giggy
New member
Sometimes you just have to compromise your plans due to mother nature, but you have a great time anyway.
Picked up Jay H at machester airport via the guy taxi - (covering for the sherpa taxi)
Myself, Mtn Goat, Jay H, Jaytrek57, Scott, and Blacklab20 set out to do a pressie traverse over 2 days and one night. This was planned for about 2 months but With the costal storm coming in on friday - we made the obvious call to do a back up plan and stay at grey knob and see what we could do there in less than ideal weather conditions. Basically, on thurs night, it wasn't certain if whites were going to get this storm or not - a small shift 50 miles and it would have been ugly up high. (and would have been blind to the weather with our planned 4am start - So ..... off to grey knob we went to see if we could actually summit something in this. Mtn Goat and Blacklab were dying to see about this "pressie weather" they often heard about - well - they weren't let down!
We headed up lowes path friday morning and it was already snowing at about 7am. Trail was a little icy - but not a big deal - We could hear the wind screaming up above and when we crested at the Quay, I think each one of us was blown down at least once from the Quay to the entry into the scrub. (about 15 feet!).
The plan was to drop gear and attempt Adams. The summits weather report at Grey knob was 60-80 mph winds and snow - getting worse thru the day and then was supposed to improve overnight. Ok - we'll we have to try anyway - so off we went up lowes path - at this point I was thinking if we got to Adams 4, that would be great - I didn't think we would as snow was
horizontal , winds were high and visability wasn't that great . - but we could see the next cairn. The trek up Adams 4 was tough and slow - every other step we were getting knocked off balance and it seemed every 5th step, knocked down . Scott decided he had enough and turned back. I would guess it was sustained at 60mph with guts over 70mph - Once atop Adams 4 the wind was a bit less due to shelter. It got high briefly again as we went down adams 4 and then Sam Adams blocked it all the way to Thunderstorm Junction (it was probably down to like 30mph - but that felt liked nothing after what we just went thru.) We went up tagged the summit and then came down as visablity was gettiung worse.
We decided to head back via the spur trail and broke that to crag camp. We ecnountered some deep drifts along the way. Miles wise - not alot - but this day the ole lowes path/spur loop wasn't that easy!! We got back to grey knob, ate some food, and before we knew it the friday night crowds was coming in and the wood stove was fired up and everyone was damn happy to be there. The caretaker LOVES (and I mean loves) sherpakroto and shizzmac.
The plan was to still consider hiking out to 302 on sat if the weather was good. I got up about 4am to deal with all the fluids I drank ealier and it was still all socked in - ok back to bed and back-up plan # 2 - lets see what the weather is for today - ok - it was 50-70 mph winds, visability 50 feet, and clearing late. Ok - after getting a bit down in the dumps before my coffee - - we decided to try Jefferson - we left about 9am and busted out the grey knob trail and randolph path (alternating leads) (averaging a foot deep powder) and the weather wasn't that bad - winds weren't all that bad and visability was better than 50 feet - we could see into the valley every now and then - but up higher - still socked in.
As we got higher, it became more rocky and we got moving a bit quicker. At Edmunds Col, the wind wasn't bad at all, but visability was poor at about 50 feet. We got up the gulfside crossed the slide/gully - which looked and felt pretty stable. We were a little concerned with it avalaching, (those that have crossed this in winter know what I am talking about) but a quick check and it looked to be pretty well consolidated and stable, so off we went one at a time just in case. with the new snow - better safe than sorry.
We reached the jefferson loop, and got a bit higher and visability dropped even more and we couldn't see anything, things looked like cairns, but they weren't, etc.... - we went around a bit to try and find the route up, but we had no luck - I knew the general direction to go, but was concerned about getting down if it got even worse and the wind kicked up blowing snow - so at about 300 feet below the summit - the 4 of us all agreed it was time to head down and call it a day - it was the right call at the time.
Of course about halfway down the grey knob trail - the entire mountain breaks free of the clouds and the sun is blarring. But - who was to know? - By now - we were ready for a burger and a beer, so we grabbed our gear said goodbye to the folks at grey knob and headed down lowes. Nice and packed by now -
It was agood trip even tho we got one pressie - not the entire range which was the plan but hey...-
we ended the day and had some food and drink at the woodstock and a hearty breakfest this am - then I dropped Jay H back at the airport - until next time!!
All in all it was fun meeting MTN Goat and Blacklab20 - they are great guys with good heads in the mountains. And was fun seeing the 2 Jays again (Jay H and Jaytrek) - great hiking with Jay H again - and with Jaytrek for the first time.
all fun people to hike with and Jaytrek's got the great sense of humor to keep the spirits up in the low times!
and any night at grey knob is a good night!
I said I would write this up - the others will probably chime in as well - Jay H, Blacklab and Mtn Goat should have some good pix to share - think Mtn goat has a movie from the Adams day.
Picked up Jay H at machester airport via the guy taxi - (covering for the sherpa taxi)
Myself, Mtn Goat, Jay H, Jaytrek57, Scott, and Blacklab20 set out to do a pressie traverse over 2 days and one night. This was planned for about 2 months but With the costal storm coming in on friday - we made the obvious call to do a back up plan and stay at grey knob and see what we could do there in less than ideal weather conditions. Basically, on thurs night, it wasn't certain if whites were going to get this storm or not - a small shift 50 miles and it would have been ugly up high. (and would have been blind to the weather with our planned 4am start - So ..... off to grey knob we went to see if we could actually summit something in this. Mtn Goat and Blacklab were dying to see about this "pressie weather" they often heard about - well - they weren't let down!
We headed up lowes path friday morning and it was already snowing at about 7am. Trail was a little icy - but not a big deal - We could hear the wind screaming up above and when we crested at the Quay, I think each one of us was blown down at least once from the Quay to the entry into the scrub. (about 15 feet!).
The plan was to drop gear and attempt Adams. The summits weather report at Grey knob was 60-80 mph winds and snow - getting worse thru the day and then was supposed to improve overnight. Ok - we'll we have to try anyway - so off we went up lowes path - at this point I was thinking if we got to Adams 4, that would be great - I didn't think we would as snow was
horizontal , winds were high and visability wasn't that great . - but we could see the next cairn. The trek up Adams 4 was tough and slow - every other step we were getting knocked off balance and it seemed every 5th step, knocked down . Scott decided he had enough and turned back. I would guess it was sustained at 60mph with guts over 70mph - Once atop Adams 4 the wind was a bit less due to shelter. It got high briefly again as we went down adams 4 and then Sam Adams blocked it all the way to Thunderstorm Junction (it was probably down to like 30mph - but that felt liked nothing after what we just went thru.) We went up tagged the summit and then came down as visablity was gettiung worse.
We decided to head back via the spur trail and broke that to crag camp. We ecnountered some deep drifts along the way. Miles wise - not alot - but this day the ole lowes path/spur loop wasn't that easy!! We got back to grey knob, ate some food, and before we knew it the friday night crowds was coming in and the wood stove was fired up and everyone was damn happy to be there. The caretaker LOVES (and I mean loves) sherpakroto and shizzmac.
The plan was to still consider hiking out to 302 on sat if the weather was good. I got up about 4am to deal with all the fluids I drank ealier and it was still all socked in - ok back to bed and back-up plan # 2 - lets see what the weather is for today - ok - it was 50-70 mph winds, visability 50 feet, and clearing late. Ok - after getting a bit down in the dumps before my coffee - - we decided to try Jefferson - we left about 9am and busted out the grey knob trail and randolph path (alternating leads) (averaging a foot deep powder) and the weather wasn't that bad - winds weren't all that bad and visability was better than 50 feet - we could see into the valley every now and then - but up higher - still socked in.
As we got higher, it became more rocky and we got moving a bit quicker. At Edmunds Col, the wind wasn't bad at all, but visability was poor at about 50 feet. We got up the gulfside crossed the slide/gully - which looked and felt pretty stable. We were a little concerned with it avalaching, (those that have crossed this in winter know what I am talking about) but a quick check and it looked to be pretty well consolidated and stable, so off we went one at a time just in case. with the new snow - better safe than sorry.
We reached the jefferson loop, and got a bit higher and visability dropped even more and we couldn't see anything, things looked like cairns, but they weren't, etc.... - we went around a bit to try and find the route up, but we had no luck - I knew the general direction to go, but was concerned about getting down if it got even worse and the wind kicked up blowing snow - so at about 300 feet below the summit - the 4 of us all agreed it was time to head down and call it a day - it was the right call at the time.
Of course about halfway down the grey knob trail - the entire mountain breaks free of the clouds and the sun is blarring. But - who was to know? - By now - we were ready for a burger and a beer, so we grabbed our gear said goodbye to the folks at grey knob and headed down lowes. Nice and packed by now -
It was agood trip even tho we got one pressie - not the entire range which was the plan but hey...-
we ended the day and had some food and drink at the woodstock and a hearty breakfest this am - then I dropped Jay H back at the airport - until next time!!
All in all it was fun meeting MTN Goat and Blacklab20 - they are great guys with good heads in the mountains. And was fun seeing the 2 Jays again (Jay H and Jaytrek) - great hiking with Jay H again - and with Jaytrek for the first time.
all fun people to hike with and Jaytrek's got the great sense of humor to keep the spirits up in the low times!
and any night at grey knob is a good night!
I said I would write this up - the others will probably chime in as well - Jay H, Blacklab and Mtn Goat should have some good pix to share - think Mtn goat has a movie from the Adams day.
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