Cliff and Red are dead

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1ADAM12

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-PICTURES-


Date: 2-6-09
Hiked: Cliff and Redfield
Location: Hiked in from Loj
Party: Redshorts and wife, their old college friend Steve, Procook, El Loco, Viewseeker, adirobdack46r, 1ADAM12 and the WHIZ BROTHERS!

Our start time was suppose to be 4am but by the time everyone got situated it was more like 440am. Not to mention any names but three of us were there on time :cool:

So we all started out and made very good time to MArcy Dam under headlamp and you could see the moon fading in and out through the light cloud cover and Mount Colden was a sillouette.

We stopped for a brief break and then headed to Avalanche Camp where again we made great time. Then the pace slowed a bit on our way to Lake Arnold. Here is where I was a little worried and wondered if I was going to be able to keep up with the "BIG DOGS" but much to my surprise I hung with them very well ;)

Once at Lake Arnold the sun was starting to come out and the lamps were shut off and we went steady downhill to the Uphill Lean-to. We took a break here hydrated and ate some food and we all shared our snacks. Thanks to El Loco for the Gouda Cheese that was awesome. It went very well with my pepperoni :D

We opted for Redfield first to get the one out of the way with the most elevation. The trail was broken out for a while then the upper portions seemed to be blown in and Redshorts was in the lead at this point and we got off the trail a few times but he was a great trail leader for a while and then the El Loco took over. All I can say is El Loco is a machine and out hiked a few of us :p

We actually made very good time to Redfield even with having to break out some of the trail. All I can say is the views were awesome and very little wind. We all took pictures and then headed down where we ran into a group of 5 and a dog. They told us that they just broke out Cliff for us and we said thanks.

Once completely down we all met up at the split to go to Cliff and once everyone caught up we pressed on to Cliff. There was only one portion of Cliff where we had to help each other up. The spot was quite icy and was about a three foot section. You could get your knee up and then the person in frony of you would give you a pull with their poll. Even Steve the tall guy said I don't need help and after like 3 tries he was like OK give me a pull :D

The other 2 or so steep sections on Cliff were not any trouble at all. They were all snow covered. Once on the the false summit of Cliff we realized that group of five stopped here :eek: They never made the real true summit and adirobdack46r broke trail the rest of the way to the true summit.

Once all of us were there we all gave each other high fives and some hugs. El Loco was very happy as this was number 41 and 42 for him today. We were all very happy to enjoy this special moment with him as he is that much closer to finishing his Winter round!

After some pictures we headed down and the butt sliding was phenominal and scary but we made great time getting down. We all met up at the Lean-to again where we fueled up and changed socks out. Now from here it was just a slog back over Lake Arnold and to the cars. We all made descent time under our tired conditions. I followed El Loco and Viewseeker back out to the cars and we had a good time chatting it up making the best of the walk out.

I first just want to thank Redshorts and company for letting me hang with them all day and we had some great laughs. I want to thank El Loco for putting up with our warped sense of humor especially Procook's :p Come to find out El Loco has just as much of warped humor as us :cool: Total trip took us 12.5 hours.

Thanks again everyone! Pictures to come soon as soon as I unpack the car. I rolled into my driveway this morning at 1230am.

Happy trails!

Adam
 
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Hey, congratulations. It sounds like these two have been sort of hard-earned for you guys this year. Way to stick with it.

Glad you had a good day for it, too.
 
nice. i enjoyed your pictures. i climbed those peaks for the first time this past august. i was thinking about the winter and imagined the cliff hp could be pretty interesting. almost looks like it could have been more pleasant with that great snow coverage.
thanks for posting. sounds like you had a great hike.

bryan
 
Thanks everyone! The day was beautiful and the cold did not even bother me much unless I stopped to long. Since this is basically my first winter season that I have taken seriously I am learning how to layer better. The first time out I had to much clothing on so now I have one layer and a light jacket on and as long as I am moving I do not over heat. If I stop for any legth of time I put on a heavier coat :)
 
thanks for writing the TR adam.. Huge thanks to all involved in such a great day of fun,sun and laughts . Long day. I totally love that trail now to the uphill lean-to in winter with its views. Summer, i hear can be quite muddy :(

The herdpath to Cliff was notoriously muddy, at least the flat section close to Uphill Brook. At some point last year (or maybe 2 years now) the 46r club moved the Cliff herdpath to coincide with the Redfield herdpath as they were really close to each other, and then made the herdpath for Cliff an offshoot of the redfield one.

I did Cliff just before the redirection and sure enough, it was pretty muddy down low...

Congrats on two difficult winter peaks!

Jay
 
The herdpath to Cliff was notoriously muddy, at least the flat section close to Uphill Brook. At some point last year (or maybe 2 years now) the 46r club moved the Cliff herdpath to coincide with the Redfield herdpath as they were really close to each other, and then made the herdpath for Cliff an offshoot of the redfield one.

I did Cliff just before the redirection and sure enough, it was pretty muddy down low...

Congrats on two difficult winter peaks!

Jay

Thanks Jay, they where hard earned for sure. Now i must get sky and gray. I was more refirring to the mudd i heard about on the trail from Lake arnold to uphill.
 
Thanks Jay, they where hard earned for sure. Now i must get sky and gray. I was more refirring to the mudd i heard about on the trail from Lake arnold to uphill.

We had heard that too, but when we went in September it was great...and a beautiful hike! We went in via lake Arnold, out via Avalanche (see avatar). It had been rain free for a week or so, and I could imagine that earlier in the summer when it was raining all the time it would pretty wet.
 
Adam, you sure are hunting them down, will any be left for us to climb once you will have reach your W?

Good idea going via Lake Arnold as the return via the Lakes can be tough if windy or cold or both. Plus when tired it's easier on the body and mind to have a change of terrain and variety in the landscape even if it means a bit more ascent. I have always found that is the feet-distance that hurts not the ascent-feet!

Did you noticed if the track to Cliff from Flowed Lands was still travelled?


Congratulations!
 
Did you noticed if the track to Cliff from Flowed Lands was still travelled?


Congratulations!

The path did not look to be broken out at all. We actually had to break trail from the false summit to the actual summit. Both paths in the beginning of Cliff and Redfield were broken out but I think the higher up you went the wind blew in a lot of the tracks.

We thought about going down to Flowed Lands from Cliff but it was not broken out and we did not want to deal with spruce traps :D

Christine there will be plenty left for you. I heard you were in the Sewards again this weekend. You must really be racking up the winter peaks too ;)
 
Yes, Seymour was much easier than in December when we found a yet unbroken path and unconsolidated base, now the track is perfect but for a rare few icy sections but it still was again 4F and breezy on the summit, some things never change.

Where are you going next?
 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :D

OK! I am going to climb Allen Mountain ;)

Much better, especially since I know a couple of "Allens" :)

good luck... there seems to be a lack of big snow storms going north so the paths seem to be sticking around!

Jay
 
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