Pucknuts61
New member
In an attempt to celebrate Charlie Brown's (Paula's) 48th, 8 hearty souls started the long trek from the Rocky Branch at 8 AM on Saturday Febraury 12, 2005 to attempt a winter summit of Mt. Isolation
I will tell you up front, we didn't make it, but it didn't dampen the spirit of the day at all.
Thank you Mtn Magic, Sky, Wild Peaks (Tom), Dave, Julie, Creek Critter (Diane), Paula, and of course Ghost Dog for another fantastic day in the Whites! Your company, abilities, and drive never cease to astound me!
We met at the Rocky Branch trailhead at exactly 8 AM, and quickly realized that the trail had not been broken. With the Thursday snow storm dumping 1-3 feet, we knew it was going to be a long snow shoeing day but the weather was acceptable....failry overcast and flurries the entire day, but nothing that would amount to a lot of accumulation, and all of us were really up for this hike.
Fortunately 3 other people (the Sunshine Gang) were also at the trailhead and started breaking trail before we were ready (maybe we put on our snow shoes a little slower than normal to give them a head start
)
After only a mile or so, we quickly caught up to our trailblazing partners and we all started breaking the trail together.
The trail itself was marked just enough, but finding some of the paint marks or hatchet marks required keen eyes at various parts. In the end, I don't think we lost the trail at any point until we purposely left it at the RB river and started the bushwhack.
One of the best parts of the day was the cooperation and teamwork the 11 of us put in to attempt this hike and to break the trail. Each of us took turns in 10-15 minute intervals to lead and then had the priveldge of sweeping (back end) to relax and recover, then move up the line to start again.
There's nothing like the beauty of fresh snow on trees and mountains and every so often we'd catch a glimpse of Mt. Davis and Isolation in front of us, or Wildcat behind us to really give us some picturesque moments. But the other cool part is sharing and listening to all the hiking stories each of us have had, and with 11 people, we had quite a few trail tales especially on such a long trek.
The other advantage we had, was that in winter you can bushwhack a few miles off the trail so instead of looping around to Isolation left to right, you can almost just shoot straight for the col between Davis and Isolation and hit the Davis Path on the ridge, then summit from there.
Once we hit the major RB river crossing, we started our off-trail hike and this was where it paid serious dividends to have Wild Peaks and Mtn Magic in our group. Between GPS and good old fashioned compass navigation, we were able to blaze our own trail almost to the ridge with very few problems.
The only real problems were 1. The beautiful snow covered trees I mentioned earlier dump snow down your back while you're bushwhacking. 2. If the person in front of you forgets to warn you about the tree branch they are about to let go of (Very sorry about that Tom and I hope the cuts heal soon )
However, the 3 feet of snow had taken it's toll on all of us, and by the time we hit the Palm Tree Plateau just east of Davis and south of Isolation, it was almost 4 in the afternoon and we were all tired and concerned about making the summit in daylight.
It was a group decision to turn around, and despite not making it for Paula, I think we were all in agreement that it was the right thing to do. The mountain will be there for another day.
The hike out with headlamps (very cool in winter) was pretty uneventful except for the occaisional glissade and/or bum slide, or to pull out a fallen hiker (thanks again for being there, Dave!).
Hopefully our trail breaking efforts helped someone else make the summit this week and I think we're all looking forward to beating this challenge next time.
I did take a couple of pictures and I hope that some others from the Isolation Assault Team will post to this thread to share them too.
Bill (Pucknuts61)
http://community.webshots.com/user/pucknuts61
I will tell you up front, we didn't make it, but it didn't dampen the spirit of the day at all.
Thank you Mtn Magic, Sky, Wild Peaks (Tom), Dave, Julie, Creek Critter (Diane), Paula, and of course Ghost Dog for another fantastic day in the Whites! Your company, abilities, and drive never cease to astound me!
We met at the Rocky Branch trailhead at exactly 8 AM, and quickly realized that the trail had not been broken. With the Thursday snow storm dumping 1-3 feet, we knew it was going to be a long snow shoeing day but the weather was acceptable....failry overcast and flurries the entire day, but nothing that would amount to a lot of accumulation, and all of us were really up for this hike.
Fortunately 3 other people (the Sunshine Gang) were also at the trailhead and started breaking trail before we were ready (maybe we put on our snow shoes a little slower than normal to give them a head start
)After only a mile or so, we quickly caught up to our trailblazing partners and we all started breaking the trail together.
The trail itself was marked just enough, but finding some of the paint marks or hatchet marks required keen eyes at various parts. In the end, I don't think we lost the trail at any point until we purposely left it at the RB river and started the bushwhack.
One of the best parts of the day was the cooperation and teamwork the 11 of us put in to attempt this hike and to break the trail. Each of us took turns in 10-15 minute intervals to lead and then had the priveldge of sweeping (back end) to relax and recover, then move up the line to start again.
There's nothing like the beauty of fresh snow on trees and mountains and every so often we'd catch a glimpse of Mt. Davis and Isolation in front of us, or Wildcat behind us to really give us some picturesque moments. But the other cool part is sharing and listening to all the hiking stories each of us have had, and with 11 people, we had quite a few trail tales especially on such a long trek.
The other advantage we had, was that in winter you can bushwhack a few miles off the trail so instead of looping around to Isolation left to right, you can almost just shoot straight for the col between Davis and Isolation and hit the Davis Path on the ridge, then summit from there.
Once we hit the major RB river crossing, we started our off-trail hike and this was where it paid serious dividends to have Wild Peaks and Mtn Magic in our group. Between GPS and good old fashioned compass navigation, we were able to blaze our own trail almost to the ridge with very few problems.
The only real problems were 1. The beautiful snow covered trees I mentioned earlier dump snow down your back while you're bushwhacking. 2. If the person in front of you forgets to warn you about the tree branch they are about to let go of (Very sorry about that Tom and I hope the cuts heal soon
)However, the 3 feet of snow had taken it's toll on all of us, and by the time we hit the Palm Tree Plateau just east of Davis and south of Isolation, it was almost 4 in the afternoon and we were all tired and concerned about making the summit in daylight.
It was a group decision to turn around, and despite not making it for Paula, I think we were all in agreement that it was the right thing to do. The mountain will be there for another day.
The hike out with headlamps (very cool in winter) was pretty uneventful except for the occaisional glissade and/or bum slide, or to pull out a fallen hiker (thanks again for being there, Dave!).
Hopefully our trail breaking efforts helped someone else make the summit this week and I think we're all looking forward to beating this challenge next time.
I did take a couple of pictures and I hope that some others from the Isolation Assault Team will post to this thread to share them too.
Bill (Pucknuts61)
http://community.webshots.com/user/pucknuts61
