H
High-Clearance
Guest
Date of Hike: February 1st, 2009
Trail Conditions: Trail to Bradley pond well broken, as now for herd path from there to ridge line between Santanoni and Panther. After that, many attempted trails broken in search for: a) Times Square b) Panther. Lot of powder (3-4 feet) and spruce traps. Very few downed trees. Few "wet" spots along trail between road to Upper Works and Bradley pond.
Special Equipment Required: Snowshoes essential everywhere. Extra clothes (you'll become wet while digging your way towards any of the three summits!). Compass or GPS very very useful. Crampons not necessary. Hiking poles useful.
Comments: Three New-Yorkers left the trailhead at 7:45AM. We did 85 minutes later. These fellows did a hell of a job braking the trail from Bradley pond to a "false Time Square" where they somewhat lost their way. We catched up with them at this point and our team of six managed to find a way toward the ridge but I guess we never really found Time Square from where we hoped to orient ourselves toward the summits (they originally planned to hike both three, we were only going for Santanoni and Panther). Eventually, our American partners gave up but we continued to look for a way to reach Panther (we figured out this would be our only climb of the day). Visibility was very poor (to 40 meters I would guess) and we never saw the summit. We fighted for a while against chest deep snow and spruce traps. Mario actually recognized a cliff near Panther and we took a bearing and try to get there but very tired, wet and feeling cold, we abandoned. We then got lost for 15 minutes trying to find the way out of there (we crisscrossed our paths some times while making our way on the ridge) but we used our brains and quickly retraced our steps. We finally got back at the trailhead near 5:00PM.
Name: High-Clearance
E-mail address: [email protected]
Trail Conditions: Trail to Bradley pond well broken, as now for herd path from there to ridge line between Santanoni and Panther. After that, many attempted trails broken in search for: a) Times Square b) Panther. Lot of powder (3-4 feet) and spruce traps. Very few downed trees. Few "wet" spots along trail between road to Upper Works and Bradley pond.
Special Equipment Required: Snowshoes essential everywhere. Extra clothes (you'll become wet while digging your way towards any of the three summits!). Compass or GPS very very useful. Crampons not necessary. Hiking poles useful.
Comments: Three New-Yorkers left the trailhead at 7:45AM. We did 85 minutes later. These fellows did a hell of a job braking the trail from Bradley pond to a "false Time Square" where they somewhat lost their way. We catched up with them at this point and our team of six managed to find a way toward the ridge but I guess we never really found Time Square from where we hoped to orient ourselves toward the summits (they originally planned to hike both three, we were only going for Santanoni and Panther). Eventually, our American partners gave up but we continued to look for a way to reach Panther (we figured out this would be our only climb of the day). Visibility was very poor (to 40 meters I would guess) and we never saw the summit. We fighted for a while against chest deep snow and spruce traps. Mario actually recognized a cliff near Panther and we took a bearing and try to get there but very tired, wet and feeling cold, we abandoned. We then got lost for 15 minutes trying to find the way out of there (we crisscrossed our paths some times while making our way on the ridge) but we used our brains and quickly retraced our steps. We finally got back at the trailhead near 5:00PM.
Name: High-Clearance
E-mail address: [email protected]
