Mount Madison 11/11/17, ascent via Chemin des Dames

[Unregistered]

Mount Madison 11/11/17 Random Group of Hikers, party of 5. We ascended via Airline, Shortline, King Ravine, Chemin des Dames, Airline, Airline Cutoff, Osgood. Descended via Osgood, Airline Cutoff, Airline, Scar, Valley Way. 1" new snow at trailhead up to 4" new snow in higher elevations with drift pockets up to 6". Mud, leaves, and wet trail in places. With the exception of Valley Way, which has a lot of compaction ice higher up, there wasn't a lot of ice on the trails. Snow was slippery in places. We used spikes to ascend Chemin des Dames and descend Scar and part of Valley Way, taking them off in the lower elevations. Carried crampons just in case but did not need them. Barebooted the rest of the way. Airline between Scar and treeline is a heck of a tangled blowdown mess from the Halloween storm but at this point some work-arounds have been beaten out. Our ascent route was in good shape, just a few blowdowns. Our descent from Scar to the trailhead was in similar condition. Pretty windy on the summit of Madison, 30mph range. We were originally intending on Adams but changed plans.
Shoeless Paul [email protected] Photos: https://www.meetup.com/rndmhkrs/events/244635046/