Neil
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Phelps North, Tabletop east and Howard Mountain
Well, I recruited two new members into the Phelps-Tabletop E club yesterday. Now I know of 6 people including myself who have made this fabled traverse.
I recruited ADKJack and Highonlife to join me in pursuit of Howard Mountain and they were so keen and willing that I suggested we start by climbing Phelps North and, since it’s in the vicinity, toss in Tabletop East while we were at it.
I did the Tabletop East-Phelps traverse last fall with Cory D and as we went ‘round the ridgeline we tried cutting the corners in order to save on time and energy but in that sun-exposed southwest facing bowl we encountered extremely thick growth. Getting from Tabletop to Phelps took us 4 hours. On the trail, we could have gone from Tabletop to Phelps, and back, in less time.
Close to the end of that memorable bushwhack Cory said, “we have to go over to the north side of the ridge, it’s bound to be better” and when we did so it was much, much better. So, being a rather wise lad I pencilled in a route that stayed on the NE side of the ridgeline, all the way from Phelps to Tabletop East.
With this route drawn on our maps we left South Meadows at 6:30 and after 5 minutes on the truck trail to Marcy Dam headed straight up to the 3000 foot shoulder due north of Phelps North and made a hard right turn, due magnetic south to Phelps North at about 3350 elevation.
We had views of Big Slide to our east. BS doesn’t present a very dramatic profile when viewed from the west and it took some map and compass work to ascertain just what it was we were looking at.
On this north facing slope we encountered snow patches at about 3200 feet and gradually the snow cover increased. It was rock hard and we were able to bareboot. When we dropped down the south facing slope of Phelps North the vegetation was completely different – all coniferous and much thicker; there was no snow either. We entered the col at 3120 feet and made our way up through an open Birch forest to another bump, made a hard left turn and still in open Birches made a long gentle South-easterly climb up to 3800 feet and the N-S ridgeline of Phelps. As soon as we dropped down Northwards the vegetation turned coniferous and thickened up considerably and nearing 4000 feet it was exclusively coniferous no matter what direction the slopes faced.
What we noticed as we headed due North towards Phelps was that the vegetation was always much more sparse to the east. We would hit a wall of thick, stunted, interlocking and gnarly spruce, which looked impregnable and probably was. Then we would make a detour to the east and the woods would open right up. I was filing this important information away for the hike’s big question mark: the Phelps –TabletopEast traverse. Niggling at the back of my mind was whether I was risking not making it to Howard, which was the only peak I needed for my list. (PhelpsN and Tabletop east were added as ornamentation in order to decorate what struck me as what might otherwise be a rather bland hike.)
We stood on one of our checkpoints about a half-mile NNE of Phelps before dropping down into the col. It was snowing and windy but we had spectacular views of Algonquin and Colden from a rather unique viewing angle. Given the rather extensive itinerary we decide to skip Phelps and aim for the 4100 foot bump that lies due east of it. So far, we had been navigating with map and compass and while it looks like a piece of cake if you look at it on the map, we needed to spend a fair bit of time checking our position, doing our best to hit the cols and not go down off the wrong side of any bumps etc. etc.
We made sure we stayed to the NE side of the ridge as we proceeded towards Ttop east and whenever we did stray over to the ridge’s crest the vegetation thickened up pitilessly so we kept deviating to the left. The difference (improvement) was huge and we made it all the way to the 1286 meter summit NNE of Ttop E on a 2-3 foot deep layer of hardened snow under sunny skies quite easily. The only drawback was that we missed out on the views of Algonquin that you get if you make the traverse on the SW side. At one point it looked like there might be a viewpoint so I walked over to it only to be faced with an impregnable wall of conifers. It’s worth the trip up there just to see first hand the combined effects of sun, wind and elevation. Soon, we would be experiencing these same effects in a more tangible and even tactile sense but for now it was all clear sailing as we worked our way towards Ttop East.
The final 1286 meter bump is quite gentle and broad and here we switched to gps mode which may or may not have contributed to the aforementioned tactile spruce and balsam experience.
My compass said to go SSW but the openings in the woods kept pulling me to the East. But the gps knows the shortest route between 2 points and so we made a right angled turn and began to descend from what I later baptized, “Fir Wave mountain”. We took it on the chin for a good 30 minutes as we pried and dragged our way through some incredibly thick fir wave “aftergrowth”. It’s at times like those that the bushwhacker’s mantra, “it can’t last forever” is pressed into service. Near the col the woods opened up and the climb up to Ttop east was as I remembered the descent last September, nice and open. Yesterday, we had 3 feet of hardpacked snow to bareboot upon. The final 50 feet of ascent were very thick though and then we were on top with the most amazing views of Gothics and Saddleback.
It was 2:30 and we were wondering how bad was it going to be getting back over Firwave Mtn. and down the other side to the Firwave-Howard col. Would we be bushwhacking off of Howard in the dark? From a vantage point half-way down Ttop East we had a clear view of the entire south side of it and it looked like one massive firwave and blowdown field choked with baby balsams and spruce. But, closer study revealed a way through it all and we set the compass dial to 70 mag., dropped into the col and made a perfect little end run around almost all of it. This is great news because it represents the final piece of the great “Tabletop East-Phelps Traverse” puzzle. It also proves a point: when bushwhacking, the shortest distance between 2 points is a very crooked line. All that’s missing now is the TTE-P patch.
We had a 700 foot descent off of Firwave Mtn. to the low point between it and Howard and we enjoyed a wide open forest with lots of snow that we could occasionally glissade upon. The elevation dropped quickly but then the snow softened and we hit a blowdown field, which was treacherous, very slow going and tiring. But, we had stunning dead-on views of Gothics’ Face and Saddleback 2.5 miles to our SE, which were beautifully lit up in the late afternoon sun.
The fatigue was setting in but we still had to haul ourselves up to the day’s objective: Howard Mountain! The first obstacle was a 20 foot high line of cliffs that looked unbroken as far as we could see in each direction (not far admittedly) but then I saw a crack and a ramp and we scooted up into a very dense and thick field of blowdown. There’s no sense of trying to hurry through that stuff and we discussed the finer points of “finesse bushwhacking”, which consists of making forward progress with as little effort and resistance as possible with no regard for speed. It’s usually the fastest and most enjoyable way to go.
The remainder of the way up turned out to be pretty good and, finally, after about 10 hours of bushwhacking through thick and thin, route finding, endless map and compass checking, sore arms, scratched faces, gouged eyeballs and torn clothing we stood on the summit of mighty Howard Mountain and looked at all the trees that lay horizontally across our new compass bearing of zero magnetic. We were all smiles and I mentioned to Jack and Nancy that this was the 104th summit on my list of 128 (recently increased by 2 from 126).
After that it was a long 700 foot downhill walk to the Klondike Notch trail and a long, early evening stroll out to the cars while we looked up at the Phelps North – Phelps ridgeline that we had traversed earlier in the day.
One final observation: we spent the greater part of our 12-hour day around 4000 feet elevation and nearly always had one or more of the high peaks in full view. They looked surreal.
Thanks Jack and Nancy for so much positive energy.
Well, I recruited two new members into the Phelps-Tabletop E club yesterday. Now I know of 6 people including myself who have made this fabled traverse.
I recruited ADKJack and Highonlife to join me in pursuit of Howard Mountain and they were so keen and willing that I suggested we start by climbing Phelps North and, since it’s in the vicinity, toss in Tabletop East while we were at it.
I did the Tabletop East-Phelps traverse last fall with Cory D and as we went ‘round the ridgeline we tried cutting the corners in order to save on time and energy but in that sun-exposed southwest facing bowl we encountered extremely thick growth. Getting from Tabletop to Phelps took us 4 hours. On the trail, we could have gone from Tabletop to Phelps, and back, in less time.
Close to the end of that memorable bushwhack Cory said, “we have to go over to the north side of the ridge, it’s bound to be better” and when we did so it was much, much better. So, being a rather wise lad I pencilled in a route that stayed on the NE side of the ridgeline, all the way from Phelps to Tabletop East.
With this route drawn on our maps we left South Meadows at 6:30 and after 5 minutes on the truck trail to Marcy Dam headed straight up to the 3000 foot shoulder due north of Phelps North and made a hard right turn, due magnetic south to Phelps North at about 3350 elevation.
We had views of Big Slide to our east. BS doesn’t present a very dramatic profile when viewed from the west and it took some map and compass work to ascertain just what it was we were looking at.
On this north facing slope we encountered snow patches at about 3200 feet and gradually the snow cover increased. It was rock hard and we were able to bareboot. When we dropped down the south facing slope of Phelps North the vegetation was completely different – all coniferous and much thicker; there was no snow either. We entered the col at 3120 feet and made our way up through an open Birch forest to another bump, made a hard left turn and still in open Birches made a long gentle South-easterly climb up to 3800 feet and the N-S ridgeline of Phelps. As soon as we dropped down Northwards the vegetation turned coniferous and thickened up considerably and nearing 4000 feet it was exclusively coniferous no matter what direction the slopes faced.
What we noticed as we headed due North towards Phelps was that the vegetation was always much more sparse to the east. We would hit a wall of thick, stunted, interlocking and gnarly spruce, which looked impregnable and probably was. Then we would make a detour to the east and the woods would open right up. I was filing this important information away for the hike’s big question mark: the Phelps –TabletopEast traverse. Niggling at the back of my mind was whether I was risking not making it to Howard, which was the only peak I needed for my list. (PhelpsN and Tabletop east were added as ornamentation in order to decorate what struck me as what might otherwise be a rather bland hike.)
We stood on one of our checkpoints about a half-mile NNE of Phelps before dropping down into the col. It was snowing and windy but we had spectacular views of Algonquin and Colden from a rather unique viewing angle. Given the rather extensive itinerary we decide to skip Phelps and aim for the 4100 foot bump that lies due east of it. So far, we had been navigating with map and compass and while it looks like a piece of cake if you look at it on the map, we needed to spend a fair bit of time checking our position, doing our best to hit the cols and not go down off the wrong side of any bumps etc. etc.
We made sure we stayed to the NE side of the ridge as we proceeded towards Ttop east and whenever we did stray over to the ridge’s crest the vegetation thickened up pitilessly so we kept deviating to the left. The difference (improvement) was huge and we made it all the way to the 1286 meter summit NNE of Ttop E on a 2-3 foot deep layer of hardened snow under sunny skies quite easily. The only drawback was that we missed out on the views of Algonquin that you get if you make the traverse on the SW side. At one point it looked like there might be a viewpoint so I walked over to it only to be faced with an impregnable wall of conifers. It’s worth the trip up there just to see first hand the combined effects of sun, wind and elevation. Soon, we would be experiencing these same effects in a more tangible and even tactile sense but for now it was all clear sailing as we worked our way towards Ttop East.
The final 1286 meter bump is quite gentle and broad and here we switched to gps mode which may or may not have contributed to the aforementioned tactile spruce and balsam experience.
My compass said to go SSW but the openings in the woods kept pulling me to the East. But the gps knows the shortest route between 2 points and so we made a right angled turn and began to descend from what I later baptized, “Fir Wave mountain”. We took it on the chin for a good 30 minutes as we pried and dragged our way through some incredibly thick fir wave “aftergrowth”. It’s at times like those that the bushwhacker’s mantra, “it can’t last forever” is pressed into service. Near the col the woods opened up and the climb up to Ttop east was as I remembered the descent last September, nice and open. Yesterday, we had 3 feet of hardpacked snow to bareboot upon. The final 50 feet of ascent were very thick though and then we were on top with the most amazing views of Gothics and Saddleback.
It was 2:30 and we were wondering how bad was it going to be getting back over Firwave Mtn. and down the other side to the Firwave-Howard col. Would we be bushwhacking off of Howard in the dark? From a vantage point half-way down Ttop East we had a clear view of the entire south side of it and it looked like one massive firwave and blowdown field choked with baby balsams and spruce. But, closer study revealed a way through it all and we set the compass dial to 70 mag., dropped into the col and made a perfect little end run around almost all of it. This is great news because it represents the final piece of the great “Tabletop East-Phelps Traverse” puzzle. It also proves a point: when bushwhacking, the shortest distance between 2 points is a very crooked line. All that’s missing now is the TTE-P patch.
We had a 700 foot descent off of Firwave Mtn. to the low point between it and Howard and we enjoyed a wide open forest with lots of snow that we could occasionally glissade upon. The elevation dropped quickly but then the snow softened and we hit a blowdown field, which was treacherous, very slow going and tiring. But, we had stunning dead-on views of Gothics’ Face and Saddleback 2.5 miles to our SE, which were beautifully lit up in the late afternoon sun.
The fatigue was setting in but we still had to haul ourselves up to the day’s objective: Howard Mountain! The first obstacle was a 20 foot high line of cliffs that looked unbroken as far as we could see in each direction (not far admittedly) but then I saw a crack and a ramp and we scooted up into a very dense and thick field of blowdown. There’s no sense of trying to hurry through that stuff and we discussed the finer points of “finesse bushwhacking”, which consists of making forward progress with as little effort and resistance as possible with no regard for speed. It’s usually the fastest and most enjoyable way to go.
The remainder of the way up turned out to be pretty good and, finally, after about 10 hours of bushwhacking through thick and thin, route finding, endless map and compass checking, sore arms, scratched faces, gouged eyeballs and torn clothing we stood on the summit of mighty Howard Mountain and looked at all the trees that lay horizontally across our new compass bearing of zero magnetic. We were all smiles and I mentioned to Jack and Nancy that this was the 104th summit on my list of 128 (recently increased by 2 from 126).
After that it was a long 700 foot downhill walk to the Klondike Notch trail and a long, early evening stroll out to the cars while we looked up at the Phelps North – Phelps ridgeline that we had traversed earlier in the day.
One final observation: we spent the greater part of our 12-hour day around 4000 feet elevation and nearly always had one or more of the high peaks in full view. They looked surreal.
Thanks Jack and Nancy for so much positive energy.
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