blacklab2020
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- Jan 19, 2005
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This trip came together as a training hike for the Cascades and Rainier this summer, with a good friend. We could not have asked for a better trip!
Friday 3/29: We left Pinkham notch on Old Jackson Road to Lowe's Bald Spot. Then we broke out the Madison Gulf Trail and part of the Osgood trail to near 4000ft.
Saturday 3/30: We summited Madison from Osgood. This took nearly half the day, due to breaking trail and poor footing above treeline on Osgood. Concerned we would not make our goal of Sphinx we skipped Adams in an effort to make progress. We summited Jefferson by 4 PM and were in sphinx col by 5 PM. In hindsight Adams was possible, just not forseen given our prior morning progress.
Sunday 3/31: We awoke to a beautiful morning sunrise from Sphinx col, summited Clay and Washington (Happy Easter!), and descended the Boot Spur trail back to Pinkham Notch.
We had a 5 PM departure out of Pinkham, returned to Boston, pack for flight, then a 3:30 AM wake up to catch my flight to Baltimore... back to work. No rest for the weary! =)
I can not say enough good things about the weather. Friday was socked in and both Saturday and Sunday were clear with modest 40 mph winds.
I was certainly impressed with my hiking partner. While I carried 47 lbs and weigh in at 197 (without the pack), he carried 57 lbs and weighs in at 140 (enough said?)!
We wore snow shoes for nearly the entire duration, with the exception of the descent off Boot Spur where crampons were appropriate for the icy conditions. We cooked in the tent both nights with an MSR reactor, rigged up with a jetboil hanging kit with modifications for stability. I stole Doug Paul's idea of guying down the tent with ice screws in Sphinx Col (Thanks!). We carried two screws but used one screw, both ice axes, and snow stakes for anchors.
There was tons of snow up there! I think we saw just about every snow formation possible. I did not think we would want avalanche beacons, but we carried them anyway and we were glad to have. On more than a couple occasions did we find ourselves on large 35-40 degree slopes. We did bypass the steep section on Jefferson and took a general route on the west side of the peak (kind of angling up from the Cornice trail to Castle Ridge). That being said, snow conditions were fairly good this past weekend.
My computer is down, so the 400 pictures and videos I took will be offline for a while. I will repost when they are up.
Regardless, that's grand terrain up there this time of year!
Friday 3/29: We left Pinkham notch on Old Jackson Road to Lowe's Bald Spot. Then we broke out the Madison Gulf Trail and part of the Osgood trail to near 4000ft.
Saturday 3/30: We summited Madison from Osgood. This took nearly half the day, due to breaking trail and poor footing above treeline on Osgood. Concerned we would not make our goal of Sphinx we skipped Adams in an effort to make progress. We summited Jefferson by 4 PM and were in sphinx col by 5 PM. In hindsight Adams was possible, just not forseen given our prior morning progress.
Sunday 3/31: We awoke to a beautiful morning sunrise from Sphinx col, summited Clay and Washington (Happy Easter!), and descended the Boot Spur trail back to Pinkham Notch.
We had a 5 PM departure out of Pinkham, returned to Boston, pack for flight, then a 3:30 AM wake up to catch my flight to Baltimore... back to work. No rest for the weary! =)
I can not say enough good things about the weather. Friday was socked in and both Saturday and Sunday were clear with modest 40 mph winds.
I was certainly impressed with my hiking partner. While I carried 47 lbs and weigh in at 197 (without the pack), he carried 57 lbs and weighs in at 140 (enough said?)!
We wore snow shoes for nearly the entire duration, with the exception of the descent off Boot Spur where crampons were appropriate for the icy conditions. We cooked in the tent both nights with an MSR reactor, rigged up with a jetboil hanging kit with modifications for stability. I stole Doug Paul's idea of guying down the tent with ice screws in Sphinx Col (Thanks!). We carried two screws but used one screw, both ice axes, and snow stakes for anchors.
There was tons of snow up there! I think we saw just about every snow formation possible. I did not think we would want avalanche beacons, but we carried them anyway and we were glad to have. On more than a couple occasions did we find ourselves on large 35-40 degree slopes. We did bypass the steep section on Jefferson and took a general route on the west side of the peak (kind of angling up from the Cornice trail to Castle Ridge). That being said, snow conditions were fairly good this past weekend.
My computer is down, so the 400 pictures and videos I took will be offline for a while. I will repost when they are up.
Regardless, that's grand terrain up there this time of year!
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