BlackSpruce
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- Sep 8, 2003
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The first day of winter saw four shameless peak baggers at the Bradley Pond Trailhead rejoicing upon signing the trail register. A party of two had logged in for Santanoni the day before, so all we had to do was climb. Yeah, right!
The road section and the main trail were well packed and in perfect condition for microspikes which were a must for crossing the two icy bridges. A bit of new snow was covering the trail making for comfortable footing. We took the Tahawus Club Trail (aka Santanoni Express) and soon were puzzled to see increasing amounts of snow cover over what we thought were yesterday’s tracks. Furthermore, the nature of the tracks made it hard to believe that two climbers had gone up and down the “Express” but it still made it much easier for us while it lasted. The higher we went the more new snow on the path and especially on the trees. It had become the winter wonderland we enjoy so much and that we could enjoy at leisure as our speed had considerably slowed. Mind you even above 3600’ we could follow tracks occasionally, then from the 3900’ elevation the snow became much deeper, at least 3 feet, and the steep section was very hard work due to ice underneath. Once on the summit ridge proper we could see what could have been a broken path a while ago but it led towards Times Square!!!
It took us lots more effort to reach the summit of Santanoni, to the left, as it was almost impossible at times to find the herdpath, it was cold and windy, the snow was at least 4 feet deep and far from fluffy, and the trees loaded with ice and snow and bent every which way... it is winter for real up there! And no way has anybody been to the true summit the last 10 days as it was totally unconsolidated along the ridge. Mind you it could be that one or two climbers came from TS and went down the “Express” without going to Santa summit.
To our surprise we were the only ones in the Santanonis all day, so we sure hope the Sewards are now open for us shameless vultures because we would not mind a free ride to Emmons.
The road section and the main trail were well packed and in perfect condition for microspikes which were a must for crossing the two icy bridges. A bit of new snow was covering the trail making for comfortable footing. We took the Tahawus Club Trail (aka Santanoni Express) and soon were puzzled to see increasing amounts of snow cover over what we thought were yesterday’s tracks. Furthermore, the nature of the tracks made it hard to believe that two climbers had gone up and down the “Express” but it still made it much easier for us while it lasted. The higher we went the more new snow on the path and especially on the trees. It had become the winter wonderland we enjoy so much and that we could enjoy at leisure as our speed had considerably slowed. Mind you even above 3600’ we could follow tracks occasionally, then from the 3900’ elevation the snow became much deeper, at least 3 feet, and the steep section was very hard work due to ice underneath. Once on the summit ridge proper we could see what could have been a broken path a while ago but it led towards Times Square!!!
It took us lots more effort to reach the summit of Santanoni, to the left, as it was almost impossible at times to find the herdpath, it was cold and windy, the snow was at least 4 feet deep and far from fluffy, and the trees loaded with ice and snow and bent every which way... it is winter for real up there! And no way has anybody been to the true summit the last 10 days as it was totally unconsolidated along the ridge. Mind you it could be that one or two climbers came from TS and went down the “Express” without going to Santa summit.
To our surprise we were the only ones in the Santanonis all day, so we sure hope the Sewards are now open for us shameless vultures because we would not mind a free ride to Emmons.
