I hiked up King Ravine six weeks ago on a hot early fall day but didn't end up summiting anything. For this trip we definitely wanted to get to the peak and things worked out just fine. Amy and I met at Appalachia just before 8:00 AM; Amy's only other trip up Madison was in the fog and she didn't see a thing. Today was promising better weather, although very different.
It was bare ground from the trailhead up to about 3000' where we began to get some ice and a little bit of leftover snow. As we climbed, the snow depths built up until by 4000' it was pretty good coverage. We kept seeing hints of blue sky above us but also bands of clouds, so we weren't sure what we'd fine up top. What we could tell was that there was little wind, and we hadn't seen another hiker all day.
We got to the hut around 11:45 and it was warm, sunny, and still. We both pulled out our thermoses and had soup and tea, then some lunch. While we had thought about Adams, Madison seemed to be a better choice with the amount of daylight we had left. So up we went, passing two groups coming down who had postholed their way up Watson Path. There was no one else up top when we got there, it's nice to have a summit to yourself on such a great day.
After 15 minutes up top it was time to head down. Just above the hut I spotted a hiker coming up who looked familiar. It was Chomp, who had come up Chemin des Dames from King Ravine and was a little worse for wear. There was much deeper snow down there, and the rock hopping was slow and difficult. We hadn't needed crampons or Stabilicers all day, and it made for fairly quick travel. He was going to catch up with us anyways so we headed down.
There's about 1' of light fluffy snow up there, and by the time we were headed down it was packed pretty will. There was some good boot skiing coming off Madison and then again just below the hut. The icy sections were indeed a bit troublesome, but were safely negotiated. Chomp caught up to us about 1/3 of the way down and we chatted the rest of the way; reaching the trailhead just about 4:00 PM. I was thankful we didn't need to hike out in the dark, not one of my favorite things.
Off to buy some food and head to Barnes Field for a fun night.
Photos are HERE.
-dave-
