The objective for this trip was to climb Redfield and Cliff from the Loj, but Redfield ended up being enough effort for one day. I started at daylight, 7:00 a.m., and traveled through Avalanche Pass and over the lakes to Lake Colden dam. The lakes still have a few wet spots on the surface but plenty of ice under the drifted snow. The ski trail was in great shape except for the usual damage from inconsiderate barebooters. On the way back from Marcy Dam I passed two ice climbers in plastic boots (one was limping) with neither skis nor snowshoes (or even wearing crampons). Where are the Rangers when you need them? I have nothing against ice climbers—hope they enjoyed postholing to their climb site—but the rules are to keep the trails nice for everyone.
The trail to Uphill Brook seemed to have been traveled recently but had a few inches of new snow. The Opalescent valley and gorge are so beautiful, even though the rush of the water in the brook was absent. At Uphill lean-to, campers had built a snow wall partly across the front (as a windbreak) but cut and scattered a thin layer of balsam branches on the floor of the lean-to. What was the point? Who would want to sleep on those branches? The wood floor is uncomfortable enough and needles are a fire hazard when cooking . . . they must have been dreaming of the old days when that was considered a bed. Now, it’s a mess for the next campers to clean up.
The path to Cliff was broken out by SherpaBob on Jan. 2, and the tracks were still visible. My plan was to do Redfield (just 1.3 miles, 1300 ft ascent) first and “save” Cliff for later. The tracks toward Redfield went about 20 yards, then stopped. My work for the day began quickly while sinking into the deep snow along the lower part of the herdpath. Snow depths in the first blowdown area near the brook were particularly difficult with several feet of drifting and waist-deep powder. It took a bit of effort to get through there, but I kept telling myself that it would be better if I could just get into the trees where a lot of the snow was up in the canopy. It was better in the trees, but got bad again as soon as I got into the open near the brook. A particular problem was collapsing of the drifted snow due to voids underneath. “Supportive” was not a word that ever came to mind. The surface looked good, then ka-whoomp--and I dropped down a couple of feet. I carefully chose routes that avoided the water down below—getting wet feet was not in my plan. After an hour of so of “progress”, I realized that I was probably the first visitor to Redfield since the beginning of snow season (mid-December).
I’ll spare you from further boring step-by-step accounts, but suffice to say it was great feeling to reach the summit in 3 h:15 min (a staggering pace of 0.4 miles/hour )—a bit off my normal. It’s strange on a climb like this, how everything is so slow, and that time seems to almost stand still. It was a beautiful day, however, and not too cold so I could enjoy every step. Taking it slowly and cautiously on the trip down (not wanting to collapse through any weak spots), I got back to the lean-to in 45 minutes!
The highlight of the trip back to the Loj was the breakage of my Lightning Ascent snowshoes, the final time, thankfully. I’d had enough of them and it’s time to move on (see separate post). UPDATE: the snowshoe has been placed in a good home.
The trail to Uphill Brook seemed to have been traveled recently but had a few inches of new snow. The Opalescent valley and gorge are so beautiful, even though the rush of the water in the brook was absent. At Uphill lean-to, campers had built a snow wall partly across the front (as a windbreak) but cut and scattered a thin layer of balsam branches on the floor of the lean-to. What was the point? Who would want to sleep on those branches? The wood floor is uncomfortable enough and needles are a fire hazard when cooking . . . they must have been dreaming of the old days when that was considered a bed. Now, it’s a mess for the next campers to clean up.
The path to Cliff was broken out by SherpaBob on Jan. 2, and the tracks were still visible. My plan was to do Redfield (just 1.3 miles, 1300 ft ascent) first and “save” Cliff for later. The tracks toward Redfield went about 20 yards, then stopped. My work for the day began quickly while sinking into the deep snow along the lower part of the herdpath. Snow depths in the first blowdown area near the brook were particularly difficult with several feet of drifting and waist-deep powder. It took a bit of effort to get through there, but I kept telling myself that it would be better if I could just get into the trees where a lot of the snow was up in the canopy. It was better in the trees, but got bad again as soon as I got into the open near the brook. A particular problem was collapsing of the drifted snow due to voids underneath. “Supportive” was not a word that ever came to mind. The surface looked good, then ka-whoomp--and I dropped down a couple of feet. I carefully chose routes that avoided the water down below—getting wet feet was not in my plan. After an hour of so of “progress”, I realized that I was probably the first visitor to Redfield since the beginning of snow season (mid-December).
I’ll spare you from further boring step-by-step accounts, but suffice to say it was great feeling to reach the summit in 3 h:15 min (a staggering pace of 0.4 miles/hour )—a bit off my normal. It’s strange on a climb like this, how everything is so slow, and that time seems to almost stand still. It was a beautiful day, however, and not too cold so I could enjoy every step. Taking it slowly and cautiously on the trip down (not wanting to collapse through any weak spots), I got back to the lean-to in 45 minutes!
The highlight of the trip back to the Loj was the breakage of my Lightning Ascent snowshoes, the final time, thankfully. I’d had enough of them and it’s time to move on (see separate post). UPDATE: the snowshoe has been placed in a good home.
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