Pucknuts61
New member
What a fantastic day...thank you Freddi, Julie, and Dave!!!
We met at the Appalachia parking lot off Rt 2 at 8 on Saturday. Several groups were there including VFTT and and AMC group (great to see you Bob K and Paula!). Some groups were heading to Madison, some to Adams, and some to both.
Due to the recent snow we opted to take the Valley Way because it seemed like the only trail that was broken. It was well packed but Yak-Trax are recommended. There's no ice on the trail just 2-3" snow at various parts and one nasty stream crossing. Trekking poles came in handy.
The trail was in very good shape and no problem to follow, plus with the recent snow we had some great winter scenary all day long.
When we started the temps were in the 20's, sunny and just an occaisional wind gust and it stayed that way until the Alpine Zone.
Once we hit the zone we had to put on crampons and met a lot of the groups at this point doing the same.
It's only 1/4 mile from the zone to the Madison Hut that sits in the col between Madison and Adams,and we got some great views of climbers on both mountains.
We took the Gulfside trail from the hut and circled towards Thunder Storm junction so we would hit the summit from S to N. It gave us great views but we should have gone Airline W to E and saved 2. tenths of a mile (my fault Julie, I thought we would drop our packs at the junction).
By the time we came out of treeline and along the trail, the temp had dropped to single digits and we were catching an occasisional gust of wind (20 MPH) that made it just a little colder!
Crampons are a must but an ax isn't. We saw several groups with axes. Only one was using it to chop footholds, but that was only because they didn't wear crampons.
The summit was clear and we could see Washington too (if the Washington groups made it, they had a great day and some clear views towards the N and NE). Jefferson was a little occluded with some gray clouds whipping in so it made the Great Gulf look incredible.
We could also look down to Madison and over to the Carter Ridge too, but it was getting chilly so we didn't stay too long.
We took the Airline across the knife edge for descent, and that gave us some more great views into the King Ravine (congrats to the group of 3 we met that came up that trail!).
The entire Airline trail was ice and we wore our crampons almost to the parking lot. Anyone going soon should probably take the Valley for ascent and descent unless they're still looking for a challenge after the summit.
We started at 8 and finished at 5, so it was 9 hours to do about 9 miles but we kept a nice steady pace, made frequent stops for water and to eat, and really enjoyed the day.
http://community.webshots.com/user/pucknuts61
I hope the link for the pictures works
Thanks Dave M!
We met at the Appalachia parking lot off Rt 2 at 8 on Saturday. Several groups were there including VFTT and and AMC group (great to see you Bob K and Paula!). Some groups were heading to Madison, some to Adams, and some to both.
Due to the recent snow we opted to take the Valley Way because it seemed like the only trail that was broken. It was well packed but Yak-Trax are recommended. There's no ice on the trail just 2-3" snow at various parts and one nasty stream crossing. Trekking poles came in handy.
The trail was in very good shape and no problem to follow, plus with the recent snow we had some great winter scenary all day long.
When we started the temps were in the 20's, sunny and just an occaisional wind gust and it stayed that way until the Alpine Zone.
Once we hit the zone we had to put on crampons and met a lot of the groups at this point doing the same.
It's only 1/4 mile from the zone to the Madison Hut that sits in the col between Madison and Adams,and we got some great views of climbers on both mountains.
We took the Gulfside trail from the hut and circled towards Thunder Storm junction so we would hit the summit from S to N. It gave us great views but we should have gone Airline W to E and saved 2. tenths of a mile (my fault Julie, I thought we would drop our packs at the junction).
By the time we came out of treeline and along the trail, the temp had dropped to single digits and we were catching an occasisional gust of wind (20 MPH) that made it just a little colder!
Crampons are a must but an ax isn't. We saw several groups with axes. Only one was using it to chop footholds, but that was only because they didn't wear crampons.
The summit was clear and we could see Washington too (if the Washington groups made it, they had a great day and some clear views towards the N and NE). Jefferson was a little occluded with some gray clouds whipping in so it made the Great Gulf look incredible.
We could also look down to Madison and over to the Carter Ridge too, but it was getting chilly so we didn't stay too long.
We took the Airline across the knife edge for descent, and that gave us some more great views into the King Ravine (congrats to the group of 3 we met that came up that trail!).
The entire Airline trail was ice and we wore our crampons almost to the parking lot. Anyone going soon should probably take the Valley for ascent and descent unless they're still looking for a challenge after the summit.
We started at 8 and finished at 5, so it was 9 hours to do about 9 miles but we kept a nice steady pace, made frequent stops for water and to eat, and really enjoyed the day.
http://community.webshots.com/user/pucknuts61
I hope the link for the pictures works
Thanks Dave M!
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