Chip
Well-known member
Jay H was up there all week, previously having done the Brothers, Coe, Doubletop trip with Mats, ARM, Frodo and all. I drove up Thursday afternoon and met him in Millinocket. Friday we did an exploratory into Abol Campground. I skied and Jay 'shoed. Jay did the out and back to Little Abol Falls while I retied my boots and had lunch. My day was a quick 10 miles on the tote road. Friday evening I enjoyed apps and beer at our hotel and began to wonder why I would want to camp and hike for the next couple days in 8 degree temps and 50 mph gusts to summit a rock hump, but I digress.
Saturday we met our group. I had decided to do Katahdin my first time there with Acadia Mountain Guides. They handled the paperwork, fuel, stoves, food, cooking and some instruction for a pretty reasonable fee, so what the heck. There were 8 of "us" and 2 of "them"; nice guys, the owner Jon and a guide, Steven. By the time we were all together and on the trail it was nearly noon. We did the quick hike up to Abol Campground, during which we had a cool animal encounter. We set up in 4 lean-tos, got some axe, crampon and Avi instruction, had dinner and crashed to falling temps. Probably about 8 degrees Saturday night. It had snowed Friday night and was still snowing a bit this night. We got going around 5:30am and left camp at about 7am on Sunday. This would be a summit attempt and back out to the cars long day. (Then a 7 hour ride back to CT, but that was my decision.)
Terrain is quite moderate leaving the campground. The trail was broken by a Rangers sled for about 1/2 mile, then "the group", mostly Jay (dude has some Sherpa blood in him) and Steven, broke trail to the base of the slide, where we dropped our snow shoes. Crampons and scrambling got most of us up the long, steep slide by 10:30. After some wandering around in the Tablelands looking for cairns (they all looked like the rocks and we were socked in a cloud in 20 to 40 mph wind) we summited Baxter at about noon (but Jay and I were there first !). We soon headed back to the slide for our challenging decent and then the jog out to the campground. Now we had to re-group and re-pack our overnight gear and do the final 5 miles out to the cars.
It was a great hike. Abol Slide is awesome. We had few views at the summit, the Knife Edge became visible briefly and the Katahdin sign was not able to be read, but we took pictures next to it, regardless. Like Franconia Ridge, I'll have to go back in perfect weather to spend the day hacking around.
Here's my pictures. Thanks for looking.
Saturday we met our group. I had decided to do Katahdin my first time there with Acadia Mountain Guides. They handled the paperwork, fuel, stoves, food, cooking and some instruction for a pretty reasonable fee, so what the heck. There were 8 of "us" and 2 of "them"; nice guys, the owner Jon and a guide, Steven. By the time we were all together and on the trail it was nearly noon. We did the quick hike up to Abol Campground, during which we had a cool animal encounter. We set up in 4 lean-tos, got some axe, crampon and Avi instruction, had dinner and crashed to falling temps. Probably about 8 degrees Saturday night. It had snowed Friday night and was still snowing a bit this night. We got going around 5:30am and left camp at about 7am on Sunday. This would be a summit attempt and back out to the cars long day. (Then a 7 hour ride back to CT, but that was my decision.)
Terrain is quite moderate leaving the campground. The trail was broken by a Rangers sled for about 1/2 mile, then "the group", mostly Jay (dude has some Sherpa blood in him) and Steven, broke trail to the base of the slide, where we dropped our snow shoes. Crampons and scrambling got most of us up the long, steep slide by 10:30. After some wandering around in the Tablelands looking for cairns (they all looked like the rocks and we were socked in a cloud in 20 to 40 mph wind) we summited Baxter at about noon (but Jay and I were there first !). We soon headed back to the slide for our challenging decent and then the jog out to the campground. Now we had to re-group and re-pack our overnight gear and do the final 5 miles out to the cars.
It was a great hike. Abol Slide is awesome. We had few views at the summit, the Knife Edge became visible briefly and the Katahdin sign was not able to be read, but we took pictures next to it, regardless. Like Franconia Ridge, I'll have to go back in perfect weather to spend the day hacking around.
Here's my pictures. Thanks for looking.
