Snowflea
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- Joined
- Sep 5, 2003
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Peaks: South Moosilauke, Moosilauke, Blue, Jim
Our route: Ravine Lodge Road, Gorge Brook, Snapper, Carriage Road, S. Peak Spur, Benton, Beaver Brook, Asquam Ridge & Out
Recommended equipment: Snowshoes all the way, enthusiastic Rock Star partners who love to break trail
The goal this day was to climb the 4 Trailwrights peaks of Moosilauke, and it just so happens to be my favorite loop on the mountain. I'm continually puzzled as to why more people don't use Asquam Ridge in wintertime because it is a beautiful snowshoe route!
Gorge Brook was a packed out highway, Snapper Trail less so but broken out nicely. Carriage Road looked to have received much skier traffic, though none before us this day. The sun poked through the clouds here 'n there, and we even saw some blue sky at times! At one point the snow got very sticky, so much so that I removed my MSR Denali snowshoes for about 1/2 mile before hitting the ridge, putting them back on before South Peak. (The Kahtoolas had no such problems with stickage.) South Moosilauke was spectacular, one of the gems of the Trailwrights list. Snow, snow, snow everywhere...!
We made our way up to the main peak with limited, though adequate, visibility. No more blue sky and sun. With no views and no reason to linger on the summit, we followed the groovy cairns across Moosilauke's "tableland" and down Benton to the Beaver Brook junction. To our dismay, a party of barebooters appeared to have come up Beaver Brook a day or two before and made a postholed mess of the trail. With a couple of inches of fresh snow, the holes were difficult to ascertain at times. Carefully making our way down the trail, we made some headway in smoothing out the trail, but it's far from perfect. As usual, the flats of the upper Beaver Brook Trail were gorgeous with all the snow - a veritable winter wonderland up there.
To our surprise, someone had snowshoed up Mt. Blue the day before, so we had a broken out "trail" of the short bushwhack to the summit. Yippee ki yi! Curiously, the party did not sign the register. Then again, we had a bit of trouble locating the register bottle as it was only a few inches above the snow. There's a lot of snow up there!
We continued around/down Beaver Brook, then turned right on Asquam Ridge, where we encountered a lone set of snowshoe tracks... a set of tracks that went to Mt. Jim, then turned around. Seems there are others out there doing the Trailwrights peaks this winter! From Mt. Jim down, the Asquam Ridge Trail was completely unbroken. Fortunately, those who love breaking trail were out in front although it was still WORK being 3rd in line.
The Al Merrill Ski Loop received a lot of traffic this day, and from this point out was a bit of a schlep, with some uneven snowshoe/skier tracks that put a weird torque on the ankles. Ouch. Made it back to the cars by 3:30, about 6 hours for the loop. Muchas gracias to my uber fit partners this day. Fun to move a little faster than I would've on my own. Great day in the mountains!
Our route: Ravine Lodge Road, Gorge Brook, Snapper, Carriage Road, S. Peak Spur, Benton, Beaver Brook, Asquam Ridge & Out
Recommended equipment: Snowshoes all the way, enthusiastic Rock Star partners who love to break trail
The goal this day was to climb the 4 Trailwrights peaks of Moosilauke, and it just so happens to be my favorite loop on the mountain. I'm continually puzzled as to why more people don't use Asquam Ridge in wintertime because it is a beautiful snowshoe route!
Gorge Brook was a packed out highway, Snapper Trail less so but broken out nicely. Carriage Road looked to have received much skier traffic, though none before us this day. The sun poked through the clouds here 'n there, and we even saw some blue sky at times! At one point the snow got very sticky, so much so that I removed my MSR Denali snowshoes for about 1/2 mile before hitting the ridge, putting them back on before South Peak. (The Kahtoolas had no such problems with stickage.) South Moosilauke was spectacular, one of the gems of the Trailwrights list. Snow, snow, snow everywhere...!
We made our way up to the main peak with limited, though adequate, visibility. No more blue sky and sun. With no views and no reason to linger on the summit, we followed the groovy cairns across Moosilauke's "tableland" and down Benton to the Beaver Brook junction. To our dismay, a party of barebooters appeared to have come up Beaver Brook a day or two before and made a postholed mess of the trail. With a couple of inches of fresh snow, the holes were difficult to ascertain at times. Carefully making our way down the trail, we made some headway in smoothing out the trail, but it's far from perfect. As usual, the flats of the upper Beaver Brook Trail were gorgeous with all the snow - a veritable winter wonderland up there.
To our surprise, someone had snowshoed up Mt. Blue the day before, so we had a broken out "trail" of the short bushwhack to the summit. Yippee ki yi! Curiously, the party did not sign the register. Then again, we had a bit of trouble locating the register bottle as it was only a few inches above the snow. There's a lot of snow up there!
We continued around/down Beaver Brook, then turned right on Asquam Ridge, where we encountered a lone set of snowshoe tracks... a set of tracks that went to Mt. Jim, then turned around. Seems there are others out there doing the Trailwrights peaks this winter! From Mt. Jim down, the Asquam Ridge Trail was completely unbroken. Fortunately, those who love breaking trail were out in front although it was still WORK being 3rd in line.
The Al Merrill Ski Loop received a lot of traffic this day, and from this point out was a bit of a schlep, with some uneven snowshoe/skier tracks that put a weird torque on the ankles. Ouch. Made it back to the cars by 3:30, about 6 hours for the loop. Muchas gracias to my uber fit partners this day. Fun to move a little faster than I would've on my own.
Great day in the mountains!
