D
drbruced
Guest
Date of Hike: 3/8/09
Trail Conditions: soft snow most of the way to tree line, soft snow and ice covered rock above the tree line, considerable post-holing on upper sections of Trail
Special Equipment Required:Snowshoes - recommended above falls, Crampons - essential
to reach summit
Comments: almost everyone I saw on the trail was using snow shoes, those without were post-holing seriously, as temperatures were above freezing for the second day. The wind was strong above the tree line, and once we ascended to the rocky ridge the gusts were almost enough to knock you over. We left our snow shoes at the tree line, and used crampons the rest of the way. We met a guy with stablicers who had decided to abort, but he encouraged us to give it a try given that there were two of us with crampons. Navigating the best route to the top was a bit of a challenge, although we found lots of yellow paint marks on the way down that we had somehow missed on the way up. Visibility was perfect -- finding a route up in poor visibility would have been near impossible.
Bruce Davie
Your E-mail address: bsd at employees dot org
Trail Conditions: soft snow most of the way to tree line, soft snow and ice covered rock above the tree line, considerable post-holing on upper sections of Trail
Special Equipment Required:Snowshoes - recommended above falls, Crampons - essential
to reach summit
Comments: almost everyone I saw on the trail was using snow shoes, those without were post-holing seriously, as temperatures were above freezing for the second day. The wind was strong above the tree line, and once we ascended to the rocky ridge the gusts were almost enough to knock you over. We left our snow shoes at the tree line, and used crampons the rest of the way. We met a guy with stablicers who had decided to abort, but he encouraged us to give it a try given that there were two of us with crampons. Navigating the best route to the top was a bit of a challenge, although we found lots of yellow paint marks on the way down that we had somehow missed on the way up. Visibility was perfect -- finding a route up in poor visibility would have been near impossible.
Bruce Davie
Your E-mail address: bsd at employees dot org
