MarkL
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2003
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Required equipment: Snowshoes and gaiters absolutely necessary. Crampons carried by all, but used by none.
Conditions: Unpacked snow, then deeper unpacked snow. Stream crossings no problem. Little blowdown
Comments: It was 6:12AM when five of us set out from the gate by the caretaker's house for Macomb, Carson, and Grace. We hoped to find broken herd paths to ease and speed our way so that we might even add Hough. But in the register at the right side of the gate we saw that nobody had signed in since 12/12, IIRC. Well, maybe once we got to Macomb we'd find the herd path beaten from and back to Carson. That would be despite the previous day's forecast winds of 60 -70mph in the peaks. False hope springs eternal... (BTW, here's a link to NOAA's higher summits forecast: http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=vt&prodtype=public ) We maintained a good pace for the ~2 miles of road to the summer trailhead. All put on snowshoes at the t/h.
The trail was broken, but soft. In about 10 minutes we came to a blowdown that we had to belly-crawl under. That was the worst piece of blowdown we would encounter. On the other side of that, the trail wasn't broken, or wasn't as broken. I wasn't in the lead at that time, so it wasn't easy to tell. There was enough snow and crust to put us into rotate-the-lead mode. We continued in that mode after turning up the herd path. Breaking became more difficult as snow and slope increased. We went off to the right of the herd path and soon realized we must have made a mistake. At this point, one of our party had a broken binding, so he headed out. We turned around to try to find the h/p and after ~10 minutes of casting around, we were on it. It continued to be slow going as we took turns breaking. Fortunately, the slide had good snow cover, more than enough to dig our snowshoes into. There was a thin crust over powder plentiful enough to sometimes cause slips. We went up the left side of the slide.
At the big rock at the top, we continued straight up, going through a narrow gully with deep snow, then around to the right of the ice covered headwall. Two of us then continued straight up, but two broke a way further to the right around a big outcropping. That was a much safer route which we all used on the way down.
From there on the going got much harder. Between the snow depth and slope, the leader encountered chest-deep snow. It took about 1.5 hours from the rock, but at 1:42PM we reached the summit. 7.5 hours to summit! There was no sign of anyone having gotten here from Carson or West Mill Brook. Even if there had been a beaten path, we were too tired and it was too late to go for another peak. After a very few pics, we decided to get out of the summit breeze and eat something substantial.
It took half an hour to get down to the rock, 1/3 of the ascent time. From there we made quick work of the slide. I tried glissading, but snow conditions weren't quite right for that. The other 3 butt slid quite a bit.
We got back to the road without using head lamps, but started using them right there to stow our snowshoes and start walking to hte gate. We got back to the gate about 4 hours after leaving the summit.
PS Previous high winds had blown most of the snow out of the trees, but there was still a tiny bit of loose snow in them.
Is the Round Pond trail is broken to Dix? Well, no cars were there just before 5:30AM, and the previous night's wind might have blown in tracks at elevation.
If anyone wants to go into the 4 lower Dixes, the route that we packed may be the best way to get up there, unless the current rain consolidates everything to make all approaches easily walkable. I hope that easy walkability doesn't require crampons.
Conditions: Unpacked snow, then deeper unpacked snow. Stream crossings no problem. Little blowdown
Comments: It was 6:12AM when five of us set out from the gate by the caretaker's house for Macomb, Carson, and Grace. We hoped to find broken herd paths to ease and speed our way so that we might even add Hough. But in the register at the right side of the gate we saw that nobody had signed in since 12/12, IIRC. Well, maybe once we got to Macomb we'd find the herd path beaten from and back to Carson. That would be despite the previous day's forecast winds of 60 -70mph in the peaks. False hope springs eternal... (BTW, here's a link to NOAA's higher summits forecast: http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=vt&prodtype=public ) We maintained a good pace for the ~2 miles of road to the summer trailhead. All put on snowshoes at the t/h.
The trail was broken, but soft. In about 10 minutes we came to a blowdown that we had to belly-crawl under. That was the worst piece of blowdown we would encounter. On the other side of that, the trail wasn't broken, or wasn't as broken. I wasn't in the lead at that time, so it wasn't easy to tell. There was enough snow and crust to put us into rotate-the-lead mode. We continued in that mode after turning up the herd path. Breaking became more difficult as snow and slope increased. We went off to the right of the herd path and soon realized we must have made a mistake. At this point, one of our party had a broken binding, so he headed out. We turned around to try to find the h/p and after ~10 minutes of casting around, we were on it. It continued to be slow going as we took turns breaking. Fortunately, the slide had good snow cover, more than enough to dig our snowshoes into. There was a thin crust over powder plentiful enough to sometimes cause slips. We went up the left side of the slide.
At the big rock at the top, we continued straight up, going through a narrow gully with deep snow, then around to the right of the ice covered headwall. Two of us then continued straight up, but two broke a way further to the right around a big outcropping. That was a much safer route which we all used on the way down.
From there on the going got much harder. Between the snow depth and slope, the leader encountered chest-deep snow. It took about 1.5 hours from the rock, but at 1:42PM we reached the summit. 7.5 hours to summit! There was no sign of anyone having gotten here from Carson or West Mill Brook. Even if there had been a beaten path, we were too tired and it was too late to go for another peak. After a very few pics, we decided to get out of the summit breeze and eat something substantial.
It took half an hour to get down to the rock, 1/3 of the ascent time. From there we made quick work of the slide. I tried glissading, but snow conditions weren't quite right for that. The other 3 butt slid quite a bit.
We got back to the road without using head lamps, but started using them right there to stow our snowshoes and start walking to hte gate. We got back to the gate about 4 hours after leaving the summit.
PS Previous high winds had blown most of the snow out of the trees, but there was still a tiny bit of loose snow in them.
Is the Round Pond trail is broken to Dix? Well, no cars were there just before 5:30AM, and the previous night's wind might have blown in tracks at elevation.
If anyone wants to go into the 4 lower Dixes, the route that we packed may be the best way to get up there, unless the current rain consolidates everything to make all approaches easily walkable. I hope that easy walkability doesn't require crampons.
