Willey Range Traverse 1-16-10

[B the Hiker]

The great thing about birthdays is that we each get one once a year just like clockwork! For my birthday this year, a bunch of folks came up to Subsig and we had three groups of seven to nine do a key swap over the Willey Ridge. After taking each others' cars at the start, one group went up Tom and over, two groups started up the Ethan Pond Trail, and then we swapped car keys when we met.

The trail was broken out from the parking area on Rte 302, and we eventually caught up with two gents who had lost the trail, say, a half mile or so below the stairs. It took us longer than we would have liked to bushwhack back onto it (thanks to the stunning map and compass skills of a VFTT member!). The first group up kept our snow shoes on (mostly if not all MSRs), except for one member in Tubbs that were just too big to give him any traction. The second group saw our friend putting on his crampons and switched over, and I was later told they felt they didn't need to do so, as we cleaned off the steps nicely and the going wasn't so bad.

Met some nice folks at the outlook area for Willey, which at that point (around 1:30pm) was clouding over. Saw some impressive lenticular clouds over the Presi Range. The rest of the trip over Field and Tom was easy. Trails are in great condition.

The group coming the other way used crampons to go down past Wiley, and the entire traverse is now broken out nicely.

I had never attempted a key swap before. You have to think it through somewhat, especially if the groups are unevenly sized, and the drivers have to be very clear who has whose keys! But it was quite fun, and I will certainly do that again in the future.


Brian

 

[Hiking with Kat]

A happy birthday to Brian, just to add a little color to what proved to be a great hike and a great weekend.

I started out the morning by walking out my door and hitting an ice patch that sent me and my gear flying. I figured this was the beginning of a really memorable trip.

My wife who was not hiking this one, drove me to the trail head, which was so crowded it looked like the start of a road race. Brian asked who's ready to start, which was interpreted by the 17 of us present as, "who wants to hike fast". Though he denied this it looked like a pretty strong group stepped forward. I figured I didn't want to stand around the parking lot so I joined in the group.

As Brian mentioned we lost the trail and while looking for it we lost Joe, who broke the binding of his snow shoe. So we were without our most knowledgeable member. We also kept falling into spruce traps, one of which was deep enough that we had to cut the person out.

The general opinion of the people I talked to was the last ladder was easier with crampons, but as soon as you cleared it you wanted your snow shoes back on, so doing the whole thing in snow shoes was easier in the long run.

As Brian mentioned we lost our views once we were on the ridge as the weather closed in, but Tom really had a weird light filtering through the clouds it seemed to make everything glow.

Had a lot of fun glissading down the A-Z trail on the steeper portions.

Meet my wife at the Highlands center, which was serving beer, expensive, but it is nice to have beer available when you finish rather than having to go in search of it.

The next two days did easy hikes with my wife. Willard had a decent view on Sunday and we hiked part of the way into Zealand on Monday and were rewarded when the skies cleared and we good a really nice view of Mt. Washington.

On a previous hike with Brian I broke the bindings on my 12 year old Tubbs snow shoes and everyone insisted that I should replace them with MSR's. Definitely liked them. I had never tried to float extenders, so coming down Zealand road I put them on and walked through the drifts. The definitly make a difference when the snow is really deep, but in just a few inches of fresh now, not worth the bother.

In general a great weekend, and once again Happy Brithday to Brian

 

[Mike P.]

Sounds like fun. I like doing key swaps but haven't done them in the winter, I guess I'm afraid of dropping them in the exchange into the snow!

 

[jniehof]

I'll just piggy-back on Brian's report.

Narrative: This was my first hike since August. I started PT in October and Brian's shindig seemed like a good "shake-down cruise" before my therapist declared me "healed." The clear skies and downright warm weather were good omens; the main topic of conversation at SubSig was if long johns were a good idea (consensus: no. In January!)

The usual trailhead cat-herding went pretty quickly and Brian took off in his "no not fast" group. After a few minutes I followed as part of the "we don't believe it when Brian says slow" group. The climb up the Ethan Pond trail was longer than I remembered, but the day was pretty and the company good. We kept pace with the first group, taking breaks as necessary to keep the distance open.

Shortly after we turned on the Willey Range Trail we caught up with the lead group in a bit of confusion about the trail. We cast about a little before returning to the junction to search for blazes. A particularly important snowshoe chose this moment to disintegrate: important because it was attached to the foot of the person most experienced with this route in winter! He bailed and the lead group headed back up the packed out not-trail to try their luck again, leaving the other two of us with winter beta in the second group.

Several spruce traps later (including one I had to saw my way out of), we regrouped, feeling none too good about our route. Fortunately we had a clear view of the summit for a bearing, consistent with the southern spur of Willey. We also had a decent sightline to our right, towards the higher southeast spur, so the trail had to be in the dip between them. Being at about 2900' or so, it was pretty obvious that climbing a little would bring the trail level with us, then we could slab over to it. And indeed, five or ten minutes later we were back on-trail. We tried to mark our route as a "bad idea" with sticks and arrows, but apparently someone came up behind us on the same route and blocked off the actual trail! This confused the southbound team mightily and directed them into our sprucy maze.

We hit the ladders soon after and switched to crampons. After topping out, the lead team took off and we sat down for a break. During the bushwhacking I overextended myself a bit and neglected to eat, focussing on the task rather than preserving energy. Sadly the clouds had come in and we had no views from the overlook. The southbounders came through during our break and we swapped the keys.

The rest of the day was a gentle wind through what one participant called "marshmallow trees." Given the time, we bailed down Avalon rather than bagging Tom. I was pleased to see my brushing held up reasonably well. Unfortunately whoever broke out the trail this winter missed the turn onto the upper relocation, so this spring is going to be another vain attempt at brushing it in. The detour to the summit of Avalon was well worth it: cloud deck was just above the summit, and the sunset glow encircled the horizon. Very cool lighting.

The snowload was enough to glissade down the "giant's staircase", and we got back out just before needing to turn on headlamps. Several of us retired back to SubSig for a most excellent dinner. Having gone drug-free all day, I had a Naproxen for dessert and went upstairs for a well-earned sleep.

Analysis: The new piece of gear for this trip was a Buff, which I used as a facemask to keep the cold air from slicing my lungs. It did a wonderful job, much easier to breathe through than my Smartwool neck gaiter but taking just enough edge off the cold. It's official: I've joined the cult.

It's become painfully obvious that my 30" snowshoes need to be supplemented by a pair of MSRs for on-trail trips with large groups. I would have worn them sooner, gotten up the ladders without crampons, and had a smaller profile to get snagged by the spruce. I'll keep the big guys for smaller groups if I don't expect a packed trail, but the REI dividend is going to a pair of Evo Ascents.

I left the GPS at home. If I'd taken the time to get the WMNF trail data on it, it could have helped with the routefinding confusion. On that note: I think a lot of our trouble came from trying to coordinate between two sizable groups. Those of us in the back should have tried to find our own way and let the lead group find their own. I guess radios might have been useful. In the end, though, it came out well, and the route difficulties are just part of winter hiking. As mentioned, I probably would have been happier if I'd eaten more in the process; I need to start out with readily-accessible carbs instead of just gorp.

Oh, and keyswaps rock.

 

[Jimmy Legs and Little D]

Willey Traverse

Brian,

A great set of trip reports on your traverse; 3 in 1. Question - did anyone take pictures to post?

Donna

 

[jniehof]

A great set of trip reports on your traverse; 3 in 1. Question - did anyone take pictures to post?

I have pictures which have been shared with the participants. I'm a little reluctant to post pictures of other people on the internet where anyone can see them; different people have different standards of privacy. (Not that anything particularly embarassing was going on, nobody was quick enough on the camera draw for the spruce traps.)

 

[B the Hiker]

Unfortunately, I've never been able to figure out how to post pictures. I have one I'm hoping is going to win an award. A Gray Jay flew past, and I took a picture with my cellphone (see the absurd conversations currently going on at http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34248&referrerid=2786), and it was so slow that it caught the wings at various locations in flight. Stunning shot!

I was a little worried about a key swap with so many people, but it worked. You have to plan a bit though, and it helped that almost all of us started from the same cabin the morning of and returned there that night.

 

[Hiking with Kat]

Here is a pointer to some pictures I took

http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=194878&id=100000115613382

Unfortunately I treated my camera as though it was 10 degrees and got moisture on the lense, so no pictures came out after we got on the ridge.