ctsparrow
New member
Off to Equinox i went after loading the kids on the bus. Two & half hours later arriving at the Burr & Burton School trailhead, with a start time of 10:40am. I knew this was no easy climb as vert is close to 3000' in a short distance. I knew i should've gotten my backside into the gym prior, but off i went. The trail was pretty packed, just a little overnight fluff, but the lower elevations has quite a few crossing ski trails so i soon discovered my snow shoes were overkill here. Once past the cabin by the trail i put on crampons just for better traction as the grade began to increase. It's still old woods road walking..on snow. Tracks of either a snowboarder or butt-bobb as i like to call them were present from an earlier day. I soon realized i was making fresh prints for the day. I figured 3 hours time to get to the top, and i gave myself a 2:00pm turnaround time. I traveled through the 'bendover tree' area, as previously mentioned by prior posts..i found later that this section was approx. my half way up point time-wise. Once reaching the final blue summit arrow sign (also the upper spring sign), where you start to truly climb to the ridge, the grade increased significantly. i stayed in crampons as there wasn't much to post into, but relented into snowshoes at the double climb over blowdown. By now, i was passing three hours and was getting pissy about reaching the summit. I did however enjoy the many snowshoe hare tracks in this spruce laden section..it kept my spirits up. Finally i spotted the first tower ahead. The trail suddenly vanished as the only prior tracks disappeared into pure spruce jam. I went to the right and bashed through my own spruce hedge exiting by the door of the tower bldg. Now some more confusion on the'road', i soon discovered that walking past the tower with it on my right while on the road brought me to the continuation of the trail off the road on my left. Follow this up the hill past the summit tower and onto the the building. I arrived at 1:57pm!! I hung out at the summit bldg, took one picture...yahoo, of the snow covered summit sign, i had a low layer of grey clouds around and i was concerned about visibility if it lowered and a chance of snow. It was however tolerably warm so there was no hurry off the summit except for time factors. So at 2:06pm, i departed. I truly love descending a snowy mountain winter hiking. It is so kind and gentle to my hips and knees, and although i was envious of prior butt-sliders, my body probably would have revolted had i had a sled and had sit-down/slide/standup and repeat many times. My climbing time was 3hrs 20mins, my descent 1hr 30mins....oh yeah. This ne100 climbs like a nh48 presi. Overall a nice day outside, beautiful in the spruce zone. ctsparrow
