hikerfast
Active member
day one.
slept till 9 am
9-12 - lounged around eating breakfast and drinking coffee.
nobody responded to my post about wildcats, so I decided to hike something closer.
drove up to waterville valley and parked at depot camp. I was listening to a cool cd. I wanted to hear the last song, but, realizing the importance of an early start in winter, decided to forego my pleasure, and headed out promptly at 1:20 pm, not a second later. The guidebook says not to hike alone in winter, so I didn't . I brought some food and a lot of clothes with me. Never hike alone. I thought I had to pay to use the livermore road, as its part of the cross country center now, but there was no one at the booth. I was going to ski the road, but figured they would give me grief and make me pay or go back to buy a pass at the center and I didn't want to deal with it. I don't have a problem coming down in the dark, but going up in the dark could be highly annoying. I just headed out in boots
the cross country portion was pretty easy walking. After the cross country trails left the road, there was about 4 inches of new snow on the trail, I continued booting with instep crampons. I took scaur ridge trail and the snow was getting slightly deeper. I switched to snowshoes. The new snow got maybe a foot deep or so the higher I went. I crested the first ridge on Pine Bend Brook Trail and ran into ridges of snow about 2 feet high and every 5 feet. It looked like the westwall zone of fortifications that the germans put up in world war II in Europe to stop the allied advance. It got windy as heck there too. I got to the steep part, and it was icy underneath but pretty good traction with the sherpas. I summited north tripyramid at 4:15. Memory said middle peak wasn't that far so I headed over that way, and ran into another westwall zone of fortifications. I lost the trail somewhere near middle peak and zigzagged around hoping I had hit the summit. It was getting dusky so I figured I should pick one of the 15 zigzagging trails I had made and would hopefully get back to the North peak. I got there, hit the wind again, and slide down the steep part of the trail. Later I realized my nalgene bottle fell out of the sack. It was the one that stank anyways. If anyone sees a dead raccoon in the vicinity, it probably got a whiff of that thing. It was dark but winter dark..you could see pretty well without a light. I carry three but seldom have to use it in winter. I just followed my tracks out and got back to the car at 6:55. 5 hours and 35 minutes in all.
So the trail up tripyramid has been booted and snowshoed out by yours truly, including stamping down every square foot of snow within a quarter mile of middle peak in an attempt to find that summit.
Drove home in the snow, and had my trail lunch for supper.
I love vacation.
over and out
slept till 9 am
9-12 - lounged around eating breakfast and drinking coffee.
nobody responded to my post about wildcats, so I decided to hike something closer.
drove up to waterville valley and parked at depot camp. I was listening to a cool cd. I wanted to hear the last song, but, realizing the importance of an early start in winter, decided to forego my pleasure, and headed out promptly at 1:20 pm, not a second later. The guidebook says not to hike alone in winter, so I didn't . I brought some food and a lot of clothes with me. Never hike alone. I thought I had to pay to use the livermore road, as its part of the cross country center now, but there was no one at the booth. I was going to ski the road, but figured they would give me grief and make me pay or go back to buy a pass at the center and I didn't want to deal with it. I don't have a problem coming down in the dark, but going up in the dark could be highly annoying. I just headed out in boots
the cross country portion was pretty easy walking. After the cross country trails left the road, there was about 4 inches of new snow on the trail, I continued booting with instep crampons. I took scaur ridge trail and the snow was getting slightly deeper. I switched to snowshoes. The new snow got maybe a foot deep or so the higher I went. I crested the first ridge on Pine Bend Brook Trail and ran into ridges of snow about 2 feet high and every 5 feet. It looked like the westwall zone of fortifications that the germans put up in world war II in Europe to stop the allied advance. It got windy as heck there too. I got to the steep part, and it was icy underneath but pretty good traction with the sherpas. I summited north tripyramid at 4:15. Memory said middle peak wasn't that far so I headed over that way, and ran into another westwall zone of fortifications. I lost the trail somewhere near middle peak and zigzagged around hoping I had hit the summit. It was getting dusky so I figured I should pick one of the 15 zigzagging trails I had made and would hopefully get back to the North peak. I got there, hit the wind again, and slide down the steep part of the trail. Later I realized my nalgene bottle fell out of the sack. It was the one that stank anyways. If anyone sees a dead raccoon in the vicinity, it probably got a whiff of that thing. It was dark but winter dark..you could see pretty well without a light. I carry three but seldom have to use it in winter. I just followed my tracks out and got back to the car at 6:55. 5 hours and 35 minutes in all.
So the trail up tripyramid has been booted and snowshoed out by yours truly, including stamping down every square foot of snow within a quarter mile of middle peak in an attempt to find that summit.
Drove home in the snow, and had my trail lunch for supper.
I love vacation.
over and out
