mavs00
New member
After finishing the 46 peaks as last fall, our family has certainly gone through a little of that post-completion blues that everyone talks about. We all have our own lists and goals, but I sure miss that common “togetherness” bond that we found chasing the initial 46, and I think they do too. But what to do about it, is the real question?
Winter is our absolute busiest and toughest time of the year, and it's next to impossible to get away, but this year we had committed to making an effort to “try a few” winter peaks. And so we would. We met adk-46er, a friend of his and Lurkette at the LOJ trailhead at just before 8 AM (12/30/04) and were soon underway. The weather was perfect with mostly blue skies and balmy temps in the mid-20’s. There was a reasonable covering of snow (about 6-10 inches) and the trail was well tromped out. We barebooted for the early portion and made good progress up past the waterfall.
Once we reached “the knob” at about 3700’, we switched to snowshoes for better traction on the ever-steepening terrain. Progress slowed, but we steadily gained elevation up past the Wright junction and up to the treeline. We choose to snowshoe above the trees, but life would have been much simpler had we donned the crampons for that “little” extra bite into the bulletproof snow and rime that covered the entire summit dome (a mistake we didn't make on the way down
). Marching forward, face into that biting, raw breeze that one can only feel high up on the exposed barren expanse of treeless wonder. Just me and my family, plodding on, reaching and striving towards our wondrous first winter summit together. As I near the summit, I squint my eyes to shield them from the blinding whiteness, and what is that I see? What the……………………..
Why its Post’r Boy, WITH HIS SHIRT OFF, making hideous Tarzan-like noises into the wind. Yup, we were fortunate enough to share our first winter summit with, not only adk-46r, Shannon and Lurkette, but also with Post’r Boy, the legendary Frodo, Arm, Chickadee, Ed Hawkins and a couple other VFTTers. After a few (20 or so) minutes we started back down and found conditions were perfect for a 1000’ butt slide all the way down to the Wright junction (well, most of the way anyhow). At the junction, I was the only one that felt like bagging Wright, so I told the group to go on and I'd hustle up and back lickity split, which I did. Round trip from the junction was 38 minutes (with 6 minutes taking pics up top) and greatly assisted by a beautiful 250’ butt slide (below the treeline). Continuing rapidly ahead, I soon caught the rest of the group and we walked easily out. 7 hours and 40 minutes for the whole round trip loop.
It was great to be on top with the family pronouncing ourselves 1ers (and later bragging to them that I was a 2er, and they weren't ). Life is good again, we’re still hiking as a family, and once again looking forward to our next adventure together in the woods. Will we ever affix the winter rocker to our 46R patch? Does it even matter? Thanks to Joe, Shannon and Diana for making our trip extra special and for “coaxing” Ashley out of her shell .
We got some kicking photos of this great day in -MY GALLERY-
Winter is our absolute busiest and toughest time of the year, and it's next to impossible to get away, but this year we had committed to making an effort to “try a few” winter peaks. And so we would. We met adk-46er, a friend of his and Lurkette at the LOJ trailhead at just before 8 AM (12/30/04) and were soon underway. The weather was perfect with mostly blue skies and balmy temps in the mid-20’s. There was a reasonable covering of snow (about 6-10 inches) and the trail was well tromped out. We barebooted for the early portion and made good progress up past the waterfall.
Once we reached “the knob” at about 3700’, we switched to snowshoes for better traction on the ever-steepening terrain. Progress slowed, but we steadily gained elevation up past the Wright junction and up to the treeline. We choose to snowshoe above the trees, but life would have been much simpler had we donned the crampons for that “little” extra bite into the bulletproof snow and rime that covered the entire summit dome (a mistake we didn't make on the way down
). Marching forward, face into that biting, raw breeze that one can only feel high up on the exposed barren expanse of treeless wonder. Just me and my family, plodding on, reaching and striving towards our wondrous first winter summit together. As I near the summit, I squint my eyes to shield them from the blinding whiteness, and what is that I see? What the……………………..Why its Post’r Boy, WITH HIS SHIRT OFF, making hideous Tarzan-like noises into the wind. Yup, we were fortunate enough to share our first winter summit with, not only adk-46r, Shannon and Lurkette, but also with Post’r Boy, the legendary Frodo, Arm, Chickadee, Ed Hawkins and a couple other VFTTers. After a few (20 or so) minutes we started back down and found conditions were perfect for a 1000’ butt slide all the way down to the Wright junction (well, most of the way anyhow). At the junction, I was the only one that felt like bagging Wright, so I told the group to go on and I'd hustle up and back lickity split, which I did. Round trip from the junction was 38 minutes (with 6 minutes taking pics up top) and greatly assisted by a beautiful 250’ butt slide (below the treeline). Continuing rapidly ahead, I soon caught the rest of the group and we walked easily out. 7 hours and 40 minutes for the whole round trip loop.
It was great to be on top with the family pronouncing ourselves 1ers (and later bragging to them that I was a 2er, and they weren't
). Life is good again, we’re still hiking as a family, and once again looking forward to our next adventure together in the woods. Will we ever affix the winter rocker to our 46R patch? Does it even matter? Thanks to Joe, Shannon and Diana for making our trip extra special and for “coaxing” Ashley out of her shell .We got some kicking photos of this great day in -MY GALLERY-
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