Scar Ridge, Middle Peak 2/4/12

Pucknuts & I planned to hit both Middle & East Peaks. We've both been warned about the "Ridge" but I found West, last year, nothing to write home about, as far as steep & thick.
We started a bit late, but that's not rare, as we don't mind headlamps! We headed up from 112 and right away hit the river at the worst spot. So we had to bushwhack on a bushwack
A little east was better but someone still went swimming a bit. The name will be withheld. (Are you sure you're not wet?) Off we went through nice woods, with snowshoes on (all day). Just the usual zigging & zagging, picking the best route. As we approached the first hump it got steep enough to skirt around to get up there, but still nothing too bad. We did notice the spruce & fir trees were becoming very close neighbors though.
Now we got some peek-a boo views of the area and the cone that lay ahead. And I do mean CONE!! Well, it started to let us know that it wasn't going to let us just walk on up without a fight. Oh, wow...all of a sudden we realized where all the snow was. Yes, Bill was swallowed up by a spruce trap! I couldn't see him, 10 feet away, but I knew he was being beaten up as bad as I was. It was steep, thick, deep with blowdowns, and a lot of frozen walls of woven snow and ice on the trees. I regretted excusing that idea I had of taking my new short, light ice axe. It would have helped....A LOT! As soon as you could get through 5 feet of impossible stuff, wham.... I wished I were a lot smaller at one point. LIKE RABBIT SIZE!
This can't be...we still aren't there...It's so close???
I never fought so hard to get up such a short distance. Ever! And my gear is absolutely Never seen my jacket so black.
We did make it and enjoyed it but knew we had to get going. So we headed east, yup very steep drop through thick stuff when all of a sudden, we realized how late it was. So we stopped, looked and listened to reason. No way were we going to get to East Scar by dark. Also hiking with Beth (Damselfly) & crew last Sat., she let me know that East was worse than Middle, and to stay off the ridge as well. And then we still would have to get down & out. So we headed back
I give the Cool one, cause that's good for me to turn around and know it's the right choice. Both agreed that it just meant we get to go again!
We both saw blood droplets on each other's face at some point, but neither knew which tree to blame as many assaulted us. All in all another great day! Yah, it was FUN

Nothing like taking a quick dip before a long trek!

Great day as always Tom and I'm looking forward to crossing East off soon. Based on the blood loss and amount of bandaids used I truly think these are the most appropriately named peaks around.

I was driving down the Kanc coming back from a hike, saw cars at the Discovery lot... looked up at the ridge... and the steep climb.. and thought of you!

Nice try... nice effort... and a good decision to retreat!

good job! That's a bushwhack nobody soon forgets!!! On a scale of 1-10.... ummmmm..... how thick was that?

ummmmmmmm...........

That's a pic Becca of the in your face stuff that you had to somehow crawl through to get up the cone.
You couldn't go over it and you couldn't go under cause the snow was actually too deep under,..so you had to break through the crust on the branches.
It was the hardest so far! Going up the cone only, thankfully!
N. Hitchcock is still the longest thickest section for me. Coming off it on the SE ?? side.

Becca M said:

good job! That's a bushwhack nobody soon forgets!!! On a scale of 1-10.... ummmmm..... how thick was that?

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Funny, I've done the ridge from EP Tr to East Peak once in summer and twice in winter and didn't consider it particularly bad, certainly nothing like The Captain or S Hitchcock - either the spruce trees are growing or dying

There yah go......
I found S. Hitchcock a cake walk of mostly open woods!
Depends on the route, the year, conditions.......
Becca did Clough a couple of weeks before us and hit nothing real bad from what I recalled in her TR, while others wrote a different story all together.
We saw where she went & wandered off toward the east just a bit and had a hard time pushing through some extremely thick growth that actually pushed you back on y___ ___ when you tried to break through. It was short lived, but we saw what they experienced as they came in from that side.
So maybe we will get to experience your easier go of East Scar when we go, than what others have told us.

WildPeaks said:

There yah go......
I found S. Hitchcock a cake walk of mostly open woods!

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I did it three or four years ago and found it to be the same. It had quite a reputation, though.

Like Roy said, either the spruce trees are growing or dying.

Barbarossa said:

I did it three or four years ago and found it to be the same. It had quite a reputation, though.

Like Roy said, either the spruce trees are growing or dying.

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Or worse both! Going through 5-10 years after storm damage can make you want to sit down and quit.