Moose Hillock

[Dalraida]

Dalraida and Dr_wu strapped nice shiny new eleven dollar Swiss Bobsleds onto their packs and started up the Glencliff trail to Mooselauke at 8:30 AM. Although there was a fairly firm 18 inch wide track from several days ago, snowshoes were the way to go. At the point where the trail turns right and heads pretty much straight up for the last 800 vertical, the snow deepened to about 6 feet in drifts. Once the intersection of the old carriage road was reached, the windblown snow reached depths of 6 to 8 feet in places, and others, only inches of old crust. The gentle sloping stretch between the CR intersection and the north summit cone was absolutely breathtaking with all the drifts and snow dunes. The summit cone was pretty much bare of loose snow on the west side, and deep consolidated snow on the east.

The day was breezy and cold, the sky was a deep purple with occasional wisps of cloud racing over the summit from the valley below.

Going out, the carriage road had been thrashed by snowmachines. Full of frozen ruts and track paths. However poor the road would have been for skiing, it was a blast for the Swiss Bobs. The frozen SM tracks virtually eliminated postholing and exactly fitted the Bobs' footprint which made the trip down pretty quick and full of laughter.

We met one Telly skier skinning up as we headed down. He seemed disgusted at the mess the machines had made of what would have been a nice ride out.

Too bad one of the nice grooming cats that the local SM clubs have couldn't make a trip up, once in a while to give everyone a pretty universally useable winter trail.

 

[David Metsky]

The snowmobiles have been going up there for the past 30-40 years. We got funds to rehab the trail 10 years ago because it was a multi-use trail, and they Asquam Snowmobilers helped out with labor. I'd love it if there were now snowmobiles up there, but there are other trails on the mountain where they don't go, this is just one.

And we (Dartmouth) have no desire to groom that trail, even if we could.

Glad you had a great trip, do you have any pictures?

-dave-

 

[Dalraida]

Pictures

Yepper, gots lotsa pictures, but I have to post them at work. We don't have cable or DSL up here in the boonies so I'm running on 26K dialup. Even the phone lines won't support anything faster than that

And then, I only work about 8 hours a week, so the pix won't be up unless Dr_wu does it sooner.

I do Telly, but am glad I didn't be doing that yesterday! Cover is not all that thick as rocks were showing at many waterbars.

 

[dr_wu002]

I have pictures

http://community.webshots.com/album/277190830uhIRhg
http://community.webshots.com/album/277193355tFRVAX

But have not had time to caption them yet. Most of you out there know what Carrigan, Washington and Sandwich Dome looks like though, right?

Great trip! The swiss bobs were a blast -- I wish I could go up every day and sled down on those things!

-Dr. Wu