John H Swanson
Active member
After seeing the post by Whackin Fool, we decided to give Owlshead a try. We used the standard winter route via black pond and up the slide.
The Lincoln woods trail and the trail into Black pond were boilder plate snow and hard icy with 2-3" of new snow. Snow was still falling when we started at 7:15am. We booted it into the pond. A few slippery spots but no problems.
From the pond, the snow had a thick layer of firm crunch with a the new stuff on top. If you're a lightweight it might have supported you, but my shoes were breaking the crunch and sinking about 3".
We took the northerly bearing, and then hooked a sharp left as we approached the conifer band, reaching a max elevation of 2100 ft before the drop to the Lincoln brook drainage. As per Cath's reco - A nice route.
At the trail at 2000 ft we found it to be postholed to _hit before the few inches of new snow. It was awkward in snowshoes and I was wishing for the rules of the dacks. We tried booting it too, but switched back to snowshoes. No problem for the 3 stream crossings (two feeder brooks and the main brook) About 0.1 mile before the slide turnoff the boot tracks ended. At first I thought the predessor might have alreadyed turned into the woods and I missed the turn, but the terrain did not look correct with my memory so I continued on. For a while I thought the predessor had switched to snowshoes, but I was now breaking the firm snow so I guess he or she had turned around.
At 12:00, we found the slide turnoff okay with a tree visably scratched up like the old fashioned blazing technique. The USFS sign was there to confirm we were on the correct route. We followed the route through the woods on the left of the slide for a few hundred feet gain. It was tough going. When we broke out of the trees onto the slide the 2 inches of snow obscured the footing. There was a lot of ice. We switched to 6 point crampons and used them for the rest of the climb, until the pitch leveled off. Then it was back to snowshoes for the rest of the climb through the tunnel of the herdpath and to the top of the ridge.
Along the way there was no evidence of anyone passing in the week before our trip. In summary, Whackingfool's post under the trail conditions stating (s)he climbed Owlshead via the slide on 1/4/06 was a total fabrication. The snow cover on blowdowns gave conclusive proof. Needless to say, I was a little annoyed.
Not because I had to break trail ... I do more than my share. I just hate being missled. I wonder if this person enjoys settng people up with these posts, or maybe s/he is a wanna-be and actually thinks they summited in their own mind.
Anyway. Easy to follow the route along the summit ridge to the sign. Yes, it's there. We summited at 2:30-2:37.
Snowshoes all the way to the base of the slide. Some serious controlled standing glisading got us to the base at 3:20. You do the math on that one. Some of the snow on the slide was sloughed off in our descent. Also the snow is not deep enough to cover all the rock hazzards.
Snowshoes all the way to the Lincoln woods trail. Our tracks were partially filled in, but the snow had stopped and we re-broke the same route.
Would have preferred to complete the buchwhack before darkness fell, but that just didn't happen. Got about 1/2 of it in before we needed the headlamps.
Back at the car at 6:40pm.
The Lincoln woods trail and the trail into Black pond were boilder plate snow and hard icy with 2-3" of new snow. Snow was still falling when we started at 7:15am. We booted it into the pond. A few slippery spots but no problems.
From the pond, the snow had a thick layer of firm crunch with a the new stuff on top. If you're a lightweight it might have supported you, but my shoes were breaking the crunch and sinking about 3".
We took the northerly bearing, and then hooked a sharp left as we approached the conifer band, reaching a max elevation of 2100 ft before the drop to the Lincoln brook drainage. As per Cath's reco - A nice route.
At the trail at 2000 ft we found it to be postholed to _hit before the few inches of new snow. It was awkward in snowshoes and I was wishing for the rules of the dacks. We tried booting it too, but switched back to snowshoes. No problem for the 3 stream crossings (two feeder brooks and the main brook) About 0.1 mile before the slide turnoff the boot tracks ended. At first I thought the predessor might have alreadyed turned into the woods and I missed the turn, but the terrain did not look correct with my memory so I continued on. For a while I thought the predessor had switched to snowshoes, but I was now breaking the firm snow so I guess he or she had turned around.
At 12:00, we found the slide turnoff okay with a tree visably scratched up like the old fashioned blazing technique. The USFS sign was there to confirm we were on the correct route. We followed the route through the woods on the left of the slide for a few hundred feet gain. It was tough going. When we broke out of the trees onto the slide the 2 inches of snow obscured the footing. There was a lot of ice. We switched to 6 point crampons and used them for the rest of the climb, until the pitch leveled off. Then it was back to snowshoes for the rest of the climb through the tunnel of the herdpath and to the top of the ridge.
Along the way there was no evidence of anyone passing in the week before our trip. In summary, Whackingfool's post under the trail conditions stating (s)he climbed Owlshead via the slide on 1/4/06 was a total fabrication. The snow cover on blowdowns gave conclusive proof. Needless to say, I was a little annoyed.
Not because I had to break trail ... I do more than my share. I just hate being missled. I wonder if this person enjoys settng people up with these posts, or maybe s/he is a wanna-be and actually thinks they summited in their own mind.Anyway. Easy to follow the route along the summit ridge to the sign. Yes, it's there. We summited at 2:30-2:37.
Snowshoes all the way to the base of the slide. Some serious controlled standing glisading got us to the base at 3:20.
You do the math on that one. Some of the snow on the slide was sloughed off in our descent. Also the snow is not deep enough to cover all the rock hazzards.Snowshoes all the way to the Lincoln woods trail. Our tracks were partially filled in, but the snow had stopped and we re-broke the same route.
Would have preferred to complete the buchwhack before darkness fell, but that just didn't happen. Got about 1/2 of it in before we needed the headlamps.
Back at the car at 6:40pm.
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