Christmas Day dawned sunny and above freezing. Una_dogger and I would have liked to have seen snow on the ground, but it's hard to complain when it means not breaking trail and being able to sleep in an extra hour or two! The only outstanding concern was high water: the Benton Trail begins with a difficult water crossing, and the heavy rains of just a couple days prior weighed heavily on our minds. Ultimately, we decided to not risk it and just head up the Glencliff Trail to Mt. Moosilauke.
After a lovely rural drive across VT and NH, Una_dogger, MichaelJ, and the pups, Orca & Terra, all started up the trail around 11:30am, with headlamps and fresh batteries ready for the return trip. The first mile or so was an easy ascent, with a moderate grade and good footing. There was only a light dusting of snow on the leaves and branches of the trail. As we ascended, though, there started to be patches of ice hidden underneath, and Una_dogger chose wisely to put on her Stabilicers. I only had crampons with me, so I just hobbled along until it became unbearable. Unfortunately, there were problems with my crampons popping off my leather boots, and to finally secure them required a lot of effort and would produce far too much foot pain.
Despite the slickness, with traction control the footing was still pretty good, and we made our way along. With a total of 3,300' to climb we had plenty of time to just keep walking. We bumped into a couple with a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy descending the trail, and then met another fellow hiker on her way down. The middle part of the trail is pretty much a drainage and had ice everywhere, while the steeper upper part of the trail had a more crunchy concotion. Barebooting any of this would have been difficult and dangerous.
When it finally got steep and opened up a bit, we were able to see clearly all the way to Killington, Sugarbush (Abe & Ellen), Camel's Hump, and Mansfield. Encouraged by the fact there was still no sign of the impending snowstorm, we hoofed it up to the junction with the Carriage Road, and from there worked our way to treeline.
At this point, we stopped to put on extra layers, and una_dogger changed from Stabilicers to her crampons. This was her first time ever using crampons, and she did great! The trail was just a solid flow of glare ice, but with our spikes on it wasn't a problem. After a few minutes we found ourselves on the summit, celebrating Una_dogger's first winter 4000-footer! The weather was probably in the 20's, with a light but steady breeze, grey and cloudy but with distant views.
The dogs were getting chilly and the sky getting dark, so we turned back to the Glencliff Junction where we had our lunch break, dug out the headlamps, and delayered again. Mere moments after beginning the descent it was time to fire up the lights, and we enjoyed a great night hike (with the occasional hooting bear) all the way until we decided to switch to bare boots about a 1/2 mile too soon. Oops. That slowed us way down, and we didn't end up back at the car until 7. Still, we stayed way ahead of the snow! Okay, it never actually snowed, but you get the idea.
Pictures will be posted sometime tonight.
I could not have had a better Christmas.
After a lovely rural drive across VT and NH, Una_dogger, MichaelJ, and the pups, Orca & Terra, all started up the trail around 11:30am, with headlamps and fresh batteries ready for the return trip. The first mile or so was an easy ascent, with a moderate grade and good footing. There was only a light dusting of snow on the leaves and branches of the trail. As we ascended, though, there started to be patches of ice hidden underneath, and Una_dogger chose wisely to put on her Stabilicers. I only had crampons with me, so I just hobbled along until it became unbearable. Unfortunately, there were problems with my crampons popping off my leather boots, and to finally secure them required a lot of effort and would produce far too much foot pain.
Despite the slickness, with traction control the footing was still pretty good, and we made our way along. With a total of 3,300' to climb we had plenty of time to just keep walking. We bumped into a couple with a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy descending the trail, and then met another fellow hiker on her way down. The middle part of the trail is pretty much a drainage and had ice everywhere, while the steeper upper part of the trail had a more crunchy concotion. Barebooting any of this would have been difficult and dangerous.
When it finally got steep and opened up a bit, we were able to see clearly all the way to Killington, Sugarbush (Abe & Ellen), Camel's Hump, and Mansfield. Encouraged by the fact there was still no sign of the impending snowstorm, we hoofed it up to the junction with the Carriage Road, and from there worked our way to treeline.
At this point, we stopped to put on extra layers, and una_dogger changed from Stabilicers to her crampons. This was her first time ever using crampons, and she did great! The trail was just a solid flow of glare ice, but with our spikes on it wasn't a problem. After a few minutes we found ourselves on the summit, celebrating Una_dogger's first winter 4000-footer! The weather was probably in the 20's, with a light but steady breeze, grey and cloudy but with distant views.
The dogs were getting chilly and the sky getting dark, so we turned back to the Glencliff Junction where we had our lunch break, dug out the headlamps, and delayered again. Mere moments after beginning the descent it was time to fire up the lights, and we enjoyed a great night hike (with the occasional hooting bear) all the way until we decided to switch to bare boots about a 1/2 mile too soon. Oops. That slowed us way down, and we didn't end up back at the car until 7. Still, we stayed way ahead of the snow! Okay, it never actually snowed, but you get the idea.
Pictures will be posted sometime tonight.
I could not have had a better Christmas.
