Doodles
Active member
First hike of 2008.
mtn.goat, mcorsar and I got together for a Catskill classic. Wittenberg, Cornell and Slide.
We met at the Slide PA and dropped a car and headed over to Woodland Valley PA. A nice cool morning and it was looking like a nice day shaping up. With only one other car in the PA, we started up. The snow was fairly dry but quite dense. We quickly started to shed some layers as we headed up. The trail was broke out quite well for a while until the tracks split. The marked trail continued with the lone hiker ahead of us. We thought we might at some point catch up, but we would not see him until he was on his way back from Slide. We took turns in the lead breaking until we made it to the summit of Wittenberg. We stopped for a quick lunch. There wasn't even a wisper of wind until we had finished our lunch. Pale blue sky with light cloud cover made for views that went on forever.
A quick picture and we headed over towards Cornell. We made it to the Cornell crack and made an attempt in our snowshoes, but the walls were covered in ice that made it impossible to climb. Off with the snowshoes and on with the crampons (crampon for one of us). With the change in gear the crack was easy. Back into snowshoes and we continued on. Up and over Cornell and we met up with the lone hiker coming back from Slide already. It was quite a long trip for him breaking trail all the way by himself. He said he had started before sunrise. We thanked him for the trailbreak that we were following.
We continued on with a few short breaks for our last push up for the day up to Slide.
The trees in certain areas were completely coated in a thick layer of ice that made the branches hang low and catch every protrusion of our packs. The last climb up Slide was steep and took some tree climbing but we all made it in good time. The views from the East slope were absolutely breathtaking. We grouped up at the summit for one more picture and headed down the super highway. We made good time on the way down for the trail was broken out and packed down.
This was the first time we all hiked together and hopefully not the last. A great hike with great companions.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562033464hOHMAu?vhost=outdoors
mtn.goat, mcorsar and I got together for a Catskill classic. Wittenberg, Cornell and Slide.
We met at the Slide PA and dropped a car and headed over to Woodland Valley PA. A nice cool morning and it was looking like a nice day shaping up. With only one other car in the PA, we started up. The snow was fairly dry but quite dense. We quickly started to shed some layers as we headed up. The trail was broke out quite well for a while until the tracks split. The marked trail continued with the lone hiker ahead of us. We thought we might at some point catch up, but we would not see him until he was on his way back from Slide. We took turns in the lead breaking until we made it to the summit of Wittenberg. We stopped for a quick lunch. There wasn't even a wisper of wind until we had finished our lunch. Pale blue sky with light cloud cover made for views that went on forever.
A quick picture and we headed over towards Cornell. We made it to the Cornell crack and made an attempt in our snowshoes, but the walls were covered in ice that made it impossible to climb. Off with the snowshoes and on with the crampons (crampon for one of us). With the change in gear the crack was easy. Back into snowshoes and we continued on. Up and over Cornell and we met up with the lone hiker coming back from Slide already. It was quite a long trip for him breaking trail all the way by himself. He said he had started before sunrise. We thanked him for the trailbreak that we were following.
We continued on with a few short breaks for our last push up for the day up to Slide.
The trees in certain areas were completely coated in a thick layer of ice that made the branches hang low and catch every protrusion of our packs. The last climb up Slide was steep and took some tree climbing but we all made it in good time. The views from the East slope were absolutely breathtaking. We grouped up at the summit for one more picture and headed down the super highway. We made good time on the way down for the trail was broken out and packed down.
This was the first time we all hiked together and hopefully not the last. A great hike with great companions.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562033464hOHMAu?vhost=outdoors
