Waumbek – Weeks traverse, 31 January 2009.
This trip report is similar to one that I posted on VftT in early February 2009 but I can no longer find. I thank Jazzbo for posting the fine report and photos on VftT at the time, and Onestep, Peakbagger, and Oncoman for their replies, and all four of them for making this one my most exciting winter trips in a long time. Jazzbo makes reference to this trip in the remembrance section of Peakbagger’s (Dennis Pednault) obituary.
John Swanson admonished me for not joining him on winter NHHH adventures over a decade ago, but I was content at the time with just puttering away at my winter NEHH list. Of course, John was right, as over the past decade I have logged many solo winter failures on NHHH peaks, a list that I never tackled in all-season. These failures included four winter attempts to get Middle Weeks (made it twice each to North and South Weeks), primarily for lack of partners to share the trail breaking.
When Onestep and I organized this trip a couple of weeks ago, we were thinking that it might end up being just the two of us. So, we were delighted when Jazzbo signed on, followed by Peakbagger, and then Oncoman. Although we were especially happy to have Oncoman with his legendary bushwhacking experience joining the effort, I was a little nervous because his addition was the result of his Maine trip getting cancelled because of the recent snowstorms, and I have always believed the Kilkenny to be one of the snowiest pockets in the Northeast.
Nevertheless, within the first half mile or so of the Starr King Trail, the five of us quickly caught up with a pair including a blind man (I was really impressed with this guy) and three guys including a young boy who told me that it was now my turn to break trail. After thanking the three for their efforts, I chuckled to myself, as at that point we were breaking only 6-8 inches of recent powder from the past two days of snow flurries and I knew that the well-broken trail under the recent fluff would end at Waumbek. Surprisingly, I discovered the broken trail ended about 20 meters short of the summit sign, where the serious trail breaking would commence. Upon their arrival, Oncoman’s broken MSR was not a good omen, but as the two with engineering degrees worked on the shoe, Onestep and I set off to break out the ridge east of Waumbek, as I did not think that my geology degrees would be much use on Waumbek. I suggested to Onestep that if the others did not catch us within an hour, we should probably call it a day, to which he agreed. Oncoman, Jazzman, and Peakbagger caught us in about 40 minutes, which given their 30-minute repair time meant that they caught up with us in about 10 minutes, testimony to the difference a broken trail makes to forward progress.
Despite much deeper snow and a more difficult time with route finding this trip, we reached South Weeks, the halfway point in distance, in about 10 minutes faster time than I did with a much larger group on New Year’s Day a few years ago, when the leaders decided that we would turn around. Although there was a brief discussion about bailing this time, no one felt pressured into continuing, so on we went. I believe that Oncoman was joking when he said that even if we did not finish until midnight, the full traverse would be worth the effort. I was chuckling to myself again thinking that we had better do better than midnight. About an hour later I was slightly in the lead upon our arrival at Middle Weeks, where I scurried a moose off the summit. Given the extensive fresh moose tracks on all three summits, I surmise that moose not only highly value the forage at these elevations in the winter, but also have their own peakbagging list a la Midnight Mike Bromberg’s.
During our photoshoot on Middle Weeks, Onestep projected that we would be on the summit of North Weeks in another hour, which I thought was only slightly optimistic. But, in retrospect, it was the vertical elevation gain on the south side of North Weeks (about 700 ft, vs. about 300 and 200 ft, respectively, for the south sides of South and Middle) that mattered more than the distance, as that 700 ft really knocked the stuffing out of all five of us, I think. But, as Oncoman commented above, “there is no crying in [baseball] bushwhacking,” so we reset our finish time estimate to 8-9 pm. Our line off the north side of North Weeks might not have been the best, but it did get us to the valley floor where the blazes along the York Pond Trail were for the most part useful. We reached the Fish Hatchery around 11 pm, for a 15-hour day on the trail. My guess is that we were only able to follow blazes for about 25% of the 6+ miles between Waumbek and York Pond Trail. My calculations suggest that we were only able to cover 0.7 miles/hour from Waumbek to the Fish Hatchery (8.6 miles in about 12 h, 35 min).
This was my first peakbagging experience that benefitted by use of a GPS (I have used extensively in my geology work and SAR training) and appreciated that Oncoman had brought one with some key waypoints marked in advance, which was reassuring, even if somewhat disheartening at times. On the other hand, I never checked the thermometer on my pack the entire trip because I really did not wish to know how cold it was. Jazzbo later told us that the temperature had dropped to -4 F by the time we arrived at North Weeks. Fortunately, we were in the woods the whole way, so the wind was negligible, as was the crescent moonlight.
I have nothing but admiration and gratitude for my four partners on this hike, my first with Oncoman, Jazzman, and Peakbagger, and second with Onestep. All in all, a decent effort for five guys with an average age well over 50 (in 2009).
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