drweo
New member
The weather forecast had us worried that we would be rained on, but there was no rain (or snow). Ran into a 3500 Ft Club group at the parking area. We cut off the old woods road before they did and traversed up the rt side of the ridge. We were resting near the crest of the ridge when they came up the very steep slope and passed us. From there on we followed them. There was only a little snow down low but increasing amounts as we went up. My guess is at most a foot, with lots of the upper snow as soft powder. We used microspikes and did not carry snowshoes, though they would have been helpful at times. The group all had snowshoes; some wore them, some did not. Their trail blazer did a great job of trail finding. (Thanks, Doug!) Went up through the first ledge on the ridge, then kept to the left of the others. Caught the "Rim Path" that angles up toward the col, then turned right up the top part of Friday. Traversed past the wall and up to the summit area to the canister. Then back down to the turn, continued on the Rim Path and angled up onto Balsam Cap (through lots of balsam on a herd path), stopped for views at the lookout, then to the canister. Reverse route for descent. Temps varied, a couple patches of sun, blue skies, then socked in skies. Never too cold but brisk in the upper reaches. Above about 3000 ft on Friday, it was winter wonderland, with everything covered with a solid coating of rime frost. A white world. There is a beautiful grove of hemlocks on the way up Friday's ridge, and the ledges and other rock formations were beautiful with frost, moss, rock, trees, snow and ice combining for some eye-popping scenery.
The track from this day's hikers will take later hikers to both summits until it melts or gets snowed over.
The track from this day's hikers will take later hikers to both summits until it melts or gets snowed over.
