Seward on Feb 6?

[John H Swanson]

Looking for a few good hikers to climb Seward from the winter parking lot (yes, walking the road) via the north approach next weekend. This would be a long day trip.

The road and trail are broken to Ward brook leanto. Register indicated that Seward was last climbed on 1/22. There is about 3-6" new snow over the old tracks.

Anyone up for it?

 

[Hikerick]

Ah, the long and winding road . . . .

I could be talked into this one! I've got seven left to finish my winter 46, and Seward & Seymour are two of them! I got up Donaldson & Emmons with AlG in December, before they closed the gate.

Seward on Sunday? I usually can't go out on Sundays, but this week is unusual, and I think I can do it!

Are you coming from New Jersey?
Meet at the trailhead? What time?
Do you plan to walk the road, or ski it?
Are you fast, slow, or . . .? (I tend to be slow & steady).

If you want to e-mail me directly to speed communications, I'm
"[email protected]"

Rick

 

[John H Swanson]

opps, Did I say 6, I meant 5. That is to say Saturday.

We would walk the road, not ski, but will probably throw the pack in a sled to make it easier or at least a little different.

Fast is relative. I expect us to take 12 hours for this trip. We do not stop frequently.

 

[PINPIN JUNIOR]

Seward......

Hi John,

For your information, Pinpin Junior will go to Donaldson-Emmons-Donaldson-Seward (Calkins Brook) this weekend, Saturday or Sunday I will take a decision only Friday after my hike.

It will be nice to meet You on this Range.

Have a great week.

Pinpin Junior.

 

[Hikerick]

arg!

I'll see if I can re-arrange my schedule to go on Saturday (that may be a challenge at this point!) However, I may have a friend of mine available to go on Sunday (he won't know until Friday).

So, I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I'll let you know if I decide to go on Saturday!

Rick

 

[Hikerick]

. . . and another thing . . .

John,

Oops, forgot to mention--I have a sled, too! I like the idea! Maybe I'll do that, too! (That also opens the possibility of riding down some of the hills on the road!)

Let me know if you plan to do Seymour this winter, too!

 

[John H Swanson]

Hikerick,

Sent you an e-mail Did you receive it?

We've already done Seymour.

John

 

[markandkelly]

seward and seymour

Hi All,

Kelly and I hiked Donaldson and Emmons earlier this winter. We are hoping to finish the range this winter with Seward and Seymour and were thinking about them for this weekend. With the forecast showing moderate temps for Saturday night, we were thinking about camping, but would consider a day hike or two.

Is anybody heading in from the Ward Brook side of things? or to do Seymour?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Rik]

Mark,
I plan to do Seymour either 2/13 or 2/20. The trail was recently rebroken. Please post a report if you do it this weekend or PM me if interested in a future weekend.
P.S. Great avatar. Who took the picture? Did they know it was coming? I have a similiar shot of my engagement. Not on Haystack but of me proposing.

 

[John H Swanson]

MarkandKelly.

Nan and I were thinking about doing Seward (as mentioned) from Ward Brook on Sat. Interested? It would be an early start. 5:30?

 

[Hikerick]

. . . or Sunday?

Mark,

If John's Saturday trip doesn't work out for you, you're welcome to join me on Sunday!

 

[John H Swanson]

last message

doesn't look good for the long hike with the warm temps.
we will probably start very early (5am?) to take advantage of the cool morning temps.

 

[markandkelly]

saturday

It looks like we might do the sleep in the car thing and wake up early Saturday morning and go for it. John, hopefully we'll run into you on the trail.

Best!
Mark and Kelly

 

[PINPIN JUNIOR]

Seward from the North!!!!

Hi John & Nan,

Did You catch the Seward summit by the North Saturday?

It was a very nice day to hike, I hope You finish your winter goal and I give You my congratulation for Seward....I think You are the first people catch Seward by this side this winter.

Have a great time.

Pinpin Junior.

 

[John H Swanson]

Alain et Pin Pin Jr,

Yes we did get the summit. We arrived at 12:45 and saw your tracks. It was a difficult 4hrs of trail breaking for us from the bottom. The herdpath was not easy to follow all of the time, but I did enjoy climbing up the slide.

We had hoped to get some help breaking trail, but most people just wanted to wait for us to do the work. I guess you are used to everyone waiting for you to do the work, but for us it is a dissappointment. Especially since we listed it as a trip. Well we learned something about the people on this message board from this experience.

As always, I'm impressed that you did the 3 peaks and got out before us even with our early start.

John

 

[PINPIN JUNIOR]

Trail broker!!1

Hi Nan & John,

Congatulation and other time...We are sure it was a real party to go up by tne Noth side, specialy near the top when the path change to come very steep!!! Whow!!

We saw You strated very early, We arrived at the parking at 5.15 am and We started at 5.30, and it was a good decision to start before the snow will be to sticky.

We had few merrit to hike fast Saturday, We broken the path Friday with Gary same a gardian angel back us and We just need to correct the small error We made the day before.

Yes We agreed with You many people will cath the winter patch in the back of a couple of snowplow hiker ...just parasite!!!

But this people never know the real interior smille when You started in the morning in a virging snow You need to battle hour after hour, a couple time never catch the top..... but when You arrive alone, in from of your beer only You can put up your thumb without think: without this people I was never cathching this summit this winter!!

I hope the two other peoples signed the same morning did not started by Seymour and used your tracked after, but help You in this great goal!!!???

Now I will open a snake box but, THE MORE DIFFICULT IS NOT TO ACCEPTE THE PARASITE, IT IS WHEN THE PARASITE DESTROYED THE TRAIL AND USED ONLY CRAMPONS OR NOTHING...

Now for this reason Pinpin Junior will play at "Where is Charlie?"

Sorry for the real hiker but to much is to much!!

Have a great winter We hope to see You in a short time.

Pinpin Junior.

 

[John H Swanson]

Pin Pin,

We just missed you in the parking lot. We left at 5:10am.

Hi Nan & John,

I hope the two other peoples signed the same morning did not started by Seymour and used your tracked after, but help You in this great goal!!!???

QUOTE]

Actually this is why I'm upset. We expected to see them on the route to Seward, but they went to do Seymour. (I think) They climbed Seymour on our tracks from last Saturday 1/29. Then they followed us up Seward. Then we see them 10 min after we leave the summit on the way down! And they were concerned that the route we broke on the slide was too steep to descend. It sounded like they wanted us to break a different route for them to get down !!!

Well to quote Eric Shackleton, "Looks like it's the long haul for the old dogs one more time."

Enjoy your travels.

a bientot,

John

 

[Hikerick]

Yes, they did . . . .

PinPin Jr,

Yes, I believe they did summit Seward from the North!

I went up on Sunday, Feb 6, with my friend John, & we went up Seward via Calkins Brook. We decided to go down on the North side, and followed the tracks that let that way--but they did not use the traditional herd path!!!!

The track on the North face of Seward goes all the way to the east end of the summit ridge, and traverses the slide (all east of the regular herd path). Down near the bottom it re-joined the regular path, but the higher elevations just above the slide and also below the slide were a very rugged bushwack!!!

John & I saw your car in the parking lot on Sunday morning (I parked next to you, in the blue pickup).

I'm four away from my winter 46--Seymour, Grace, Carson, & McComb! Hope to finish this winter . . . .

Happy Hiking!

 

[markandkelly]

sorry for the miscommunication

John,

We're sorry to hear that you were counting on us to help you break the trail to Seward. As we mentioned in our previous post, we had hoped to run into you at some point on the mountain but didn't realize you interpreted that as plans for a group hike. Sorry for the miscommunication. We slept in our car Friday night, got up at 3:45, and hit the trail shortly after in hopes of doing Seymour and Seward with plans to camp.

Since we are typically pretty fast hikers and we made great time hiking into the lean-tos, we figured we could probably do Seymour and catch up with you and whoever else might be on Seward before you were half way up
the mountain. Apparently, we underestimated your hiking abilities (or over estimated ours.) We really appreciated that you broke the trail the whole way up; you did an excellent job. We were prepared to break trail and camp since we know it can be such a tiresome task.

We're sorry about the misunderstanding and feel like you rather misjudged us... we've done our share of breaking trail on other hikes (including breaking a trail to Seward from the north in April with lots of wet snow)...and had no intention of simply being a "parasite" on this one. We hope this miscommunication didn't take away any of the enjoyment of the hike as it was a great day to be out in the mountains!

Maybe we'll be able to repay the favor some day and break a trail for you.

Regards,
Mark

 

[robohiker]

What's all this commotion about breaking trail anyway? There's hardly any snow!!!!!!!