Barebothable, crampons & snowshoes! ?

[DLhiker]

postholes everywhere. Aaaah!

Hiking the Orebed trail and the Big Slide/Brothers this week (1/6,7) was both frustrating and dangerous b/c of hard iced deep postholes. 5-10 inches of new snow didn't help at all--only hid the most dangerous hole. BTW I'm not talking about an occasion boot print. In this case, every step was a hole of 4, 5, 6"!

It's common sense--wear snow shoes.

 

[hikem'all]

was that my puppy?

What about those dogs on the trails? i don't know for sure but do they have comfortable snowshoes for dogs?

 

[DeadFred]

In the Dak's one is REQUIRED to wear snowshoes or skis on trails if there 8" or more snow. Period.

Like most people here...I say use common sense and show respect for those that follow you. Remember, unless you're leaddog, you will always be following someone else, whether their tracks have been covered or not by new snow. Often new snow only covers a posthole and hides the real danger, esp if it's been hardend by freeze-thaw or wet snow into ice.

Now in regard to glissading...wooooo whooooo!!!

 

[dug]

OK, once more for clarity...

By an overwhelming majority, it is not OK to trash a trail with your feet, but it is OK to trash a trail with your ass?

Got it.

 

[DeadFred]

Hey dug,

I guess it depends how big an ass one has!

Seriously though, I personally have never been able to glissade on a ski trail; so glissading and skiing the same trail are more often mutually exclusive, ie: moot point. Now, on a steep snowshoe/crampon trail it usually has little effect on the trail conditions. Unlike postholes, I've never know anyone to fall into a "glissade hole" and twist their ankle.

So I guess, yes, in my "book of wrong" it's ok.

Hope this confuses things that much more!

(All in fun.)

 

[Mark]

We need more trails like the Hancock loop in the Whites. When I hiked this last year, everyone was going up the trail to North Hancock and down the trail from South Hancock. Result: good steps kicked into the uphill trail and a nice, smooth, packed base for butt sliding on the way down.

Now, if you chose to do the summits in the other direction, I suppose you had a bad day.

 

[dug]

Mark,
That's the exact trip where I noticed this a few year's ago. Walking up the North Peak was the easiest stretch of trail I've ever been on. It almost seemed like the trail was broken by a Boy Scout Troop, all working in unison.

In all seriousness, like I mentioned before, I do glissade and butt slide on occasion myself. It does just seem arbitrary how the "rules" are. Sometimes, I've noticed it almost seems somewhat dangerous to try to stop sliding and instead just letting your feet go.....