Neil
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I scanned the last 20 TR's and didn't see too much ADK stuff so I decided I better get out there and collect the material for an ADK TR.
What is the Johanssen Face? Let me show it to you.
Winter
Fall
2 days ago
Up close and personal
And now, on to the actual report of our findings.
2008’s Johannsen side-burn trip whereupon Randomscooter and I made a brilliant off-trail ascent of Little Haystack via the Johanssen “Sideburn” was featured by my enquiring of Tom, “why aren’t we on open rock?” I had asked this question while we fought our way against gravity through thick spruce that grew prostrate downhill along the 35-40 degree slopes.
Now Mastergrasshopper and I were back first for a Whisker and then for the Face itself.
Brew from Fousderando started out with us but on Sawteeth decided to head over to Colvin, Blake and Blake South from Upper Lake. I think he made a wise decision and I have the scratches and sore muscles to prove it.
At 6:30 we headed up the Lake Road and after going over Sawteeth, dropped down the beautiful trail to Shanty Brook, 2000 feet below. Here we took on water and said goodbye to Brew after filling him in on how to get to find the top of the Blake Slide. Our first goal was the Whisker Slide, which, after studying GoogleEarth and Topo appeared to be 5-10 minutes from the Haystack Brook Trail. This turned out to be true but we spent some time thrashing around because we were determined to find it without using a gps or a compass. This slide appears to be quite recent in origin; what few baby birches and alders that are there are less than 5 years old. Maybe only 3.
From the trail to the top of the slide took 45 minutes. The upper half was a bit steep and covered in unstable rubble. We took care on the way down to remain close together or to ensure that the lower person was well off to the side of the fall line of the upper person. Rocks don’t have to get going very fast or be all that big to hurt. 30 minutes of descent and a better bushwhack route got us back on our way to the main event of the day: the Johanssen Face.
The Johanssen Face is a pretty tough nut to crack. In spite of consulting a Google Earth photo, a map and carrying a GPS with waypoints in it we ended up improvising a route based on what made the most sense while on the ground. We ascended through medium difficult woods and found ourselves under a huge knoll lined with cliffs, the base of which was strewn with trees. After some discussion we headed left, away from the drainage that runs all the way to the HS Little HS col. (The initial plan was to ascend it part way and then cut left toward the summit.)
We were confronted with cliff after cliff. We spent a lot of time contouring but got lucky with one set that we ascended via a staircase through a narrow cut. That was very cool. But each time we surmounted one set we found ourselves either in thick cripplebush or below another set of cliffs. Vertical gains were coming very slowly and we had roughly 2000 feet in total to the summit.
Finally, I said to hell with this and turned on the gps and did a goto to my waypoint named “Branch”. It was .16 miles of side-sloping away. Checking the photo against the map and positioning ourselves by using the UTM numbers we decided that we should head over there after all. The side sloping proved to be mercifully easy walking along the bases of cliffs. But then with 350 feet to go it looked not too bad directly above us versus hellish and very uncertain towards the main drainage gully. We headed went up and spent a lot of time alternating between open rock and extremely difficult cripplebush and steep sod. It was extremely tiring.
(Just to give an example I’ve been playing around with a heart rate monitor and when I train on steep terrain a HR of 150 is a gruelling workout for me. In going up from Lake Colden to the Algonquin-Iroquois col in 90 minutes with Sylvie I averaged 107. On the Face it hovered around 150 for 3 hours. I would often stop and let it drift down to 145 before moving again.)
Anyway, we kept at it and watched as we got even with and then surpassed in elevation all the other mountains. Over and over again we thought we were in the clear only to encounter more cripplebush or rock steps too steep to climb. And then we saw a cairn and 1 minute later were on the summit. Neither of us could remember feeling so drained even though our legs felt OK. It was a head and chest type of exhaustion.
Just above the drop into the Little Haystack-Haystack col we stopped and analyzed our climb. The drainage gully down from the col looked like the worst nightmare possible. What had made our route a lot tougher (perhaps, but we’ll never know for sure) was that our goal has been to come out right at the summit and this appeared to be a lot tougher than coming out several hundred yards down the ridge towards L. Haystack. We concluded that there was no easy route up and even if there was we wouldn't be going back to try and find it.
By then we’d been hard at it for 10 ½ hours and we were a long way from home. It was 4:30 PM. Guy would be waiting at the AMR parking area and Glen’s truck was there too. But, we no longer felt like going over Basin, Saddleback and Gothics to get back to the AMR road. We had the choice of going out to the Garden and walking down to Keene Valley to try to hitch a ride or we could go over Wolf Jaw Notch. Glen thought it was only 1200 feet above the John’s Brook Valley but when we thought about it a bit more we realised it was a good 2000 feet if not more. The Garden won out and we walked and walked and walked from Haystack to Keene valley.
As we approached the 9N we noticed there was zero traffic. Then I remembered the famous taxi ride after Sawtooth 3 but knew there would be nothing open to go in and make a call. And then the brainwave hit me, “Glen, do you know where Jan lives?” The Valley Grocery pay phone was out of order but lights were on in a house across the street and a girl was walking towards it. Two dirty and dishevelled men emerged from the shadows and asked her if she knew Jan. It turned out she did (the whole town knows Jan) and she let us in to use the phone. 10 minutes later a smiling Jan (now our hero) came driving up to us with 2 ice cold beers and takes us back to the AMR parking area where Glen’s truck and Brew were patiently waiting for us.
Back home, I crawled into my bed after getting out of it 23 hours earlier and 15 ½ hours of hiking and 8 quarts of water later. Haystack turned out to be one of the tougher bushwhacks. (My heart rate monitor says I burned 7550 calories)
PICTURES (don't forget to hit F11)
Haystack whack via the Johanssen Face with a side trip up the Whisker.
What is the Johanssen Face? Let me show it to you.
Winter
Fall
2 days ago
Up close and personal
And now, on to the actual report of our findings.
2008’s Johannsen side-burn trip whereupon Randomscooter and I made a brilliant off-trail ascent of Little Haystack via the Johanssen “Sideburn” was featured by my enquiring of Tom, “why aren’t we on open rock?” I had asked this question while we fought our way against gravity through thick spruce that grew prostrate downhill along the 35-40 degree slopes.
Now Mastergrasshopper and I were back first for a Whisker and then for the Face itself.
Brew from Fousderando started out with us but on Sawteeth decided to head over to Colvin, Blake and Blake South from Upper Lake. I think he made a wise decision and I have the scratches and sore muscles to prove it.
At 6:30 we headed up the Lake Road and after going over Sawteeth, dropped down the beautiful trail to Shanty Brook, 2000 feet below. Here we took on water and said goodbye to Brew after filling him in on how to get to find the top of the Blake Slide. Our first goal was the Whisker Slide, which, after studying GoogleEarth and Topo appeared to be 5-10 minutes from the Haystack Brook Trail. This turned out to be true but we spent some time thrashing around because we were determined to find it without using a gps or a compass. This slide appears to be quite recent in origin; what few baby birches and alders that are there are less than 5 years old. Maybe only 3.
From the trail to the top of the slide took 45 minutes. The upper half was a bit steep and covered in unstable rubble. We took care on the way down to remain close together or to ensure that the lower person was well off to the side of the fall line of the upper person. Rocks don’t have to get going very fast or be all that big to hurt. 30 minutes of descent and a better bushwhack route got us back on our way to the main event of the day: the Johanssen Face.
The Johanssen Face is a pretty tough nut to crack. In spite of consulting a Google Earth photo, a map and carrying a GPS with waypoints in it we ended up improvising a route based on what made the most sense while on the ground. We ascended through medium difficult woods and found ourselves under a huge knoll lined with cliffs, the base of which was strewn with trees. After some discussion we headed left, away from the drainage that runs all the way to the HS Little HS col. (The initial plan was to ascend it part way and then cut left toward the summit.)
We were confronted with cliff after cliff. We spent a lot of time contouring but got lucky with one set that we ascended via a staircase through a narrow cut. That was very cool. But each time we surmounted one set we found ourselves either in thick cripplebush or below another set of cliffs. Vertical gains were coming very slowly and we had roughly 2000 feet in total to the summit.
Finally, I said to hell with this and turned on the gps and did a goto to my waypoint named “Branch”. It was .16 miles of side-sloping away. Checking the photo against the map and positioning ourselves by using the UTM numbers we decided that we should head over there after all. The side sloping proved to be mercifully easy walking along the bases of cliffs. But then with 350 feet to go it looked not too bad directly above us versus hellish and very uncertain towards the main drainage gully. We headed went up and spent a lot of time alternating between open rock and extremely difficult cripplebush and steep sod. It was extremely tiring.
(Just to give an example I’ve been playing around with a heart rate monitor and when I train on steep terrain a HR of 150 is a gruelling workout for me. In going up from Lake Colden to the Algonquin-Iroquois col in 90 minutes with Sylvie I averaged 107. On the Face it hovered around 150 for 3 hours. I would often stop and let it drift down to 145 before moving again.)
Anyway, we kept at it and watched as we got even with and then surpassed in elevation all the other mountains. Over and over again we thought we were in the clear only to encounter more cripplebush or rock steps too steep to climb. And then we saw a cairn and 1 minute later were on the summit. Neither of us could remember feeling so drained even though our legs felt OK. It was a head and chest type of exhaustion.
Just above the drop into the Little Haystack-Haystack col we stopped and analyzed our climb. The drainage gully down from the col looked like the worst nightmare possible. What had made our route a lot tougher (perhaps, but we’ll never know for sure) was that our goal has been to come out right at the summit and this appeared to be a lot tougher than coming out several hundred yards down the ridge towards L. Haystack. We concluded that there was no easy route up and even if there was we wouldn't be going back to try and find it.
By then we’d been hard at it for 10 ½ hours and we were a long way from home. It was 4:30 PM. Guy would be waiting at the AMR parking area and Glen’s truck was there too. But, we no longer felt like going over Basin, Saddleback and Gothics to get back to the AMR road. We had the choice of going out to the Garden and walking down to Keene Valley to try to hitch a ride or we could go over Wolf Jaw Notch. Glen thought it was only 1200 feet above the John’s Brook Valley but when we thought about it a bit more we realised it was a good 2000 feet if not more. The Garden won out and we walked and walked and walked from Haystack to Keene valley.
As we approached the 9N we noticed there was zero traffic. Then I remembered the famous taxi ride after Sawtooth 3 but knew there would be nothing open to go in and make a call. And then the brainwave hit me, “Glen, do you know where Jan lives?” The Valley Grocery pay phone was out of order but lights were on in a house across the street and a girl was walking towards it. Two dirty and dishevelled men emerged from the shadows and asked her if she knew Jan. It turned out she did (the whole town knows Jan) and she let us in to use the phone. 10 minutes later a smiling Jan (now our hero) came driving up to us with 2 ice cold beers and takes us back to the AMR parking area where Glen’s truck and Brew were patiently waiting for us.
Back home, I crawled into my bed after getting out of it 23 hours earlier and 15 ½ hours of hiking and 8 quarts of water later. Haystack turned out to be one of the tougher bushwhacks. (My heart rate monitor says I burned 7550 calories)
PICTURES (don't forget to hit F11)
