Vose Spur 2/3/07

[michael]

Ahhh yes, Vose Spur. This peak once upon a winter day, refused Hans AndyW and I passage to its summit, but then again we were far less knowledgeable about this summit back then. Later that same spring hans, Hawk and I crashed the summit and then 'whacked our way to the summit of Carrigain. But we had always wanted to get back to Vose Spur in winter and since Andy needed it for his 100 Highest and Hans and I needed it for our winter list a beautiful relationship was born. We followed 2 pair of snowshoe tracks on the Sawyer River Rd. The skiing was fine, the sun was just peaking over the tops of the ridges, the wind occaisionally driving huge plumes of snow across the road. We skied in realtive comfort and quickly found ourselves at the Carrigain Notch trailhead. Skiing looked ok but a few hundred yards in it got somewhat boney and we dropped our skis, albeit perhaps prematurely, we nevertheless proceeded on snowshoes to the general vicinity of that large boulder that signifies the general starting point for this hike. Plunging into the woods you quickly get up on that ridge that sweeps up to the right in a big arc. I remembered from the last time up here there were some really steep sections and we were interested to see what sort of technical challenge they may pose on this day.
We found the scree field wide open and windswept though quite sunny and we proceeded up that, exiting left into some small but open spruce.
From there it was up and up and up through what was some pretty steep terrain. just like before. No matter the summit was only about 1/4 mile away and we pushed ourselves up over the crux and onto the summit herd path. We enjoyed cold shots of bourbon and snacks. We had considered initially going for Carrigain but we were short on time and gusto this day so we hung out. Andy read from the log and we recalled previous adventures with a gathering sense of accomplishment. 98 for Andy. Fort Mountain or bust!!
On our way down, we encountered a gentleman (grand pa is that you? lol!!)
on his way to the summit. He was very graciously thanking us for breaking a trail for him .
He was certainly going to catch sunset up on the summit. He had been one of the sets of snowshoes we saw on our way in and apparently had already completed a hike of Carrigain and had hiked back down to the intersection of Signal Ridge Trail and Carrigain notch. We were glad to oblige him as we stared after him with a sense of awe. Tough old guy for sure. who was that masked man??
We found ourselves back at the skis in fading light catching some great splashes of alpin-glo on the surrounding peaks. We covered the 2 miles of Sawyer rd in about 20 minutes. Peking Diner here we come!!


pics : http://community.webshots.com/album/557461606cYeeDr

 

[HAMTERO]

I like the bourbon on the summit!

 

[albee]

That could have been Oncoman (Pierre) on his way to Vose spur. I almost joined him and Rejean on that trip but I left them in the parking lot at 6:15 AM. The two of them had planned on doing Carrigain and Vose spur, but I thought they were going to whack down from the summit. I wonder why they split up. You didn't see any register entries from earlier on Saturday, did you?

 

[marchowes]

Good job! I'm thinking of hitting this peak next weekend, hopefully there wont be any new snow so I can follow some tracks

 

[michael]

That could have been Oncoman (Pierre) on his way to Vose spur. I almost joined him and Rejean on that trip but I left them in the parking lot at 6:15 AM. The two of them had planned on doing Carrigain and Vose spur, but I thought they were going to whack down from the summit. I wonder why they split up. You didn't see any register entries from earlier on Saturday, did you?

We were the only set of tracks on the summit at that point. The man in question did tell us that his partner had run out of steam and turned back. We wondered how it came to pass that they walked all the way to the SignalRidge/Carrigain Notch trail junction , then decided to go for Vose. Who knows? I do know that it was rather windy and I bet a whack from the Summit of Carrigain to Vose on this day would have been real difficult what with the wind and the snow. I think it would be much easier coming up from Vose where you can see your foot placement and push up from under the snowy branches of spruce, but that is just my preference. We thought that maybe because said man saw the trail broken that he then decided to go for it hoping to find a trail packed out to Vose. that would have made my decision easier for sure.