Tim Seaver
Well-known member
(click thumbnail for gallery)
Sunday's forecast of slightly warmer and much calmer conditions seemed to invite venturing into the Presidentials, so Jon and I sniffed out the Buttress Trail in the Great Gulf to see what we would find in such an unusual snow year.
After mutually agreeing that we would have to forfeit an entire summer's worth of Brownie Points for starting such an endeavor at the grievously late hour of 9:30 am, we sauntered into the Gulf of Greatness under an overcast sky, confident that Mount Washington's Weather Wizards would prove right once again; that glorious sun and light winds would be the rule as the day progressed.
About 4 miles into the Gulf, we met a solo hiker coming the other way, who (if I remember correctly) said that he originally intended to do the Great Gulf Trail, but had run into unimaginably deep snow and an untracked trail in the whereabouts of Spaulding Lake. Not having snowshoes, he informed us that he had scoped out the Six Husbands Trail next, finding yet more of the steep and deep.The Wamsutta was next on his survey of the Great Gulf Trail system, and also found to be of the same not-touched-with-a-ten-foot-Yukon quality.
Despite the dearth of evidence as to trail-breaking activity in the area, he assured us that the "Bootress" trail was undoubtedly tracked, and headed east, apparently to give the Madison Gulf Trail a good shot before the day got too old.
Which, we assured him, was undoubtedly tracked.
We then came to the last three-way junction in the Gulf, where we found evidence of our trail-probing friend: tracks going towards the Great Gulf headwall, the Six Husbands Trail, and the Wamsutta, none of which were apparently fit for shoeless soul. We took a left onto the Six Husbands Trail, which the Buttress Trail spurs away from to the east after a short climb.
Where the trail crosses the West Branch again, we came upon a tiny circle of footyprints on the frozen river, where our fellow tramper seemed to have had terminated his Six Husbands investigation. We wondered how he had determined that the "Bootress" Trail (which it will now and forever be referred to as) was undoubtedly tracked, when the Six Husbands Trail, the only route to the Buttress Trail, was itself, undoubtedly of the untracked variety.
Here, the river crossing is a bit unclear because a large blowdown obscures the trail channel, but there is a sign on the tree on the far bank. A half mile further we took a right onto the Buttress Trail proper, and soon began a rising traverse across a coal-black talus field of occasionally humongous boulders, with gorgeous views of Jeffersons Knee, Jefferson Ravine, and into the Great Gulf.
Here we paid for the ease that the shallow snow depth had given us in our trail breaking chores, soon brought to a crawl by what is now a cruelly thin cover. Powder snow and ice, draping the gaping boulder-holes, had us gingerly probing each and every step. We finally exited the talus field where the trail turns north and makes a beeline for Star Lake. Here there appeared to be about 2-3 feet of snow, with some narrow passages and a lot of snowy-tree-whacking time spent to avoid getting a serious case of snowflake-induced hypothermia. Our snowshoes were sinking about 6"' or so, with mostly good traction, but lot of loose slabs that were peeling off even on small snowy areas. Overall, the trail was pretty easy to follow, the blowdowns were few, and the river crossings solid (watch out for air pockets in the ice, though!).
The trail then passes under a rectangular boulder and winds up and around around the north side of a steep and rocky shoulder, before contouring through another area of hole-infested talus fields. A small dip into the trees and short climb back out leads to Star Lake.
With light fading, we decided to summit Madison and head down the Valley Way to Route 2, and hitch back to our starting point, rather than deal with the poor footing involved with a backtrack. Luckily, we got a ride in short order, who was nice enough to take us all the way back to the GG parking area, making for a sweet end to another fun trip.
Some pics from the day
