Bombadil
Active member
3-30-13
Headed up late on the 29th and made camp by the 6 husbands junction, breaking trail from just after the Jackson Rd split onwards where some tracks ended (barebootable before that). On our way in no other trails were broken out (Osgood, Osgood Cutoff, Madison Gulf, Old Jackson Rd, Chandler Brook). The small crossing just after the Madison Gulf split was bridged but getting thin and the crossing by Chandler Brook was solid.
2 hearty guys passed our camp just as we were about to head out on Saturday morning. They were heading up 6 husbands. We made fairly decent time breaking trail to Sphinx but lost the trail as we neared the junction (probably by the river crossing) and from there on the Great Gulf Challenge was on. It took 3+ hours to break out the ~1 mile to above Spaulding Lake. We were on the trail for maybe 20% of the time and eventually just followed the river whenever we could where it wasn't open. Eventually with too many deep open pits with open water we completely bypassed the Lake and headed up to get out of the trees. When we were on the trail there were quite a few leaners and blowdowns. We often were breaking trail through shin to knee deep snow but one particular little 50 foot rise took a solid 30 minutes as we had to cut through mid-torso deep unconsolidated powder, surrounded on all sides by tight woods. Coupled with the bushwhacking I was super thrilled to have a snowboard on my back, but I was determined to make some turns for my effort.
Eventually we popped out of the woods where half a dozen skiiers were enjoying the Great Gulf. We saw avy debris from a pretty small avalanche (R1D1?) by the more frequented ski route from Clay (Airplane?) and besides a pretty large crown we spotted on the way in (SE flank of Jefferson, S facing aspect between Sphinx and the 6 husbands buttress), we didn't see any signs of instability. We had planned on practicing self-arrest and doing some practice with running belays but I was surprised at how easy the Gulf (proper) was. Compared to summer it fills in so much that it really makes for a super easy hike up, even with a running start Alex found you couldn't slide. I climbed up to a couple hundred feet below the top of the headwall and boarded down, my first time boarding in double plastics. Great conditions!
Shockingly a group of 3 came up Great Gulf behind us. We were pretty happy that we'd have a nicely beaten out trail for the long walk out, being pretty exhausted from all the trailbreaking. Needless to say we were pretty darn pissed when we realized that all 3 had barebooted the whole way, making nonstop knee deep postholes. Who does GG without snowshoes?! Ridiculous. We may have had a tinge of schadenfreude knowing it took them about as long to follow our tracks wallowing in the deep snow and postholing the whole way.
On the way back, 6 husbands/buttress junction looked like another group had been through. Madison Gulf looked like some barebooters had been up it. And surprisingly Osgood remained untouched. All in all saw a good 15+ people in the Gulf yesterday, seems a lot of people had similar ideas.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
Headed up late on the 29th and made camp by the 6 husbands junction, breaking trail from just after the Jackson Rd split onwards where some tracks ended (barebootable before that). On our way in no other trails were broken out (Osgood, Osgood Cutoff, Madison Gulf, Old Jackson Rd, Chandler Brook). The small crossing just after the Madison Gulf split was bridged but getting thin and the crossing by Chandler Brook was solid.
2 hearty guys passed our camp just as we were about to head out on Saturday morning. They were heading up 6 husbands. We made fairly decent time breaking trail to Sphinx but lost the trail as we neared the junction (probably by the river crossing) and from there on the Great Gulf Challenge was on. It took 3+ hours to break out the ~1 mile to above Spaulding Lake. We were on the trail for maybe 20% of the time and eventually just followed the river whenever we could where it wasn't open. Eventually with too many deep open pits with open water we completely bypassed the Lake and headed up to get out of the trees. When we were on the trail there were quite a few leaners and blowdowns. We often were breaking trail through shin to knee deep snow but one particular little 50 foot rise took a solid 30 minutes as we had to cut through mid-torso deep unconsolidated powder, surrounded on all sides by tight woods. Coupled with the bushwhacking I was super thrilled to have a snowboard on my back, but I was determined to make some turns for my effort.
Eventually we popped out of the woods where half a dozen skiiers were enjoying the Great Gulf. We saw avy debris from a pretty small avalanche (R1D1?) by the more frequented ski route from Clay (Airplane?) and besides a pretty large crown we spotted on the way in (SE flank of Jefferson, S facing aspect between Sphinx and the 6 husbands buttress), we didn't see any signs of instability. We had planned on practicing self-arrest and doing some practice with running belays but I was surprised at how easy the Gulf (proper) was. Compared to summer it fills in so much that it really makes for a super easy hike up, even with a running start Alex found you couldn't slide. I climbed up to a couple hundred feet below the top of the headwall and boarded down, my first time boarding in double plastics. Great conditions!
Shockingly a group of 3 came up Great Gulf behind us. We were pretty happy that we'd have a nicely beaten out trail for the long walk out, being pretty exhausted from all the trailbreaking. Needless to say we were pretty darn pissed when we realized that all 3 had barebooted the whole way, making nonstop knee deep postholes. Who does GG without snowshoes?! Ridiculous. We may have had a tinge of schadenfreude knowing it took them about as long to follow our tracks wallowing in the deep snow and postholing the whole way.
On the way back, 6 husbands/buttress junction looked like another group had been through. Madison Gulf looked like some barebooters had been up it. And surprisingly Osgood remained untouched. All in all saw a good 15+ people in the Gulf yesterday, seems a lot of people had similar ideas.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
