Tom Rankin
Well-known member
We left at 9:00 AM from the parking lot at the top of Platte Kill Road. (Some folks claim it is already open!). We had a group of 11, and 2 people 'lurking' in their truck. (More on that later). It was sunny, with temps slightly below freezing, and a light breeze. The trail was initially free of snow, but we advised people to bring 'everything'! (More on that later too).
The road was easy going at first, and soon turned to patches of snow here and there. Eventually, some people put on micro-spikes, when there was mostly snow. After about 2 hours, we hit the junction that leads up to the sno-mo trail. Here people started switching to snowshoes. We easily found the start of the twilight trail, but had some difficulty finding the exact route from time to time. Eventually, everyone has snowshoes on. The conditions kept getting more extreme. There was a 6-10" of new-feeling snow and a very hard crust underneath that, which was extremely hard and icy. A few people switched to crampons, but my MSRs got me up. They and a rope also got a few other people up thru the steepest spots. It was slow going, but we all made the summit. I was cold, and wet, and not having a lot of fun pushing other people up the mountain.
Near the top we met the lurkers. They were on our waiting list, and since they were obviously well equipped and capable, we welcomed them to continue with us.
The thought of descending the way we came was not appealing, so we walked over to Hurricane Ledge. It was almost dead calm here, due to the winds blowing from the North. The views were great! Next we had to decide if we could go down the insanely steep South side of KHP. It looked like it was mostly free of snow and ice at the top, so down we went. Again the rope was used a few times. Everyone barebooted down to the sno-mo trail. This side of the mountain was WARM! The conditions were totally different from the North side. The snow returned near the trail, and most put traction back on their feet. We passed the plane wreck, and did the short whack back to the Blue trail, and were down by 4:30 or so.
For dinner, we went to Keegan Ales, which, for better or sometimes worse, has Karaoke the first Sunday of the month!
But the food and beer made up for any shortcomings of the singers.
The road was easy going at first, and soon turned to patches of snow here and there. Eventually, some people put on micro-spikes, when there was mostly snow. After about 2 hours, we hit the junction that leads up to the sno-mo trail. Here people started switching to snowshoes. We easily found the start of the twilight trail, but had some difficulty finding the exact route from time to time. Eventually, everyone has snowshoes on. The conditions kept getting more extreme. There was a 6-10" of new-feeling snow and a very hard crust underneath that, which was extremely hard and icy. A few people switched to crampons, but my MSRs got me up. They and a rope also got a few other people up thru the steepest spots. It was slow going, but we all made the summit. I was cold, and wet, and not having a lot of fun pushing other people up the mountain.
Near the top we met the lurkers. They were on our waiting list, and since they were obviously well equipped and capable, we welcomed them to continue with us.
The thought of descending the way we came was not appealing, so we walked over to Hurricane Ledge. It was almost dead calm here, due to the winds blowing from the North. The views were great! Next we had to decide if we could go down the insanely steep South side of KHP. It looked like it was mostly free of snow and ice at the top, so down we went. Again the rope was used a few times. Everyone barebooted down to the sno-mo trail. This side of the mountain was WARM! The conditions were totally different from the North side. The snow returned near the trail, and most put traction back on their feet. We passed the plane wreck, and did the short whack back to the Blue trail, and were down by 4:30 or so.
For dinner, we went to Keegan Ales, which, for better or sometimes worse, has Karaoke the first Sunday of the month!
But the food and beer made up for any shortcomings of the singers. 
