sapblatt
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- Oct 22, 2004
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Tuco, Rols and I were going to hit Cannon on Sunday, but the shakey forecast kept Rols home (and almost me) until Tuco said he was still going. We opted for Osceola which Eric (Tuco) still needs for his 48 - even though we are planning to traverse both peaks in two weeks.
We met at a park and ride at 5am and headed up under mostly cloudy, but dry skies. A little closer to Tripoli Road it was sprinkling a bit, but no big deal. After negotiating a bunch of blowdowns on Tripoli Road we were suited up and ready to go at 6:30am.
At the start it was only spitting snow and the biggest issue was negotiating the "lake" that formed across the trail. We had to go off trail about 50 yards to the east and then 50 yards back to the west to get around the water hazard - it was too deep to walk through.
The various streams were no real hazard to cross - mainly due to the fact that the underlying rocks did not have ice on them. In spots, the winds were calm and in other spots they were ferocious. By the time we were thirty minutes into the hike the snow was steady, sticking and accumulating.
We noticed at each 500 foot increment the conditions got steadily worse - particularly over 3500 feet where the winds seemed to be in the 40-50 mph range and the snow was getting into the 4-6 inch deep range, with occasional ice underneath. All in all the footing was quite good. The tricky slabs were not any real problem beyond wondering if they would be slippery or not.
We finally leveled off and hit the summit around 9:30am - it was very windy, very snowy, and really cool. My Marmot Precip actually froze, but I felt fine. We took time to take a few pics and a video (see below) and changed some gear. I put on a new hat and new gloves others were soaked and we both opted to put Stabilicers on for the descent, figuring it would improve the footing and get us down quicker.
Tht traction idea was a good one - some of my new found winter hiking intelligence - don't just carry the gear - USE IT!!! We made it back to the lot at noon - a nice 5 1/2 hour day, with plenty of time to head up to the Woodstock Inn for lunch and be back home by 3:30! A great day!!!
PICTURES
And - something new for me - a short summit video that captures the snow and wind storm, with my dumb narration.
VIDEO
We met at a park and ride at 5am and headed up under mostly cloudy, but dry skies. A little closer to Tripoli Road it was sprinkling a bit, but no big deal. After negotiating a bunch of blowdowns on Tripoli Road we were suited up and ready to go at 6:30am.
At the start it was only spitting snow and the biggest issue was negotiating the "lake" that formed across the trail. We had to go off trail about 50 yards to the east and then 50 yards back to the west to get around the water hazard - it was too deep to walk through.
The various streams were no real hazard to cross - mainly due to the fact that the underlying rocks did not have ice on them. In spots, the winds were calm and in other spots they were ferocious. By the time we were thirty minutes into the hike the snow was steady, sticking and accumulating.
We noticed at each 500 foot increment the conditions got steadily worse - particularly over 3500 feet where the winds seemed to be in the 40-50 mph range and the snow was getting into the 4-6 inch deep range, with occasional ice underneath. All in all the footing was quite good. The tricky slabs were not any real problem beyond wondering if they would be slippery or not.
We finally leveled off and hit the summit around 9:30am - it was very windy, very snowy, and really cool. My Marmot Precip actually froze, but I felt fine. We took time to take a few pics and a video (see below) and changed some gear. I put on a new hat and new gloves others were soaked and we both opted to put Stabilicers on for the descent, figuring it would improve the footing and get us down quicker.
Tht traction idea was a good one - some of my new found winter hiking intelligence - don't just carry the gear - USE IT!!! We made it back to the lot at noon - a nice 5 1/2 hour day, with plenty of time to head up to the Woodstock Inn for lunch and be back home by 3:30! A great day!!!
PICTURES
And - something new for me - a short summit video that captures the snow and wind storm, with my dumb narration.
VIDEO
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