Crawford, Stairs, Resolution 12-15-2007

[campsite]

On Saturday, Fran and I left the Davis Path parking lot at 7am in approx 0 degree weather with a stiff wind sweeping down the notch. Putting on our snowshoes, the DP showed signs of having been previously broken, but had filled in with approx 2 to 8 inches of snow. A few choice areas reserved a greater snow depth. Reaching the Crawford Spur, we dumped our packs, and reached the summit, greeted by a brilliant blue winter sky - the wind had now died. Going back down to our packs, we continued on the DP. The trail still showed signs of having been previously broken, but curiously enough the snow depth doubled, up to the jct with the Mt. Parker trail. The trail to Stairs col and beyond did not show signs of having been broken and the snow depth increased. Dumping our packs in the col, we headed up Stairs, encountering difficulties trying to climb over the deep snow on the ledgy areas of the trail. As with Crawford, the views from Stairs were stunning. We headed back to our packs in the col, and hoofed it back to the Mt. Parker trail jct. Again dumping our packs, we snowshoed up the Mt. Parker trail in similar conditions as the DP. At the big rock on the MPT, we took off on a 65-degree bearing, for the true summit. The woods were rather thick and scratchy for most of the bw, opening up completely in the rocky summit area. By now, the views had dimmed due to the now milky sky. We then returned to our packs for a bite to eat before heading back. While munching away, we heard a group coming down the MPT. This was a pleasant meeting since it turned out we had hiked with most of these people over the years. Many thanks to Fran for performing 75% of the trail breaking (I was having an "off" day), and for hardly ever asking "how much longer is it to that d*** mountain".

 

[HikerDoc]

Bag the Peaks

Nice report. You are to be congratulated on a 'threefor' on a cold day. Great that you added the BW with compass, (not GPS). Sounds like the views were worth it. Did you realize that from the summit of Crawford, you were looking across at Bemis, and behind it Nancy? Way to go!

 

[Frodo]

Nice report! So where was LL? Those are a few "sweet" peaks to do in winter conditions, especially Crawford and Resolution. Good thing the NYPD (New York Policy Dept.) wasn't around when you dropped your packs.

BTW, did you find a cannister on the true summit of Resolution?

 

[campsite]

We did not find a canister on the true summit. And we did not see any flagging tape wrapped around a tree indicating the summit. A member of the group we encountered told us that the summit was unmarked and register-less.
LL was slaying bigger dragons elsewhere in the mountains.
NYPD has nothing to worry about. We always bring a roll of t-p with us whenever we dump our packs.

To Hiker Doc.
We could not use the GPS to direct us to the summit, cuz, I loaded the wrong coordinates for Resolution. I marked a waypoint in the area of what we thought was the summit. Once back home, I verified that this waypoint's coordinates were indeed the summit.
We did notice Nancy and Bemis, and looked intensely at Duck Pond. Doesn't seem to be much of a definitive peak up there.

 

[carole]

When I was there in 4/03 I recall there was a baggie with a sign-in pad perhaps stored in a jar in a cairn on the summit. I wasn't doing the writing so that is why it is vague. Fun little bushwhack in the deep snow.

 

[Lucky Laura]

Paul- Have you been taking creative writing classes? Bravo and sorry I missed out on this week's fun. Did we make it out before dark this time?