Tim Seaver
Well-known member
Upper Nelson Crag Trail
This trail doesn't see a whole lot of action in winter, so I thought that yesterday's relatively mild forecast would be a good day to give it a shot.
The Old Jackson Road is well packed out and makes for a sunny and pleasant approach to the Crag Trail ( the side trails to the Crew Cut, etc., all look to be packed out as well). Arriving at the Nelson Crag trail, I was not surprised to see an untouched trail obscured by many snowy overhanging branches. Thankfully, there wasn't too much drifting in the woods here, so the trail trench wasn't too hard to find, but quite a bit of "ski-pole machete" work was required just to get through much of the trail ( making martial arts sounds seems to help). The trailbreaking was not too bad, sinking around 4-6", although some sugary steep sections required a bit of floundering.
I lost the trail just as it emerges from the trees at around 4100', but could see a cairn sprouting from the ridgeline, so I just scurried over the rocks and (thankfully) firm snow and ice to get back on track. I wore Kahtoola KTS crampons for the rest of the day from this point.
There are great views into Huntington Ravine from here, but the lighting was pretty horrid for taking pictures in that direction at this time of day, with no clouds to diffuse the light. The trail winds over a few humps to a point where the auto road appears on the right, and then rears up over a steeper hump on it's way to the actual summit of Nelson Crag. This slope is quite icy right now.
The winds were picking up as forecasted, in the 50 mph range according to the hourly reports, and making for a nice little ground blizzard effect. Curiously, I needed to use both my facemasks and goggles to keep my face from freezing, but was quite comfortable with thin pile gloves on.
From here to the summit of Washie, the trail is very wind-scoured and full of jagged rocks, and fully exposed to NW winds. Hopping over Ball Crag and intersecting the auto road, I opted to take the auto road the final short bit to the summit.
Bombing down the Lions Head was fun as always, and the steeper sections are in fairly good shape. It does seem like more people are using ropes to descend sections of this trail, which I suppose is a good thing considering how steep it is in places.
This is a great route for a nice day, and would be one heckuva adventure under more arctic conditions!
A few more pix.
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