slowandsteady
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- Aug 10, 2005
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Cloudwalker has already posted trail conditions for this hike Saturday, Feb 25. Just out of curiosity, did anyone actually summit Isolation on Saturday?
Three of us headed up Rocky Branch just before 0700 on February 25. It was a very still cold morning with Mt. Washington “in the pink”. New snow covered the ice on the trail sufficiently to be able to bare boot negating use of traction, until summit of Engine Hill where increasing snow depths required donning the snowshoes.
This was my first use of this trail in winter. What is a bit of a soggy slog over Engine Hill in summer is dazzling in the early winter morning light with great views through the open hardwood forest of the sun rising over the mountains and hills to the southeast. There is added interest going in and out of the fir trees along the way which were frosted with that white stuff that has been in short supply this winter.
Due to new snow depths and drifts up to a foot or more we missed the “traditional” bushwhack route from the height of land (any obvious packed route at the BW coordinates had been covered by drifts). After descending a little we headed over to the right anyway and met the Isolation Trail, saving the two crossings but costing us a little time with the additional distance had we found the “original” bush whack. As soon as we caught the Isolation Trail it required increasing effort to break trail with increasing snow depths. (Thank you Cloudwalker for leading.)
RB crossings, while not completely frozen over, were quite manageable. A group of seven or so who had stayed at RB shelter was behind us and we joked (for the first time) that we could have saved ourselves some time and effort if we had started later.
After the last crossing the snow was really slowing us down and any obvious previously packed trail was completely covered with drifts. We kept intermittently losing and finding the trail all through the blowdown area all the time knowing we were close to trail from GPS. We stopped at the ridge crest somewhere just before junction with Davis Path. We were sure the trail turns northwest for the final push to Davis Path but thought we could save time by staying left. By then we hit our agreed upon turnaround time and reluctantly headed back (I had been cooped up most of the week with a cold and was grateful just to get outdoors). We chatted with the group who’d stayed at RB (at least one VFTT member) teasing them about the good and bad points of following our broken-in trail . Descending we also met Skimom and her friend Hiking Stick (?) and several other groups, all who started considerably later (more joking about starting later to save time). Hope someone made it to the top even if by then it was steadily snowing and there were no far range VsFTT.
Return trip was mostly uneventful and we found the “original” bushwhack back to RB trail following snowshoe tracks made by one of the groups who’d started later. CW and companion switched to stabilicers on the way down Engine Hill while I stayed with snowshoes thinking crampons were overkill. Made it to the parking lot about 4:30 just as my boys were pulling into the lot returning from a day of alpine skiing at Wildcat.
Two guys we had met while we were descending joined us at the lot saying that they had also not found Davis Path. They thought some of the other groups were going to make it (hope they did!). My next opportunity for a winter hike is not until March 18 – may reattempt but will start later if there’s new snow…
Three of us headed up Rocky Branch just before 0700 on February 25. It was a very still cold morning with Mt. Washington “in the pink”. New snow covered the ice on the trail sufficiently to be able to bare boot negating use of traction, until summit of Engine Hill where increasing snow depths required donning the snowshoes.
This was my first use of this trail in winter. What is a bit of a soggy slog over Engine Hill in summer is dazzling in the early winter morning light with great views through the open hardwood forest of the sun rising over the mountains and hills to the southeast. There is added interest going in and out of the fir trees along the way which were frosted with that white stuff that has been in short supply this winter.
Due to new snow depths and drifts up to a foot or more we missed the “traditional” bushwhack route from the height of land (any obvious packed route at the BW coordinates had been covered by drifts). After descending a little we headed over to the right anyway and met the Isolation Trail, saving the two crossings but costing us a little time with the additional distance had we found the “original” bush whack. As soon as we caught the Isolation Trail it required increasing effort to break trail with increasing snow depths. (Thank you Cloudwalker for leading.)
RB crossings, while not completely frozen over, were quite manageable. A group of seven or so who had stayed at RB shelter was behind us and we joked (for the first time) that we could have saved ourselves some time and effort if we had started later.
After the last crossing the snow was really slowing us down and any obvious previously packed trail was completely covered with drifts. We kept intermittently losing and finding the trail all through the blowdown area all the time knowing we were close to trail from GPS. We stopped at the ridge crest somewhere just before junction with Davis Path. We were sure the trail turns northwest for the final push to Davis Path but thought we could save time by staying left. By then we hit our agreed upon turnaround time and reluctantly headed back (I had been cooped up most of the week with a cold and was grateful just to get outdoors). We chatted with the group who’d stayed at RB (at least one VFTT member) teasing them about the good and bad points of following our broken-in trail
. Descending we also met Skimom and her friend Hiking Stick (?) and several other groups, all who started considerably later (more joking about starting later to save time). Hope someone made it to the top even if by then it was steadily snowing and there were no far range VsFTT.Return trip was mostly uneventful and we found the “original” bushwhack back to RB trail following snowshoe tracks made by one of the groups who’d started later. CW and companion switched to stabilicers on the way down Engine Hill while I stayed with snowshoes thinking crampons were overkill. Made it to the parking lot about 4:30 just as my boys were pulling into the lot returning from a day of alpine skiing at Wildcat.
Two guys we had met while we were descending joined us at the lot saying that they had also not found Davis Path. They thought some of the other groups were going to make it (hope they did!). My next opportunity for a winter hike is not until March 18 – may reattempt but will start later if there’s new snow…
