We stepped carefully, although it wasn’t always easy.
Actually, this was August 2009. My fifth time up in the range, and I’d never seen the conditions so good. A month earlier, the conditions up there were the worst I’d ever seen. It took us 45 minutes just to get up Panther from Herald Square in July, so we blew off Couchsachraga that hike and just went to Santanoni, descending on the Santanoni Trail.
When we returned to bag Couchee, I couldn’t believe how great it was. The mudhole two-thirds of the way down the herd path was still there, of course, but not impossible. After we got back to Herald Square, I went by myself to climb Panther a fifth time while Cam stayed behind. I wanted to go for Santanoni, too — I’d never climbed all three in one hike — but Cam didn’t want to so we just went back down Panther Brook herd path, where Cam slipped and cut his leg.