bryan
New member
date: 3/5/12
trails: battell trail, long trail
conditions: elder hill road was in good condition and plowed to within .1 miles of the trailhead. there is a nice area plowed out that could fit a number of cars. high clearance could make the summer lot, but my car would have bottomed out given the depth of the tire tracks heading in.
battell trail had thin coverage down low which increased pretty quickly, but the trail is basically frozen footprints and postholes covered with a layer of new powder. this was tolerable on the ascent, but not so much on the descent and i often hiked parallel to the trail in the unbroken snow on the way down. the track smoothed out once on the long trail with new powder over a relatively smooth track. some ice and hard crust working its way through on the steeps heading up abraham. from abraham to lincoln peak the track is fairly well broken out, but quite soft. the short section of the long trail that gets you around the chairlift was an unbroken deep side slope and on the return i just used the ski trail. where the long trail re-enters the woods from the ski trail it was unbroken until a bootleg ski trail joined in and from that point on the long trail had seen used by skiers at a minimum and was generally well packed out with some drifted snow and new powder all the way to ellen. expect to push through a fair amount of grown in spruce and fir along the way. a couple duck under blowdowns as well.
equipment: i wore snowshoes the whole hike. used msr tails for some of the day when i thought the long trail would be unbroken, but they ended up being unnecessary. given the condition of the lower battell trail light traction makes more sense for that bit, but once on the long trail snowshoes are your best bet.
comments: a beautiful and cold day for this hike. cloudy early, but the sun came out in the afternoon with great views from abraham and various viewpoints on the return. not much wind, but cold enough that the relatively light winds had some bite in the short open sections. great day to be out.
bryan
[email protected]
trails: battell trail, long trail
conditions: elder hill road was in good condition and plowed to within .1 miles of the trailhead. there is a nice area plowed out that could fit a number of cars. high clearance could make the summer lot, but my car would have bottomed out given the depth of the tire tracks heading in.
battell trail had thin coverage down low which increased pretty quickly, but the trail is basically frozen footprints and postholes covered with a layer of new powder. this was tolerable on the ascent, but not so much on the descent and i often hiked parallel to the trail in the unbroken snow on the way down. the track smoothed out once on the long trail with new powder over a relatively smooth track. some ice and hard crust working its way through on the steeps heading up abraham. from abraham to lincoln peak the track is fairly well broken out, but quite soft. the short section of the long trail that gets you around the chairlift was an unbroken deep side slope and on the return i just used the ski trail. where the long trail re-enters the woods from the ski trail it was unbroken until a bootleg ski trail joined in and from that point on the long trail had seen used by skiers at a minimum and was generally well packed out with some drifted snow and new powder all the way to ellen. expect to push through a fair amount of grown in spruce and fir along the way. a couple duck under blowdowns as well.
equipment: i wore snowshoes the whole hike. used msr tails for some of the day when i thought the long trail would be unbroken, but they ended up being unnecessary. given the condition of the lower battell trail light traction makes more sense for that bit, but once on the long trail snowshoes are your best bet.
comments: a beautiful and cold day for this hike. cloudy early, but the sun came out in the afternoon with great views from abraham and various viewpoints on the return. not much wind, but cold enough that the relatively light winds had some bite in the short open sections. great day to be out.
bryan
[email protected]
