Hunter and Southwest Hunter 2/12

[coldfeet]

Thx to Laurie and the Catskill 3500 club I went on this hike yesterday around 9 miles. Started app 8:30 and ended app 4:30..Laurie also supplied a bungi cord for me because i had a problem with a strap on 6 point crampon that didn't want to stay on my boot. Lots of fun going to the lean-to and then off on my 2nd bushwack..still can't understand how you folks go through that stuff! Gotta be an easier way. All i kept saying was "ouch", "sh-t", "this is nuts", "remember this is fun, that's why you drove 175 miles!" After making it to the cannister and taking pictures i had to go through the same stuff, I was also looking out for that one point that really scratched my head. Back at the lean-to 1/2 of the group went home and we continued to Hunter. Easy walk, not to much elevation and no rocks, we kept the snowshoes on since our start of the bushwack. Man when i saw the tower through the trees i was really excited. I took the shoes off, layered on and went up the tower. I didn't care if the visibility was zero, it was fun and exciting. I did see hunter ski area but the best part was the wind. About 3/4 the way up, the wind was really strong, I took video and pictures of my fellow hikers on the bottom and waved to them, 44 years old and i felt like a kid. Then it was time to go home. The fast hikers were gone before i looked and the rest of us (3) snowshoed and then cramponed the way down. For me it was a long trip down until we figured out the crampon problem. I think i sweated more going down than up the trail. I really concentrated on each and every step because of the layer of ice on the rocks. I did take pictures and I'm trying to figure it out on webshots..thx again to Laurie and all the other hikers on this trip!
PS any quick tips on webshots?

 

[MattC]

Sounds like a good time. Hunter is a very popular peak for a good reason-it's a great mountain with a lot of variety available in terms of route selection. There's another fine lookout ledge slightly to the west of the four-way intersection (where the yellow Hunter Mt Trail meets the Becker Hollow Trail), but I suppose it wouldn't have mattered much due to the clouds.

Laurie is great to hike with-she's a super nice person, knows the Catskills real well, and she's got some great stories about past backcountry experiences. Last week returning from Sugarloaf she told me about watching a mother bobcat and her young for an hour w/ her (now-retired) ranger dad. I can't imagine how cool that must have been.

Matt

 

[coldfeet]

Hey Matt, your avatar looks like the cave i hiked past on hunter, that's the same one? It was covered with a layer of ice..i'm trying to figure out webshots, i do have pictures on it but don't know how to get people to click on it here. My friend is going to help me maybe tomorrow.

it's "Davidcoldfeet" on webshots

Laurie was cool, the group was spread out in terms of ability and she helped me out a lot the second half. I did notice her looking back every couple of minutes on the way down to make sure I was ok. she has a neat picture of slide mtn from 1951 with a deer in the picture.

 

[Jay H]

Hey David, did you see my name in the canister? I was there on 2/11 on friday before meeting up with Carol (daxs) and Ed (A-D-K-4-4-8-7 sir! inside joke )... I hiked to SW Hunter from Diamond Notch falls.. I've calculated it's about a 1440ft ascent in about 1 mile for an average grade of 26% All I know it was damm steep and beats any stairmaster I have seen. Anyway, a little wandering in the woods (I was a little west of the canister, but it's hard to figure it out on such a flat plateau) But I eventually saw a great view south and eventually found the canister.

I doubt anybody came after me since it was a friday afternoon.

Wait til you get to do Rocky.

P.S. Regarding webshots, when you send an invitation to yourself to view the pictures, it might take up to a 1/2 hour for it to work. Normally I send the invite to me and then just cut and paste the URL so I'm not spamming my friends with Webshots stuff. But I know that if I go use my invitation, sometimes it comes back saying "pictures not found" or something to that effect. You seem to have to wait a bit for it to be processed but so far, it has always worked over time. The first time though, I thought I was doing something wrong...

Jay

 

[Tom Rankin]

Hey David, did you see my name in the canister? I was there on 2/11 on friday before meeting up with Carol (daxs) and Ed (A-D-K-4-4-8-7 sir! inside joke )... I hiked to SW Hunter from Diamond Notch falls.. I've calculated it's about a 1440ft ascent in about 1 mile for an average grade of 26% All I know it was damm steep and beats any stairmaster I have seen. Anyway, a little wandering in the woods (I was a little west of the canister, but it's hard to figure it out on such a flat plateau) But I eventually saw a great view south and eventually found the canister.

I doubt anybody came after me since it was a friday afternoon.
...
Jay

Hi Jay,

Yeah, we saw your name! Way to go finding the canister! I remember that approach being really steep.

There was another set of tracks from Saturday morning there too. We just missed them. They had listed their 3500-Club #'s, but I forget exactly what they were, maybe 1425, and 1445 ??

Tom Rankin - #1503 (23 winters done, 12 to go)

 

[ajtiv]

David you wet through some good dense bushwack this time. The more you do the more you understand we said Halcott is a piece of cake.

Jay I was going to ask about that approach since I also need Westkill.
It looks pretty steep on the map.
I came in from the other side and it was pretty flat after you got to the Devils Kitchen Leanto ?
I will have to see if I want to go that way or if the extra miles on the DP is worth the trade off.
I remember taking a while to find the cannister my first time, but I now know where it is hiding for my next trip in.
Al

 

[Jay H]

The rail bed I believe is less steep. My friend and I's first attempt at SW Hunter was from Devil's Acre leanto but we didn't use the RR bed (didn't know about it at the time, we were relatively new in hiking the cats). The reason I went up the West Kill this time, which I've mentioned before is that if you go directly from the Diamond Notch leanto, the first little summit hump on the west side of SW Hunter is really thick. Then you drop down a real short bit after (like 30ft or so) and then it opens up. By going upstream on the West Kill, you bypass the thick bushwack. It's steep either way, from the leanto or from the West Kill, but you do have to climb a little more by going up the West Kill. It's a doozy, snowshoes are required for this bushwack.

Steeper than the climb up Plateau from 214 but perhaps not as long.. Calculationwise, you start at 2300' and end at 3740' And my GPS was telling me 1.3 miles from the falls.

Jay