bryan
New member
date: 2/23/14
trails: sawyer river road, signal ridge trail, carrigain notch trail, bushwhack
conditions: parking lot is well plowed. road packed out by snowmobiles. we had an unbroken crust over signal ridge trail in the morning, but it was heavily tracked out by afternoon. carrigain notch trail had not been travelled recently and had a breakable crust over varying depths and we were often going in over a foot. we followed the trail until around 2200 then headed roughly northwest to pick up the southeast ridge of the mountain. good going in mostly open woods with increasingly deep snow as we gained and began ascending the ridge on the path of least resistance. a short distance below the talus slope we briefly found and followed the herd path, but left it to contour a bit under the talus. here we debated a bit which way to attack the summit and opted to head up into the talus and follow it to its upper terminus. most of the snow was blown off the talus slope and there was a thick breakable crust on top. from the top of the talus we ascended an impressively steep pitch with just enough trees to pull ourselves up hit a level spot then climbed another steep pitch up to the summit plateau. a short walk from there and we were on the summit. tough breaking up high sinking in a couple feet in unconsolidated snow on the steep slopes. we followed our tracks back out carefully picking down through the steep pitches then it was smooth sailing back out to the trail. the warm temps had softened the snow and we were sinking a bit more down low on the way out. the crossing of carrigain brook was easily rock hopped.
equipment: snowshoes.
comments: awesome day on vose spur. a huge congratulations to steve on his completion of the winter new england 100 highest. it was great to join you on a number of them over the last couple of winters. a nice tough one to finish on.
bryan
[email protected]
trails: sawyer river road, signal ridge trail, carrigain notch trail, bushwhack
conditions: parking lot is well plowed. road packed out by snowmobiles. we had an unbroken crust over signal ridge trail in the morning, but it was heavily tracked out by afternoon. carrigain notch trail had not been travelled recently and had a breakable crust over varying depths and we were often going in over a foot. we followed the trail until around 2200 then headed roughly northwest to pick up the southeast ridge of the mountain. good going in mostly open woods with increasingly deep snow as we gained and began ascending the ridge on the path of least resistance. a short distance below the talus slope we briefly found and followed the herd path, but left it to contour a bit under the talus. here we debated a bit which way to attack the summit and opted to head up into the talus and follow it to its upper terminus. most of the snow was blown off the talus slope and there was a thick breakable crust on top. from the top of the talus we ascended an impressively steep pitch with just enough trees to pull ourselves up hit a level spot then climbed another steep pitch up to the summit plateau. a short walk from there and we were on the summit. tough breaking up high sinking in a couple feet in unconsolidated snow on the steep slopes. we followed our tracks back out carefully picking down through the steep pitches then it was smooth sailing back out to the trail. the warm temps had softened the snow and we were sinking a bit more down low on the way out. the crossing of carrigain brook was easily rock hopped.
equipment: snowshoes.
comments: awesome day on vose spur. a huge congratulations to steve on his completion of the winter new england 100 highest. it was great to join you on a number of them over the last couple of winters. a nice tough one to finish on.
bryan
[email protected]
