ADackR
New member
It all started on Friday at 6:00am wiring up my buddies exhaust to the bottom of his jeep....and ended with us giving another buddy of ours a AAA card so that he could get his car towed from the trailhead....
we started packing up the jeep at 7:30 after everyone arrived. got on the road at 8:am. we made the trailhead at 10.30am or so... once we got the packs ready we were off to the flowed lands. Four of us went on actualy and one stayed back as his friend had not arrived yet. a group of 6 came out before us and packed down the trail pretty well. conditions were perfect going in. no real problems the snow averaged in depths of 1-3 feet of snow, we got to the Livingston lean-to at about 1.30pm.
after getting our day packs(about 45-50lbs) ready we headed off to Cliff via the winter route.. after about 1.3hrs of travel we turned around. we followed a VERY faint path to about 3500' and lost it. day light was waining so we decided to head back... the snow was very powdery and a couple of us fell into some spruce traps... the best thing though, we had great views of the surrounding area while traveling through the blow down. at some points in that blow down we were anywhere between 10-15' off the ground!!!
the night was great, we had temps between 5-20 degrees. outside we had 5 degrees and inside the tarped up lean-to it was around 20 degress. we had some great food to chow on and had some wine. we finially went to bed at around 11:30pm or so.
woke up on saturday at 7:00am, got some breakfast and made our day packs. we got on the trail at 9:00am or so and headed for Ava. Pass. you couldn't get better weather. we had perfect sunshine, blue skies and great snow... as we dropped into the pass we met the first of about 20 people coming through. it wasn;t too much of an issue as we all yelped and hollared(SP?) as we sped down the pass. we made macy dam in quick time, had some lunch and took in the views..
since it was so early we decided to head towards the ADK Loj and up to the whales' tail. two diverted and went up the tail and two of us went further up the trail to wright peak. after another 20 minute climb we turned around as the snow started to thin and rocks were showing.. after another thrill run we headed up the tail. the snow was great on the northern side as the lack of sun didn't ruin the powder. too bad on the down side to marcy dam the sun had made the snow wet and clumpy. not too bad as we bombed down this trail....
back across marcy dam and back up Ava. Pass.. we ended up passing about 10 people coming down the trail... these were half the people we saw coming up earlier. made great time going across the lakes and were back at camp before 4:20.. perfect 10-13 mile round trip....
last night out ment that we finished up all our food and wine. we didn't carry in all that stuff for nothing.... after a dizying(SP?) game of running around the lean-to passing the wine taking a sip to not do a push up, we all thought it was time to break out the duck tape boot olympics. after setting up the slalom course and getting our lights(us standing with head lamps shining near the course) set up our first challanger was set. down the course he went in blazing style all the way to the end, didn't fall once. an unbelievable feet which ment he surly won the gold that night. he was the only one not to fall that night... we finially went to bed around 12:30am or so
sunday we broke camp and set off for some of the best skiing of the year. our packs dropped some weight from friday but we still had some issues with balance not too much though....the snow couldn't have been better, we received about 1-2" on the way out, it was sticky but still FAST.... the big down hills were great and another great thing was we only passed a group of 5 or 6 comming up the trail and on there way out to the Loj...
all in all it was such a great trip and we couldn;t have asked for better wether or conditions....hope everyone enjoyed the snow this weekend!!
ADacKR
we started packing up the jeep at 7:30 after everyone arrived. got on the road at 8:am. we made the trailhead at 10.30am or so... once we got the packs ready we were off to the flowed lands. Four of us went on actualy and one stayed back as his friend had not arrived yet. a group of 6 came out before us and packed down the trail pretty well. conditions were perfect going in. no real problems the snow averaged in depths of 1-3 feet of snow, we got to the Livingston lean-to at about 1.30pm.
after getting our day packs(about 45-50lbs) ready we headed off to Cliff via the winter route.. after about 1.3hrs of travel we turned around. we followed a VERY faint path to about 3500' and lost it. day light was waining so we decided to head back... the snow was very powdery and a couple of us fell into some spruce traps... the best thing though, we had great views of the surrounding area while traveling through the blow down. at some points in that blow down we were anywhere between 10-15' off the ground!!!
the night was great, we had temps between 5-20 degrees. outside we had 5 degrees and inside the tarped up lean-to it was around 20 degress. we had some great food to chow on and had some wine. we finially went to bed at around 11:30pm or so.
woke up on saturday at 7:00am, got some breakfast and made our day packs. we got on the trail at 9:00am or so and headed for Ava. Pass. you couldn't get better weather. we had perfect sunshine, blue skies and great snow... as we dropped into the pass we met the first of about 20 people coming through. it wasn;t too much of an issue as we all yelped and hollared(SP?) as we sped down the pass. we made macy dam in quick time, had some lunch and took in the views..
since it was so early we decided to head towards the ADK Loj and up to the whales' tail. two diverted and went up the tail and two of us went further up the trail to wright peak. after another 20 minute climb we turned around as the snow started to thin and rocks were showing.. after another thrill run we headed up the tail. the snow was great on the northern side as the lack of sun didn't ruin the powder. too bad on the down side to marcy dam the sun had made the snow wet and clumpy. not too bad as we bombed down this trail....
back across marcy dam and back up Ava. Pass.. we ended up passing about 10 people coming down the trail... these were half the people we saw coming up earlier. made great time going across the lakes and were back at camp before 4:20.. perfect 10-13 mile round trip....
last night out ment that we finished up all our food and wine. we didn't carry in all that stuff for nothing.... after a dizying(SP?) game of running around the lean-to passing the wine taking a sip to not do a push up, we all thought it was time to break out the duck tape boot olympics. after setting up the slalom course and getting our lights(us standing with head lamps shining near the course) set up our first challanger was set. down the course he went in blazing style all the way to the end, didn't fall once. an unbelievable feet which ment he surly won the gold that night. he was the only one not to fall that night... we finially went to bed around 12:30am or so
sunday we broke camp and set off for some of the best skiing of the year. our packs dropped some weight from friday but we still had some issues with balance not too much though....the snow couldn't have been better, we received about 1-2" on the way out, it was sticky but still FAST.... the big down hills were great and another great thing was we only passed a group of 5 or 6 comming up the trail and on there way out to the Loj...
all in all it was such a great trip and we couldn;t have asked for better wether or conditions....hope everyone enjoyed the snow this weekend!!
ADacKR
