Silverfox
New member
After meeting at the Ashland BK at the very civilized meet time of 7:30 we split into 2 cars and headed up 93 to the Basin parking lot. Rebecca had considered doing the Carters for this day but remembered we had them "scheduled" for next week so happily came up with this alternate plan..
There was a fresh 2 inches of fluff as we geared up..that fluff hides some glare ice in the parking lot..microspikes acceptable for this part of the day
We used a variety of footware today..I started out with the MSR's..well..mainly cause I hate carrying them..the ladies barebooted..Claude had microspikes on..the bike path was well packed under the fluff and quickly we came to the Basin bushwack which looked all postholy and gnarley so we opted for the regular trail and figured we take the other route on descent.. I stayed with the snow shoes up to the Flume Slide cutoff..the trail was quite hard packed and narrow..hard to keep the snowshoes straight.. with some ice and some running water and i switched to the mini crampons there which were easier on the wet spots..Somewhat of a monorail forming with hardpacked trail which was easy to navigate with light traction with postholes off to the sides in spots..We arrived at the tentsite without mishap..wind really blowing and steady snow in the air though hard to tell if it was snowing or not.. At this point one person put on snowshoes and the other barebooters put on G-10s which proved wise as once we started out again we hit some pretty good windblown spots with some icy places..
Once we hit the ridge we re checked gear and started out..some pretty good drifts up here though the "trail" badly postholed and narrow..Hard to say what the right foot gear was here..the surface hard enough that you barely sank except in the frequent knee deep drifts..once we emerged on top crampons became the gear of choice as there were some pretty icy spots for sure..beautiful as the steady breeze blew snow uphill at this point..For the final scramble you are somewhat sheltered from the wind and we enjoyed a round of congrats and headed back into the woods..After the experience climbing I opted for MSRs for descent to the tent platforms..couldn't really be on the packed trail due to its narrowness and postholes but this worked fine keeping mostly to the side of the trail though I was thrown off into the woods at one point when i landed at a wierd angle..
Our descent was uneventful though we enjoyed by now some bluebird skies and diminshing winds..looking back at the summit a few time you could see that we had missed the views by only a little..
along the way we saw a solo guy and a group of three women all out enjoying the day..there were tracks over to Flume as well..(down below)
packed out the Basin Bushwack on descent..logs bridges a bit icy as were rocks on the upper brook crossings on Liberty Spring Trail which were all open..made it unscathed though, as sweep I got a few oohs and ahhs after a brief slip and near splash on the larger crossing.....just keep that forward momentum going.....
great day in the Whites..first winter 4K for Silent Sam..(Claude) and Sleeveless(Sandy)
pics of some sort to follow
a few [photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfox777/sets/72157611870429812/
There was a fresh 2 inches of fluff as we geared up..that fluff hides some glare ice in the parking lot..microspikes acceptable for this part of the day
We used a variety of footware today..I started out with the MSR's..well..mainly cause I hate carrying them..the ladies barebooted..Claude had microspikes on..the bike path was well packed under the fluff and quickly we came to the Basin bushwack which looked all postholy and gnarley so we opted for the regular trail and figured we take the other route on descent.. I stayed with the snow shoes up to the Flume Slide cutoff..the trail was quite hard packed and narrow..hard to keep the snowshoes straight.. with some ice and some running water and i switched to the mini crampons there which were easier on the wet spots..Somewhat of a monorail forming with hardpacked trail which was easy to navigate with light traction with postholes off to the sides in spots..We arrived at the tentsite without mishap..wind really blowing and steady snow in the air though hard to tell if it was snowing or not.. At this point one person put on snowshoes and the other barebooters put on G-10s which proved wise as once we started out again we hit some pretty good windblown spots with some icy places..
Once we hit the ridge we re checked gear and started out..some pretty good drifts up here though the "trail" badly postholed and narrow..Hard to say what the right foot gear was here..the surface hard enough that you barely sank except in the frequent knee deep drifts..once we emerged on top crampons became the gear of choice as there were some pretty icy spots for sure..beautiful as the steady breeze blew snow uphill at this point..For the final scramble you are somewhat sheltered from the wind and we enjoyed a round of congrats and headed back into the woods..After the experience climbing I opted for MSRs for descent to the tent platforms..couldn't really be on the packed trail due to its narrowness and postholes but this worked fine keeping mostly to the side of the trail though I was thrown off into the woods at one point when i landed at a wierd angle..
Our descent was uneventful though we enjoyed by now some bluebird skies and diminshing winds..looking back at the summit a few time you could see that we had missed the views by only a little..
along the way we saw a solo guy and a group of three women all out enjoying the day..there were tracks over to Flume as well..(down below)
packed out the Basin Bushwack on descent..logs bridges a bit icy as were rocks on the upper brook crossings on Liberty Spring Trail which were all open..made it unscathed though, as sweep I got a few oohs and ahhs after a brief slip and near splash on the larger crossing.....just keep that forward momentum going.....
great day in the Whites..first winter 4K for Silent Sam..(Claude) and Sleeveless(Sandy)
pics of some sort to follow
a few [photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfox777/sets/72157611870429812/
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