Bombadil
Active member
4-23-13
Bare ground to start up Valley Way which shortly transitioned into ice and very firm snow. The ice wasn't too bad at all so we wound up barebooting all the way up to the hut. Madison was virtually snow/ice free so we barebooted. A fair amount of ice was present up Adams but we still sneaked by with barebooting. Adams to Edmands Col was wonderful--mostly snow with very little ice transitioning to bare ground (used microspikes for the first half).
We ascended the snowfields up Jefferson and didn't have any trouble. Although the one well-known snowfield traverse was indeed pretty sketchy on super firm snow with just microspikes and no axes. It was a good challenge and both Cory and I agreed we'd do it that way again and again, if you're confident in your footwork it's not worth the weight of the extra gear for 100 feet (plus there's other ways around that anyways).
From Jefferson to the upper Clay loop junction it was a mix of snow/ice in the trail and bare ground. We used microspikes. We continued up Gulfside but hit an area quite a bit below the top of the Great Gulf headwall where it was all sloped snow/ice and we wisely opted to get out of there with wind blowing into the gulf and 'bushwhacked' parallel to the cog until the trail crossed back.
Descending Washington was just plain brutal. We hit boilerplate ice on the summit cone and it continued most of the way to lakes of the clouds. Microspikes were quite overmatched but it was more just an inconvenience to have lousy footing and neither of us fell.
The wind continued to blow pretty strongly on the southerns. We repeatedly transitioned from microspikes to deal with the snow in the trail and would then have to take them off for the section of bare ground. It went back and forth many times for extended sections. Eisenhower had a bit of ice down low but was mostly bare up high.
From treeline on Eisenhower until 302 coming off Jackson there was nearly full snow coverage surprisingly and we used microspikes (some easy ice down low on Jackson).
The forecast called for sun and light winds. We caught a little bit of sun on Madison and never saw it again. The weather slowly got worse, culminating it freezing rain as we neared the Washington summit. It was fitting that we ran into the MW OBS guys at the summit in the lousy weather and gave them a bit of grief over the forecast that was off a bit. The summit never saw winds over 40 but we consistently got some pretty strong SE gusts on the southerns that definitely felt like 50 mph or a hair more. Thankfully things dried out a bit at lower elevations and we weren't in the rain the whole time. Easily the worst weather I've traversed in so far but all in all still a great hike and surprisingly fast considering how much ice we had to gingerly baby step over. Cory and I agreed with the ice present right now around Washington it would very likely be easier to do a traverse south to north until things improve. Thanks Cory!
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
Bare ground to start up Valley Way which shortly transitioned into ice and very firm snow. The ice wasn't too bad at all so we wound up barebooting all the way up to the hut. Madison was virtually snow/ice free so we barebooted. A fair amount of ice was present up Adams but we still sneaked by with barebooting. Adams to Edmands Col was wonderful--mostly snow with very little ice transitioning to bare ground (used microspikes for the first half).
We ascended the snowfields up Jefferson and didn't have any trouble. Although the one well-known snowfield traverse was indeed pretty sketchy on super firm snow with just microspikes and no axes. It was a good challenge and both Cory and I agreed we'd do it that way again and again, if you're confident in your footwork it's not worth the weight of the extra gear for 100 feet (plus there's other ways around that anyways).
From Jefferson to the upper Clay loop junction it was a mix of snow/ice in the trail and bare ground. We used microspikes. We continued up Gulfside but hit an area quite a bit below the top of the Great Gulf headwall where it was all sloped snow/ice and we wisely opted to get out of there with wind blowing into the gulf and 'bushwhacked' parallel to the cog until the trail crossed back.
Descending Washington was just plain brutal. We hit boilerplate ice on the summit cone and it continued most of the way to lakes of the clouds. Microspikes were quite overmatched but it was more just an inconvenience to have lousy footing and neither of us fell.
The wind continued to blow pretty strongly on the southerns. We repeatedly transitioned from microspikes to deal with the snow in the trail and would then have to take them off for the section of bare ground. It went back and forth many times for extended sections. Eisenhower had a bit of ice down low but was mostly bare up high.
From treeline on Eisenhower until 302 coming off Jackson there was nearly full snow coverage surprisingly and we used microspikes (some easy ice down low on Jackson).
The forecast called for sun and light winds. We caught a little bit of sun on Madison and never saw it again. The weather slowly got worse, culminating it freezing rain as we neared the Washington summit. It was fitting that we ran into the MW OBS guys at the summit in the lousy weather and gave them a bit of grief over the forecast that was off a bit. The summit never saw winds over 40 but we consistently got some pretty strong SE gusts on the southerns that definitely felt like 50 mph or a hair more. Thankfully things dried out a bit at lower elevations and we weren't in the rain the whole time. Easily the worst weather I've traversed in so far but all in all still a great hike and surprisingly fast considering how much ice we had to gingerly baby step over. Cory and I agreed with the ice present right now around Washington it would very likely be easier to do a traverse south to north until things improve. Thanks Cory!
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
