Panther Peak and Santanoni attempt 3/6/10

[porky]

There is a packed snow footpath all the way to Times Square. From there, we tried every existing path to get to Santanoni, without success. We did try to crash through what we thought was the summer herd path, but it was too arduous for us, and we gave up in less than a quarter mile. We did follow the path out the ridge to Couch for at least a half-mile while trying to find a route to Santanoni, so that one is probably open all the way to Couch. Finally, so that the climb would seem somewhat complete, we scooted to Panther without trouble.

Curiously, the trail register down in the parking lot included several entries from the past week stating that they had climbed Santanoni. How they did it without leaving a footprint in the snow is beyond me,

Porky