Tom Rankin
Well-known member
That's the peakbagger version of the title. 
Laurie wanted it to be '4 more peaks!', but we've already hit Field in the Winter and Avalon is more like a lookout than a peak, so I guess it just depends on your viewpoint!
After the 18+ miler Saturday, we took Sunday off, and settled on Willey for a short hike on Monday. I wanted to do it from one of the Southern approaches, but Laurie figured we knew it was broken out from the Highland Center, and it's not so steep, so we could leave the crampons and snow shoes in the car. This turned out to be a good choice.
There may not be much snow in the mountains, but it was only 5F when we started the hike. We both had lots of layers on! The trails were hard packed and icy in many places.
We put our micro-spikes on after the first stream crossing, just after I made one of my best saves ever, almost sliding back down a huge ice flow into the stream! It probably would have made a funny video to watch me spin around and dance diagonally down the ice and grab a tree! Or, maybe even funnier to see me pitch into the stream!
The pace was slow, which was fine, because we got an early start, and we were still a little tired from Saturday. When we got to the Avalon junction, we took that path up to the mighty summit of Avalon. Seeing the mountain in all its immenseness, we opted to skip it until the return trip. We continued up to Field, and had decent views in several different directions. The Pressies and Franconias were pretty cloudy, but we could still see quite a few peaks. After a quick break, (and no Jays), we headed down and up and down and up and down and up ... to Willey. The views were similar but slightly different, so we took a few more pics. Speaking of pics, we met Jeb, who told us his pictures frequently appear in the AMC publications. He was also snapping away, so maybe we will see some familiar pictures in the near future. Again, no Jays.
The return trip to Field was w/o incident, but now the Jays were waiting for us. There were 3 of them (and some other smaller bird) and they gladly accepted our bribes of nuts. Hopefully, some of Laurie's pics will turn out good, and I will post them.
We made a quick return trip to the Road with a brief stop on Avalon, and were done in plenty of time to drive home. A stop at the Northampton Brewery where they had 5 IPAs on tap was awesome!
Laurie wanted it to be '4 more peaks!', but we've already hit Field in the Winter and Avalon is more like a lookout than a peak, so I guess it just depends on your viewpoint!
After the 18+ miler Saturday, we took Sunday off, and settled on Willey for a short hike on Monday. I wanted to do it from one of the Southern approaches, but Laurie figured we knew it was broken out from the Highland Center, and it's not so steep, so we could leave the crampons and snow shoes in the car. This turned out to be a good choice.
There may not be much snow in the mountains, but it was only 5F when we started the hike. We both had lots of layers on! The trails were hard packed and icy in many places.
We put our micro-spikes on after the first stream crossing, just after I made one of my best saves ever, almost sliding back down a huge ice flow into the stream!
It probably would have made a funny video to watch me spin around and dance diagonally down the ice and grab a tree! Or, maybe even funnier to see me pitch into the stream! The pace was slow, which was fine, because we got an early start, and we were still a little tired from Saturday. When we got to the Avalon junction, we took that path up to the mighty summit of Avalon.
Seeing the mountain in all its immenseness, we opted to skip it until the return trip. We continued up to Field, and had decent views in several different directions. The Pressies and Franconias were pretty cloudy, but we could still see quite a few peaks. After a quick break, (and no Jays), we headed down and up and down and up and down and up ... to Willey. The views were similar but slightly different, so we took a few more pics. Speaking of pics, we met Jeb, who told us his pictures frequently appear in the AMC publications. He was also snapping away, so maybe we will see some familiar pictures in the near future. Again, no Jays. The return trip to Field was w/o incident, but now the Jays were waiting for us. There were 3 of them (and some other smaller bird) and they gladly accepted our bribes of nuts. Hopefully, some of Laurie's pics will turn out good, and I will post them.
We made a quick return trip to the Road with a brief stop on Avalon, and were done in plenty of time to drive home. A stop at the Northampton Brewery where they had 5 IPAs on tap was awesome!
