Pemi-loop starting Saturday evening 3/1

[nartreb]

Starting at 10 PM?? Any particular reason? Oh right, that's a 5 AM alpine start if you're on Swedish time, makes perfect sense!

Sounds... interesting but I'll sit this one out. I'll be breaking in the snowshoes for the first time this season on Sunday, not sure where yet but it won't be a 30-mile hike.

 

[Mats Roing]

Starting at 10 PM?? Any particular reason?

We are actually starting at 7pm now......we want to make sure we utilize the darkness.....trying to save on sunscreen.....

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Mats wrote: "Maybe renaming the trip "Winter Sufferfest"......we are six people going so there will be some sharing of duties......."
__________________
"Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence"
-Hermann Buhl

Watch out for those cornices, folks, so you do not make Hermann Buhl's mistake!

 

[Mats Roing]

Mats wrote: __________________
"Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence"
-Hermann Buhl

Watch out for those cornices, folks, so you do not make Hermann Buhl's mistake!

We are doing the early start so we can do one loop to set up 31 miles of fixed ropes, then the second loop will be a lot safer

How much would 31 miles of 10 mm rope weigh? We might need to put bigger snowshoes on the mules.....

 

[DougPaul]

We are doing the early start so we can do one loop to set up 31 miles of fixed ropes, then the second loop will be a lot safer

How much would 31 miles of 10 mm rope weigh? We might need to put bigger snowshoes on the mules.....

Travel light--you only need 6 or 7 mm line for fixed ropes.

Doug

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Petzl 10.3mm rope weighs 67 g/m (http://www.ems.com/catalog/product_...folder_id=282574488340951&bmUID=1204321039474)

x 1609m/mi x 31 miles = 3,341,893g
x 0.00220462262 lb/g = 7,367 pounds, give or take a bit

Tim

 

[leaf]

Hmmm.. well with my electric heater and generator to power it, plus all that rope, we might be over our weight limit..

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Especially if you bring 2 gallons of water...

(oops, wrong board)

Tim

 

[DougPaul]

Petzl 10.3mm rope weighs 67 g/m (http://www.ems.com/catalog/product_...folder_id=282574488340951&bmUID=1204321039474)

x 1609m/mi x 31 miles = 3,341,893g
x 0.00220462262 lb/g = 7,367 pounds, give or take a bit

As I noted earlier, 10mm is way overkill for fixed line. Furthermore, you can probably risk 3rd classing the Wilderness trail reducing the length to 25mi. 6mm line is only ~26g/m yielding only about 2300 lbs total. (Buy it in 600 ft rolls to keep the costs down.) Split it up among 6 people and it is only 380lbs/person.

Piece of cake!

Doug

 

[Dave Bear]

At that tally I hope you already have your extension tails for your snowshoes. Most of the local suppliers are cleaned out!

 

[Mike P.]

I'm thinking the generator would be against Pemi Rules, you'll have to exit via Zealand!

 

[Mats Roing]

Just wanted to make sure anyone who reads this thread and thinks it's a good idea to do this. I would not recommend anyone to start out a hike in these conditions unless you know exactly what you are getting youself into.

We might joke around a bit but that's not a reflection of the severity of the undertaking. You will likely see that we will bail at some point. It's not a matter of completing the Pemi-loop, the main focus is and should always be that everyone makes it home safe. That includes driving to and from the trailhead.

With that said.......the party is about to start....

 

[Mats Roing]

It was 9.17 pm before the five of us (Will Greene, Mountaingirl, Leaf, Jason and I) started up Lincoln Woods trail towards Osseo Trail. Before that we had pre-placed a car at Lafayette Place and Garfield winter TH and endured a nasty snowstorm on I-93 south. The visibility was so low that we were creeping forward at 10mph and navigating by seeing the snowbanks on the sides. After reaching exit 32 we stopped at Subway to escape the storm a bit and get some food. The storm subsided while enjoying the indoors at the Subway/gas station so we continued to LW.

We were delighted to see someone had been going up Osseo Trail.Just a few inches of new snow on top of the broken in tracks. We were psyched and Will took the lead up the trail at a slow but steady pace. Our excitement was somewhat toned down by the frequent wind guests and the roaring sound of the wind higher up. We also had a light snow coming down and the higher up we came the more the trail was drifted in.

Around 3,000 feet Will was moving slower and suggested he go back to LW. I gave him the keys to the car and we got the keys to the jeep at Lafayette Place. The going was getting tougher with numerous low-hanging braches due to the deeper and deeper snow. Lot of knee crawling etc. Finally came to the stairs where Leaf took the lead and the wind was blasting us good from the side while trying to read where the trail was. Around 2 am we were finally on top of the stairs and we started to move into the flatter section towards the ridge. Off and on we could see the previous tracks and they seemed to wander around looking for the trail and so did we. One single yellow blaze was visible about a foot above the snow. We switched the headlamps so whoever was in the lead used the strong Stenlight lamp.

Suddenly we came upon two half burried in snow bivy sacks......some gear scattered around the outside.....we called "Are you guys OK?" several times and no answer.....oh oh, we thought.....not good....suddenly we saw movement in one of the sacks.....it turned out they knew who we were and they had gotten lost earlier in the day looking for the trail and decided to bivy. We kept trying to find the trail and our hopes were were getting lower as time went by and our snowbasket equipeed trekking poles continued to easily go all the way and then some throw the snow on the side.....bushwhacking? Not a good idea....maybe would spend 3 hours struggling just to get to Flume....and we had a GPS. It showed we were on the trail.....but we couldn't find the darn thing. We finally made the decision to turn back....some nasty snowfilled gusts made the decision easier.....would be no fun on the ridge. Made it back to the top of the stairs and butslid down.....the trip down was beautiful on the broken out trail.

After about 8 hours on the trail we crossed the bridge by the parking lot and tried to joke with Will that it was Monday morning and we had to go to work. He didn't buy that. Off to Lafayette Place and trasnfer of people and stuff. Real nasty wind and snow.....it was hellish to be out on the parking lot. It was light by now and there were some cars with hikers hesitating to get out of the cars. We were very happy we weren't up on the ridge
On to route 3 and the last car. And we all drove home. Coffee consumption real high.....awesome to be showered and back in bed....

Thanks Jason, Leaf, Mountaingirl and Will for a great adventure
Next time we'll try to make at least one summit on the Pemi-loop

 

[mountaingirl]

a new tradition starts!

Thanks everyone for the fun adventure! Thanks Mats for starting a new form of hiking, and we all thought alpine start after sunset should be our new tradition from now on!

 

[DougPaul]

Sounds like you might have needed that fixed rope, if only to find your way back...

Doug

 

[Papa Bear]

Suddenly we came upon two half burried in snow bivy sacks......some gear scattered around the outside.....we called "Are you guys OK?" several times and no answer.....oh oh, we thought.....not good....suddenly we saw movement in one of the sacks.....it turned out they knew who we were and they had gotten lost earlier in the day looking for the trail and decided to bivy.

What happened to the two guys in the bivy sacks? That worries my not a little. Did they come down with you? Did you get some contact information so you could check if they made it out? I'd hate to read about them in tomorrow's paper.

 

[leaf]

What happened to the two guys in the bivy sacks? That worries my not a little. Did they come down with you? Did you get some contact information so you could check if they made it out? I'd hate to read about them in tomorrow's paper.

They were fine and happy with the decision they made to bivvy. Maybe they were going to try and find the trail again in the morning, I'm not sure. But after talking to them for several minutes I didn't have any worries they would wake up in a few hours once daylight hit and either try to go up or head back down. But We were all quite shocked when we stumbled upon it at first!

Thanks Mats for leading pretty much 90% of the way on the ascent, for being patient and making great snowshoe stairs on the steep sections. I wasn't so patient as I hauled up while in the lead.

I had a great time despite the ominous wind, terrible forecast prior to heading out, and 6 foot snow drifts! We had alot of things working against us but we gave it our best. In the elements! 1,000%. Mountaingirl and Will, great meeting you guys and yeah, I think we should only hike at night now. We sure took full advantage of the dark. I didn't need to put on sunscreen once!!

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I'm always fascinated by experiences like these. From my computer, and perspective, and if it were me that was going, I wouldn't have left the house, yet you four did and met two people who thought they'd meet you!

How far did you guys honestly expect to get? Did you ever think "this is nuts, we shouldn't even begin this trip?"

Today, despite the bright sun, MWO hit a high of 3 with 80-90 MPH winds all day (peak speed 100.3!) I would think being on the ridge today even would be very challenging.

With all the recent talk about 'negligence' and recovering costs for rescues, I can't help but wonder if A. Reasonable Person would have thought you negligent for even leaving.

These kinds of real-life reports and experiences are far more interesting to discuss than the hypothetical ones.

Thanks for sharing,
Tim

 

[leaf]

With all the recent talk about 'negligence' and recovering costs for rescues, I can't help but wonder if A. Reasonable Person would have thought you negligent for even leaving.

Tim,
I don't want this trip report to go in this direction, so I hope people refrain from 'negligence' or rescue discussions on this thread. We knew we'd hit some high winds on the ridge, we were all well informed of the weather forecast. We knew we'd probably bail at Haystack if we got up Flume and Liberty. It was a very safe trip, we are all prepared and all willing to turn around if the winds were too high. It was a fun and SAFE trip and we all enjoyed ourselves. I was glad to be out to see how far we could do it, to safely challenge myself.

 

[Mats Roing]

How far did you guys honestly expect to get?

Our goal was to get as far as it was prudent to go whether if it was to stay home, turn around at the TH, turn around a bit into the hike, bail out down Liberty Springs, bail out down Falling Waters etc. We had full overnight gear with us as well if we needed to do that including two 4-season tents. Extra pair of snowshoes, fat first aid kit, lots of extra clothes, three stoves etc etc.

We were constantly discussing the situation starting a couple of weeks before the start, during our drive up and during the hike . We took the first time-out in Lincoln after the snowstorm on I-93. The storm completely stopped and we went to the trailhead. If it would have continued like that, we would have stayed in Lincoln until safe to head out on the roads again whenever that would be. Even if we had a reliable 4WD vehicle it was one of those situations when it seemed prudent to keep any vehicles (other than necessary emergency vehicles) off the road.

Did you ever think "this is nuts, we shouldn't even begin this trip?"

Yes, we did, see above.

We also discussed the prudency of if it's a good idea to post our plans in the first place. That was a close call.....and probably ground for another discussion.