Date of Hike: November 26th 2008
Trail Conditions:
From rte 73 to round pond - frozen postholes
From round pond to noonmark trail - hard packed snow
Noonmark trail to base of slide - deep powder 12 to 24"
From base of slide going up - Very deep powder. Some hip deep drifts.
Special Equipment Required: Snowshoes essential. If no one goes in and postholes the whole thing it would make for great skiing from round pond to the base of the slide.
Comments: Sure wish we had reports from the area before going. We had no clue there would be this much snow. 5 people hiked the trail on the 23rd and 1 more on the 25th. When did all this snow fall? No one mentioned it in any report. Anyway the barebooters who went in before us had their tracks thaw and refreeze in place which made for horrible footing at the start of the trail. But that doesnt last very long. From Round Pond on it's fine. Further along the snow depth increases and things got very difficult for our group of 3. Very tiring packing down all that snow. I figured it would get easier after the base of the slide but instead it got worst. At 1100m elevation there was a two layer effect with a crust in the middle. Each step would cause the crust to fail when setting my weight on it. This meant each step required packing down snow and lifting my own weight twice. Too much. Turned back.
I tried barebooting the steep part with crampons only... too tired after snowshoeing to that point.I didn't get far as you will see from the tracks if you go. Someone needs to go fiinish the trail breaking job for the summit to be accessible.
Dont try the slide, upper part looks ready to avalanche.
6 hours in (to 1100m), 4 hours out. Tough day.
One last note: Parking lot is not plowed.
DaveK (david at davidkennedy dot com)
Trail Conditions:
From rte 73 to round pond - frozen postholes
From round pond to noonmark trail - hard packed snow
Noonmark trail to base of slide - deep powder 12 to 24"
From base of slide going up - Very deep powder. Some hip deep drifts.
Special Equipment Required: Snowshoes essential. If no one goes in and postholes the whole thing it would make for great skiing from round pond to the base of the slide.
Comments: Sure wish we had reports from the area before going. We had no clue there would be this much snow. 5 people hiked the trail on the 23rd and 1 more on the 25th. When did all this snow fall? No one mentioned it in any report. Anyway the barebooters who went in before us had their tracks thaw and refreeze in place which made for horrible footing at the start of the trail. But that doesnt last very long. From Round Pond on it's fine. Further along the snow depth increases and things got very difficult for our group of 3. Very tiring packing down all that snow. I figured it would get easier after the base of the slide but instead it got worst. At 1100m elevation there was a two layer effect with a crust in the middle. Each step would cause the crust to fail when setting my weight on it. This meant each step required packing down snow and lifting my own weight twice. Too much. Turned back.
I tried barebooting the steep part with crampons only... too tired after snowshoeing to that point.I didn't get far as you will see from the tracks if you go. Someone needs to go fiinish the trail breaking job for the summit to be accessible.
Dont try the slide, upper part looks ready to avalanche.
6 hours in (to 1100m), 4 hours out. Tough day.
One last note: Parking lot is not plowed.
DaveK (david at davidkennedy dot com)
