Any w46 peaks too dangerous?

I was wondering if there are placed you dare not go in the ice and snow. The senic trail on sawteeth and basin to saddleback come to mind.

We stayed at camp Peggy O back in January and the group of people we were with climbed Basin and then up the Cliffs of Saddleback. It was a little sketchy but they made it. IMO I think all the winter summits have some potential of being dangerous in winter. IT all depends on the conditions. Maybe Lumberzac will chime in and tell his adventure of the scenic trail in winter

I did the Weld/Scenic trail with a friend a few years back. The trail was unbroken, with a nasty crusty layer that you would slide on a few inches down. A few of the ladders were either broken , missing , or buried . My friend was wearing some really cheesy snowshoes ( Yukon Charlies?) that fell off at regular intervals, providing some much needed entertainment ( for me, at least). At one point he slipped and slid on one of the steeps and wound up hanging from one of his elastic cordlocks on his jacket. I was below him looking up, trying to muffle my laughs as best as I could.

A long and memorable day, but manageable. I imagine in worse conditions it would be a bear.

As far as marked trails and popular herd paths to the summits of the 46, hikers do them all winter long - but that doesn't mean that everyone will want to.

Personally, 2 routes come to mind right away: the west wall of Saddleback, and Little Haystack. Speaking just for myself here, I have specifically avoided that side of Saddleback in winter. I did Saddleback from Ore Bed Brook, and returned the same way. I will do Basin via the Shorey Shortcut (up & back the same way) or via the Range Trail from Haystack. Since I REALLY don't want to do Haystack via the steep trail from Panther Gorge , I'm just watching the weather and trail conditions to pick a good time to deal with that steep descent down bare rock from Little Haystack toward Haystack. Maybe this weekend... otherwise in January '09.

Folks on TFR's peggy-O trip went around Little Haystack. I looked at it and suggested it, but the folks on our trip to Haystack wanted to go over it, which was fine for the most part on a nice day, not too windy. There's only one minor crux on the downclimb where a rope was handy for some.

Basin can be done via Chicken Coop Brook avoiding the steep west face of basin too. A little bushwacking after the slide is done to get to the col. The trail isn't reliable so it's a little thick til you start heading up the east face of Basin. And make sure you're on the right slide going closest to the col, don't go towards SB or Basin...

jay

1ADAM12 said:

We stayed at camp Peggy O back in January and the group of people we were with climbed Basin and then up the Cliffs of Saddleback. It was a little sketchy but they made it. IMO I think all the winter summits have some potential of being dangerous in winter. IT all depends on the conditions. Maybe Lumberzac will chime in and tell his adventure of the scenic trail in winter

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Long post warning.

Here was is my trip report from a hike up that trail in the winter of 2004.

Hell Hike up Sawteeth

We broke the trail up to the summit and the trail broke the spirits of two hikers
February 22, 2004

After six hours of hiking, the push for the summit was no longer for fun, but for our survival. Hanging for dear life from a root on a 45 ° slope, with 30” of snow covering a thick layer of ice on it, isn’t as much fun as it sounds. The only safe direction was to continue up the slope.

Sherpa-man and myself arrived at the parking lot at St. Huberts around 7:45am. We made the quick walk up the road to the trailhead and register at the Ausable Club. Soon we were passing through the wood gate into the AMR and started our 4-mile hike up the road to Lower Ausable Lake. The sky was cloudy with a light snow. About half way to the Lake the snow stopped and we were able to catch small glimpses of blue through the trees and clouds. As the road neared the lake we came to a shortcut connector trail to the bridge just below the dam. After about one and a half hours of hiking we had made it to Lower Ausable Lake.

At the lake the trail split. One trail headed up the Weld Trail through the woods to the col between Sawteeth and Pyramid. The other trail, the Scenic Trail, skirted along the lake for a ways and then twisted its way up the side of Sawteeth. We decided to take the scenic trail, as it offered views of the Ausable Lakes and the cliffs and mountains on the other side.

The trail along the Lake hadn’t been broken in a few weeks, but had a hard pack under about 6” to 8” of snow. The quarter mile of trail that ran along the side of the lake was basically rolling terrain, but got very steep once it turned away from the lake and up the mountain. The hard pack under the fresh snow ended after the first outlook. It was from this point on that we ended up wading through 18”+ of snow up a steep trail with the snow getting deeper every 50’ or so of elevation we gained. The snow was the hardest part. Most of it was light powder with a very thin crust on top. The snowshoes would just break through the top crust and sink through most of the power. Breaking trail was long and hard (for those of you that went to this years FYAO trip, the snow soon was as deep and deeper than the snow to the lean-to only we were going up a trail that would reach a 30° incline at times). Each step forward actually consisted of at least 3 steps, one to break and pack down the snow, one to kick in a point, and one to actually pull oneself forward. For almost every three steps we would take forward we would end up sliding back two. Second in line wasn’t much better. The act of the lead person moving forward would result in them filling in most of their tracks from pushing the snow out from ahead of them. Needless to say this was very tiring and we were switching lead every 100’ to 200’ of elevation we gained.

So here I was after four and a half hours of breaking trail I was hanging from the roots of trees. Turning around was no longer an option, as there was really no safe way of going down the trail that we had just come up. The only chance of making it out was to climb to the summit and take a hopefully packed Weld Trail down. Our morale was low as we crept ever so slowly across the snow covered ice flow. Finally the trail leveled enough so we could rest. The trail continued up another steep course for about another 200’ to what looked like the summit. A half hour later we pulled are way to the top only to find that the trail cut down hill 50’ and there was plenty more mountain towering above us. It was at this point that things looked hopeless, I had to keep repeating to myself in my mind that we were going to make it. We were almost completely physically and mentally drained. It would have been very easy to just sit down and give up, but that would have probably meant certain death. We slowly pushed on, switching lead more frequently than before.

We would end up climbing two more false summits, each high than the last, when we finally hit packed trail about halfway up the final stretch to the real summit. The going was much easier, but we were still only about half way back to the car. It had begun to snow and the wind was staring to pick up and we were getting cold. We made it to the summit just after the sun set behind the mountains. We didn’t even stop and just continued down to the other side of the mountain. 8 hours after arriving at the dam on Lower Ausable Lake we reached the junction with the Weld Trail. It was at this point that we were confident that we would make it out, but realized that we sill had another 6 miles to go. We stopped and drank some water and got something to eat. We both fixed our headlamps on our heads in preparation for the darkness that was soon to come and made our way down the trail. As it turns out it stayed light enough for us to make it all the way down the Weld Trail back to Lower Ausable Lake without needing to turn on our lamps. By the time we started down the road it was completely pitch black out and were hiked the road out with headlamps blazing. We arrived at the trail register at 8:00pm, about 12 hours after we started our trip through hell and back.

I have decided that I will never ever hike that trail again in the winter and never want to break a trail that hasn’t been used all season up a mountain. I never want to end up in the same situation again. At this point I don’t think I want to do any more winter hiking until next year, and can’t wait for spring to arrive.

How about now?

Now four years later.... was it fun yet?

ALGonquin Bob said:

Now four years later.... was it fun yet?

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No.


I did hike the trail again, but in August. That was a much better trip.

Any one that you do with the "human lighting rod", Doug Hillman


I like the scenic trail, though for the work it takes you to do it, it's not NEARLY as scenic enough for my taste.

I resemble that remark...and you and Bob were part of the group that saw the lightning that day on Basin. That was just freaking incredible.

As already mentioned, it all depends on conditions.

On two occasions I arrived at little haystack only to be turned away by conditions. 9/10ths of the way to haystack, lots of energy and time, and I couldn't get it. What conditions? boiler plate ice over rock. I took some moments to enjoy the awesome .... and the peak was still there when I went back the next time.

John H Swanson said:

As already mentioned, it all depends on conditions.

On two occasions I arrived at little haystack only to be turned away by conditions. 9/10ths of the way to haystack, lots of energy and time, and I couldn't get it. What conditions? boiler plate ice over rock. I took some moments to enjoy the awesome .... and the peak was still there when I went back the next time.

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John -Have only been to Haystack once in winter, and that was when I 'helped' Ann G. finish her W115. We'd met a group earlier in the day, and they suggested 'whacking around to the right of Little H which we did. Had there not been lots of snow I'd have felt guilty because it's in an alpine/near alpine zone. But, it allowed us to avoid that bump and still get to Haystack in what was already a rather long day. We'd done Basin earlier, and while I can't say they were absolutely necessary, we used a couple of ropes to ease our way off Basin with a bit more safety and speed.

Hillman, the Human Lightning Rod. And come to think of it, I've hiked in the rain maybe 3 or 4 times, and 2 of those were with "Rod"-man...... I think next time, I'll just stay a little farther behind Doug.

My new trick is horrible winter weather. Good thing our work schedules didn't mesh up this winter...Spruce traps, high winds, limited visibility and unbroken trails. A bit of rain also