Mendon & Killington on 1/16/2016

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Mendon Peak & Killington on 1/16/2016

Randomites, party of 3.
Trail Conditions: 3-5" snow on trails, stream xings unfrozen, moderate snow load on trees. Ice and frost heaves beneath snow. Significant ice on the steeps of the Killington side trail. Water xings along logging roads were messy with Irene flood damage but not hard to cross. Logging roads were easily followed, a few blowdowns here and there, nothing too cruel and unusual.

Special Equipment Required: We used spikes and snowshoes inconsistently among our group. Conditions were not ideal for either.

Comments: We ascended the logging road to the south of the Bucklin trailhead, followed it E past the cabin and followed true to the road that runs near the creek bed (where flooding has messily blown out the stream crossings in a few places) to a point north and below Mendon, then still along the road via switchbacks up the side of Mendon to the M-K col just east of the summit of M. We ignored the shortcuts marked with cairns on the ascent in favor of the wide logging road and less snow-down-the-back. From the col we parsed the herd path westerly more or less with some brushy screwups to the false summit then true summit and back to the col, finding a slightly better route on return. Found the canister and summit sign. From col continued N.easterly in an arc along the logging road slabbing a rising grade then ascending straight up the fall line via herd path to LT below Killington, thence along LT N to Killington side trail. After Killington, we headed N on LT toward Pico but turned back when one of our group pulled something in his leg. We descended Bucklin instead, bushing to it SW from LT at one point to shortcut the last bit of elevation gain before the junction.

Your name: Shoeless Paul

Your E-mail address: [email protected]
 
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