On Saturday, which was a very nice day by winter 2019 standards, a group of 7, including myself, organized to hike out to Southwest Twin, a Trailwrights 72 peak, as some of us are working on that list in winter. The route was Beaver Brook Ski Trails, Gale River Trail, Galehead Hut, South Twin, Twinway, Bushwhack. The interesting part begins at South Twin on the Twinway, which was not broken out nor did it look traveled this winter, or at least not recently. Blazes were below knee level, and the corridor easy to follow, if a bit closed in on top.
By all accounts, Southwest Twin is the hardest TW72 bushwhack. My only other time there was up from Franconia Brook Trail and Red Rock Brook, which was different than "standard" and very interesting. We began the bushwhack at the highest point on the Twinway which would lead us past some intermediate knobs and save some elevation. For the most part, staying on the WNW (Garfield) side of the ridge top resulted in pretty nice woods, possibly attributable to the 4-6' of snow. Speaking of snow, there was 6" or so atop a crust, so we didn't sink much past that. Basically following a 235M bearing lead us through several open areas, some with decent views (again, thanks to the snow depth), until we were staring up at Southwest Twin itself. We studied it carefully and picked what we thought would be the least thick route through the obvious spruce rings. It had been easy until now, but there were spruce traps to deal with before reaching the small open area, just a few paces from the actual summit. This proved to be a great spot to take pictures and eat, so we signed in and returned to this sunny spot for lunch.
Trip Totals: 16.8 miles, 4850', 11:30 total time.
Winter Route (Blue) from South Twin and Summer Route (Purple) from Red Rock Brook/Franconia Brook Trail
Southwest Twin (below Loon Ski Area) from South Twin
Franconia Ridge, Garfield and Galehead from South Twin
Willey Range and Presidential Range from South Twin
Guyot and Bonds from col below Southwest Twin
(continued)
Tim
By all accounts, Southwest Twin is the hardest TW72 bushwhack. My only other time there was up from Franconia Brook Trail and Red Rock Brook, which was different than "standard" and very interesting. We began the bushwhack at the highest point on the Twinway which would lead us past some intermediate knobs and save some elevation. For the most part, staying on the WNW (Garfield) side of the ridge top resulted in pretty nice woods, possibly attributable to the 4-6' of snow. Speaking of snow, there was 6" or so atop a crust, so we didn't sink much past that. Basically following a 235M bearing lead us through several open areas, some with decent views (again, thanks to the snow depth), until we were staring up at Southwest Twin itself. We studied it carefully and picked what we thought would be the least thick route through the obvious spruce rings. It had been easy until now, but there were spruce traps to deal with before reaching the small open area, just a few paces from the actual summit. This proved to be a great spot to take pictures and eat, so we signed in and returned to this sunny spot for lunch.
Trip Totals: 16.8 miles, 4850', 11:30 total time.
Winter Route (Blue) from South Twin and Summer Route (Purple) from Red Rock Brook/Franconia Brook Trail
Southwest Twin (below Loon Ski Area) from South Twin
Franconia Ridge, Garfield and Galehead from South Twin
Willey Range and Presidential Range from South Twin
Guyot and Bonds from col below Southwest Twin
(continued)
Tim
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