Twins-Galehead 2/13/11

Up the North Twin trail, down the hut, up Galehead, down the Gale River trail.

After spotting a car, we got dropped off at Seven Dwarves and hiked in on the snowmobile trail Sunday morning. Myself, Neil S, and Sid R. Seems everyone else started at the end of the road. In any event, the trail up to North Twin was nicely packed down, and the river crossing was safe and solid. A few blow downs after the crossing, and there is a LOT of snow on trails right now (although, despite that, there are still places where streams are open).

The Fire Wardens's trail is also heavily broken out.

Saw two other folks heading up, and one gent in quite a rush coming down. They all had North Twin as their destination.

High peaks forecast was for 40-60mph winds and very cold temps. We had neither. Steady winds in the mid-30s, I would guess, with temps in the 20s on South Twin. Very doable.

The trail between the Twins was quite packed down, but under and inch or so of loose powder. Quite easy to follow, although I must confess to be grateful for the blazings.

Trail was also packed down from South Twin to Galehead Hut. Wanted to glissade, but too much loose power, but hiking down was soft and easy.

Met and father and son at Galehead Hut, and the trip up to Galehead was also nicely packed down and easy.

As, indeed, was the trip out.

All the trails are in great condition. It's all easy walking, just have snowshoes on.


All the best,


Brian

B the Hiker said:

and the trip up to Galehead was also nicely packed down and easy.

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That was our biggest headache last weekend. There was no pack or track when we broke it out last weekend, and of course that first bit between the hut and the first junction can be very confusing. I had not been there in at least 5 years, and the other two with me did not recognize anything (and of course NONE of us had been there in winter before, so of course it all looked different than summer). Thankfully I had a pretty accurate GPS track and I was able to follow the trail perfectly using it. My 2 friends took over the trailbreaking from there. We also bumped into Arm who had also come over the Twins not long behind us. That walk out on Gale River Trail was about 100 miles longer than any of us remembered it was and it was one looong slog out.

Brian