Redfield and Cliff 1/17/09

[mtnhiker]

Started from the Loj and took the Lake Arnold route both on the way in and way out. Trail to Avalanche camps was well packed, with a few inches of fresh snow up to the Lake Arnold, beyond Lake Arnold to Feldspar lean to there was 6-8” of snow with many drifted, blown in areas. Wasn’t a great view day today, clouded in and mountains hidden most of the time, and it was chilly at -8. Easily found the herdpath at the Uphill lean to, just beyond the split with Cliff the trail to Redfield was drifted/snowed in, broke trail the rest of the way up Redfield in a foot of fresh snow. Ran into 2 groups headed up on our way down, so the trail should be well established, not sure how long that will hold with snow expected Sunday. Off to Cliff, followed a broken trail for 2 minutes and then it ended, we broke trail to the top in a foot of fresh snow. You will see a bit of a maze at the very start of Cliff, we blocked off the bad ones with branches on the way out, but not sure how long that will hold with expected snow. The maze is only at the very beginning, then no more false paths. There was one group behind us on Cliff, so the trail should be somewhat established. Wore snowshoes all day, there are some tricky sections on Cliff, but we were able to negotiate them in our snowshoes (MSR Lightning Ascent). Final ascent of the day climbing up to Lake Arnold, then an easy walk out to the Loj.