bryan
New member
date: 3/22/12
trails: woods road, stony brook trail, carter-moriah trail
conditions: parked at the dirt turn around off mt. carter road and followed the old route of the trail in to avoid the crossing of stony brook. virutally no snow below the second of the two upper water crossings. lots of wet trail and mud eventually interspersed with short patches of ice. beyond the upper crossings there was more ice and soft snow that became unavoidable, but was still not consistent. in sections it was rotted out underneath from running water. once on carter-moriah trail the open ledges were clear and dry interspersed with sections of wet ledge, ice and snow in the sheltered areas. the sections of snow were mostly crumbling monorail that at times could be walked beside. the final scramble to the summit still held some snow, but the real scrambly bits were clear. the upper water crossings were rock hoppable, the lower with minor wetness. the higher of the two still had a real sketchy ice bridge across the ledgy cascade that i wasn't going to mess with, but there was a good rock crossing just upstream.
equipment: i barebooted to the summit and used microspikes on the way down in the icy areas. this meant taking them off at times on the long sections of dry ledge, but i found it worth it. hard to believe i'm saying this with a week to go in march, but this route really no longer necessitates snowshoes. i dropped mine near the col on the ridge and didn't regret it. there was no place to reasonably keep them on for more than a couple minutes before you would be taking them off again and only one or two stretches where they would have been truly useful.
comments: another warm day, though the breeze up high made things really comfortable. i was astounded by how little snow is left on this route, though given the sun exposure and ridiculous temperatures i guess it makes sense. saw my first bear of the year as well on rt. 16 in the morning. spring is here. great to be out.
bryan
[email protected]
trails: woods road, stony brook trail, carter-moriah trail
conditions: parked at the dirt turn around off mt. carter road and followed the old route of the trail in to avoid the crossing of stony brook. virutally no snow below the second of the two upper water crossings. lots of wet trail and mud eventually interspersed with short patches of ice. beyond the upper crossings there was more ice and soft snow that became unavoidable, but was still not consistent. in sections it was rotted out underneath from running water. once on carter-moriah trail the open ledges were clear and dry interspersed with sections of wet ledge, ice and snow in the sheltered areas. the sections of snow were mostly crumbling monorail that at times could be walked beside. the final scramble to the summit still held some snow, but the real scrambly bits were clear. the upper water crossings were rock hoppable, the lower with minor wetness. the higher of the two still had a real sketchy ice bridge across the ledgy cascade that i wasn't going to mess with, but there was a good rock crossing just upstream.
equipment: i barebooted to the summit and used microspikes on the way down in the icy areas. this meant taking them off at times on the long sections of dry ledge, but i found it worth it. hard to believe i'm saying this with a week to go in march, but this route really no longer necessitates snowshoes. i dropped mine near the col on the ridge and didn't regret it. there was no place to reasonably keep them on for more than a couple minutes before you would be taking them off again and only one or two stretches where they would have been truly useful.
comments: another warm day, though the breeze up high made things really comfortable. i was astounded by how little snow is left on this route, though given the sun exposure and ridiculous temperatures i guess it makes sense. saw my first bear of the year as well on rt. 16 in the morning. spring is here. great to be out.
bryan
[email protected]
