Bombadil
Active member
12-23-12
A few inches of light snow fell overnight and there wasn't much more than that on the ground down low. We weren't paying attention as we cruised along the logging road and missed the uphill turn for the standard route. Despite this we continued until we got to a small stream crossing that seemed to be fed from the valley between N Twin and PAtN. We crossed that and were sucked in by some absolutely gorgeous birch glades (even more so as the morning light lit it up). Climbing was easy and straightforward in either microspikes or bareboots until ~3k. Then, as expected, we began to hit the cliff bands. We circled around some, climbed some others as they grew in steepness and difficulty. At one point we crossed a small blowdown over a large, open 30' crevice. It was certainly an interesting route to PAtN and not recommended for those seeking the easy way up. We had to ascend a couple 6' ice bulges (safe runouts) and found ourselves about 50' vertical below the nubble out in the open staring at a terrible spruce fortress. Crawling through with semi-large packs with snowshoes was out. I tried tree-surfing on their tops and made a little progress and eventually we traversed north a little ways and got up and went along the usual herdpath to the summit. There were lots of blowdowns along the ridge, following the herdpath was pretty tricky, as was finding the canister. Similar to yesterday's hike there was a lot of snow up high and it looked as though the ridge had received a solid 5" of fresh snow overnight. We descended the usual route and made it from the summit to the cars in a little under an hour. We all carried snowshoes but either barebooted or used spikes. That's not to say there wasn't a lot of snow up high just that it was easier negotiating the climb and the obstacles without clunky snowshoes. Glad to get one of the winter NEHH bushwhacks, even if it was one of the easier ones.
I hope it's not frowned up but here's a printscreen of our track in black vs. a condensed track from a few years ago in red:
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
p.s. I doubt it will turn up but one of us lost a hillsound spike, likely somewhere between 3200-3500 on the east/southeast side of the nubble.
A few inches of light snow fell overnight and there wasn't much more than that on the ground down low. We weren't paying attention as we cruised along the logging road and missed the uphill turn for the standard route. Despite this we continued until we got to a small stream crossing that seemed to be fed from the valley between N Twin and PAtN. We crossed that and were sucked in by some absolutely gorgeous birch glades (even more so as the morning light lit it up). Climbing was easy and straightforward in either microspikes or bareboots until ~3k. Then, as expected, we began to hit the cliff bands. We circled around some, climbed some others as they grew in steepness and difficulty. At one point we crossed a small blowdown over a large, open 30' crevice. It was certainly an interesting route to PAtN and not recommended for those seeking the easy way up. We had to ascend a couple 6' ice bulges (safe runouts) and found ourselves about 50' vertical below the nubble out in the open staring at a terrible spruce fortress. Crawling through with semi-large packs with snowshoes was out. I tried tree-surfing on their tops and made a little progress and eventually we traversed north a little ways and got up and went along the usual herdpath to the summit. There were lots of blowdowns along the ridge, following the herdpath was pretty tricky, as was finding the canister. Similar to yesterday's hike there was a lot of snow up high and it looked as though the ridge had received a solid 5" of fresh snow overnight. We descended the usual route and made it from the summit to the cars in a little under an hour. We all carried snowshoes but either barebooted or used spikes. That's not to say there wasn't a lot of snow up high just that it was easier negotiating the climb and the obstacles without clunky snowshoes. Glad to get one of the winter NEHH bushwhacks, even if it was one of the easier ones.
I hope it's not frowned up but here's a printscreen of our track in black vs. a condensed track from a few years ago in red:
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
p.s. I doubt it will turn up but one of us lost a hillsound spike, likely somewhere between 3200-3500 on the east/southeast side of the nubble.
