U
Unregistered
Guest
crawford path, eisenhower loop, bushwacks (some intentional, some not)
we hit the trail at 9am intending to hit pierce and eisenhower and backtrack. it was 25F when we left and the crawford trail was packed hard with no chance of postholing for the ascent up pierce. there is plenty of evidence of the warm weather we've had over the past week with lots of postholes off the rail. at 1130 we were eating lunch at the edge of the south facing snow field on eisenhower and feeling great. we decided to continue on to monroe after hitting the summit of eisenhower. as we approached monroe we were still feeling strong and thought we should skirt the summit of monroe and make an attempt at washington. we used the south facing snow fields to bypass the summit of monroe and met back up with the crawford path on the north side of monroe. we went a few hundred yards past the lake of the clouds hut and decided to call it due to time. went back over monroe and when we got to eisenhower we tried to follow the crawford path and bypass the summit. big mistake. lost the trail and ended up bushwacking through a spruce forest before meeting up with the crawford path again on the other side of eisenhower. i have never fallen in so many spruce traps. if you follow our trail, i appologize. from there we followed the crawford path back to 302.
snow conditions were mixed. soft on south and east facing areas and icy on dark north facing sides. everything was hard early in the day but it softened up a lot over the course of the day. pierce had lots of snow with no exposed rock. eisehower had no snow, except on the south facing slope, and little ice. it was a mix of ice and rock on monroe. excellent day to be out, blue skies and very little wind.
we hit the trail at 9am intending to hit pierce and eisenhower and backtrack. it was 25F when we left and the crawford trail was packed hard with no chance of postholing for the ascent up pierce. there is plenty of evidence of the warm weather we've had over the past week with lots of postholes off the rail. at 1130 we were eating lunch at the edge of the south facing snow field on eisenhower and feeling great. we decided to continue on to monroe after hitting the summit of eisenhower. as we approached monroe we were still feeling strong and thought we should skirt the summit of monroe and make an attempt at washington. we used the south facing snow fields to bypass the summit of monroe and met back up with the crawford path on the north side of monroe. we went a few hundred yards past the lake of the clouds hut and decided to call it due to time. went back over monroe and when we got to eisenhower we tried to follow the crawford path and bypass the summit. big mistake. lost the trail and ended up bushwacking through a spruce forest before meeting up with the crawford path again on the other side of eisenhower. i have never fallen in so many spruce traps. if you follow our trail, i appologize. from there we followed the crawford path back to 302.
snow conditions were mixed. soft on south and east facing areas and icy on dark north facing sides. everything was hard early in the day but it softened up a lot over the course of the day. pierce had lots of snow with no exposed rock. eisehower had no snow, except on the south facing slope, and little ice. it was a mix of ice and rock on monroe. excellent day to be out, blue skies and very little wind.
