El Jefe (jbw)
New member
After staring over at the Franconias from Moosilauke all summer (and slobbering over the first view from the Old Bridle Path), I've become captivated with the ravines on the Western side of the Ridge, especially the two between Lincoln and Lafayette.
After (somehow) managing an early start, we took OBP up until it turns left to ascend Agony Ridge. There we split to the right, intending to head down to the streambed, and follow the Northernmost branch of Walker Brook up to the ravine it forms on Lafayette.
The descent was steep and very thick, but once we hit the streambed, travel became much easier. The right side of this branch generally contains pleasant, open woods in a beautiful valley. Higher up, a small, snow covered side stream parallels the brook (visible on topozone topo) for about half a mile, providing a clear path through the woods. The valley is inspiring with the cliffs of Agony Ridge rising above and peeks into the ravine up head. This portion alone was one of the most beautiful and pleasant snowshoes I've done.
We only brought normal hiking gear (campons, one mountaineering ice axe, snowshoes each, and a couple cordelettes for emergencies) for the ravine, deciding that climbing gear probably wouldn't be worth the effort.
We initially decided to attempt the main (central) gully, and if that proved too much, to either turn back or try another route. Once we reached the ravine, the gully quickly steepened, with patches of water ice becoming mixed in with the snow. Here, we found a radom garden shovel stuck in a tree! (Anyone know a story behind this one?)
About 200 yards past the shovel, the ice became too steep for us to comfortable solo with only one axe (WI2ish for you ice climbers, with a 7 foot vertical section for good measure), so we turned left onto some snow and ice covered slabs. We found that we could pick our way up the slabs, moving into patches of deeper snow in some scrub whenever the ice/snow on the slabs became too thin for comfort.
Although there were a couple dicey sections, the hiking/climbing was fairly straightforward, maybe 45-55 degree good snow, and lower angle ice. There were only a couple of spots where we were worried about a fall, and those had nice solid snow on them.
At length we reached the summit, where a stiff wind greeted us. The descent down OBP was uneventful, although we wished we had sleds.
Overall, a beautiful cloudless day and a great hike!
A couple questions for the peanut gallery -
1. Do people commonly bushwhack up into these ravines? Who has?
2. Any ice climbers know of people climbing in the gullies? It looked pretty good to me, although the approach is somewhat excess.
Sorry about the lack of pictures, the batteries died on the new digital camera...
Happy Hiking all!
El Jefe
After (somehow) managing an early start, we took OBP up until it turns left to ascend Agony Ridge. There we split to the right, intending to head down to the streambed, and follow the Northernmost branch of Walker Brook up to the ravine it forms on Lafayette.
The descent was steep and very thick, but once we hit the streambed, travel became much easier. The right side of this branch generally contains pleasant, open woods in a beautiful valley. Higher up, a small, snow covered side stream parallels the brook (visible on topozone topo) for about half a mile, providing a clear path through the woods. The valley is inspiring with the cliffs of Agony Ridge rising above and peeks into the ravine up head. This portion alone was one of the most beautiful and pleasant snowshoes I've done.
We only brought normal hiking gear (campons, one mountaineering ice axe, snowshoes each, and a couple cordelettes for emergencies) for the ravine, deciding that climbing gear probably wouldn't be worth the effort.
We initially decided to attempt the main (central) gully, and if that proved too much, to either turn back or try another route. Once we reached the ravine, the gully quickly steepened, with patches of water ice becoming mixed in with the snow. Here, we found a radom garden shovel stuck in a tree! (Anyone know a story behind this one?)
About 200 yards past the shovel, the ice became too steep for us to comfortable solo with only one axe (WI2ish for you ice climbers, with a 7 foot vertical section for good measure), so we turned left onto some snow and ice covered slabs. We found that we could pick our way up the slabs, moving into patches of deeper snow in some scrub whenever the ice/snow on the slabs became too thin for comfort.
Although there were a couple dicey sections, the hiking/climbing was fairly straightforward, maybe 45-55 degree good snow, and lower angle ice. There were only a couple of spots where we were worried about a fall, and those had nice solid snow on them.
At length we reached the summit, where a stiff wind greeted us. The descent down OBP was uneventful, although we wished we had sleds.
Overall, a beautiful cloudless day and a great hike!
A couple questions for the peanut gallery -
1. Do people commonly bushwhack up into these ravines? Who has?
2. Any ice climbers know of people climbing in the gullies? It looked pretty good to me, although the approach is somewhat excess.
Sorry about the lack of pictures, the batteries died on the new digital camera...
Happy Hiking all!
El Jefe
