce traps along the way.
equipment: we wore snowshoes the whole hike.
comments: a nice day on elephant. the roadwalk went quickly with some nice looks to the surrounding peaks. we found some great lines most of the way to the summit with just the one nasty section we were able to bypass on the descent. the final couple hundred yards took us a while with a number of false starts trying to find a reasonable line through the thick spruce protecting the summit area. keeping east of the highpoint to the ridge then turning west to the summit seemed to be the best bet. the summer herd paths around the summit are non-existent this time of year. some pretty substantial snow in the woods up high. thanks to tom for a great hike.
bryan
[email protected]
conditions: south arm road is plowed and in good shape the roughly 9.7 miles in to where the standard logging road route leaves to elephant (old country road to elephant mountain road all road and turns unmarked). there is a nice large plowed out area right at the start of the road with plenty of room to park. we followed the old country road for roughly .4 then turned left onto elephant mountain road bearing right around 1.1 and continued the 3 total miles to the usual summer parking area at on old log landing. 2-4 inches of snow on the roads over a hard base that has seen some snowmobile use in the recent past. from the summer parking we headed up hill and to the left on an older log road (cairn visible above snow) to another landing where we started up the usual route to the left (another cairn visible). ignore the blue flagging marking the old clearwater brook trail that leaves to the right and continue up through the cut. the openings are a bit different in the winter, but we continued trying to avoid thicker areas with 6-8 inches of heavy powder snow over a consolidated base. rather than trying to head direct for the summit we continued more on a north bearing finding good woods up to the prominent road around 3350ft. we stayed on roughly the same bearing through more good woods with one nasty thick spruce area to the summit ridge just east of the summit. we followed the summit ridge through open woods to the highpoint with sign and register. we stuck to our tracks on the descent circumnavigating the one difficult spruce section on the way down. snow in the woods is pretty firm under the new powder with some minor spruce traps along the way.
equipment: we wore snowshoes the whole hike.
comments: a nice day on elephant. the roadwalk went quickly with some nice looks to the surrounding peaks. we found some great lines most of the way to the summit with just the one nasty section we were able to bypass on the descent. the final couple hundred yards took us a while with a number of false starts trying to find a reasonable line through the thick spruce protecting the summit area. keeping east of the highpoint to the ridge then turning west to the summit seemed to be the best bet. the summer herd paths around the summit are non-existent this time of year. some pretty substantial snow in the woods up high. thanks to tom for a great hike.
bryan
[email protected]
