bryan
New member
date: 12/30/13
trails: avalon trail, a-z trail, willey range trail, bushwhack
conditions: nice new snow on all trails. avalon trail had seen previous hikers and was nicely broken out. same on a-z up to the col. we headed up willey range trail on a continued broken out track to somewhere around 3800 feet and started our bushwhack. it soon became clear we had started a bit sooner than we had planned and a minor ridge got us a bit off track, but we corrected and slabbed towards the summit of west field. there was anywhere from 1-3 feet of snow along the way with a mix of scrappy and open woods. developing spruce trap potential in spots below the summit. on the return we made our way to the west field/field col and attempted to slab back up to the willey range trail. going was good to start then became quite steep and at one point we stumbled onto a small ice laden slide with an interesting view back to west field and the pemi. the nature of the woods caused us not to slab as much as we would have liked and we got back up to the trail around 4k. from there it was a nice snowshoe back out and a good track.
equipment: snowshoes.
comments: nice day. we had both been to this peak before and had good luck with past routes, but this time the mountain threw a bit more at us with decidedly tougher conditions. the quickly dropping temperatures were quite apparent by afternoon and it was down to low single digits back in crawford notch when we got out (as opposed to 20s when we left). a couple interesting views along the way in particular from the small slide on the climb back up to the ridge. great snowshoe track on the various trails. finally felt like winter today. thanks to jeremy and amy for some nice hiking.
bryan
[email protected]
trails: avalon trail, a-z trail, willey range trail, bushwhack
conditions: nice new snow on all trails. avalon trail had seen previous hikers and was nicely broken out. same on a-z up to the col. we headed up willey range trail on a continued broken out track to somewhere around 3800 feet and started our bushwhack. it soon became clear we had started a bit sooner than we had planned and a minor ridge got us a bit off track, but we corrected and slabbed towards the summit of west field. there was anywhere from 1-3 feet of snow along the way with a mix of scrappy and open woods. developing spruce trap potential in spots below the summit. on the return we made our way to the west field/field col and attempted to slab back up to the willey range trail. going was good to start then became quite steep and at one point we stumbled onto a small ice laden slide with an interesting view back to west field and the pemi. the nature of the woods caused us not to slab as much as we would have liked and we got back up to the trail around 4k. from there it was a nice snowshoe back out and a good track.
equipment: snowshoes.
comments: nice day. we had both been to this peak before and had good luck with past routes, but this time the mountain threw a bit more at us with decidedly tougher conditions. the quickly dropping temperatures were quite apparent by afternoon and it was down to low single digits back in crawford notch when we got out (as opposed to 20s when we left). a couple interesting views along the way in particular from the small slide on the climb back up to the ridge. great snowshoe track on the various trails. finally felt like winter today. thanks to jeremy and amy for some nice hiking.
bryan
[email protected]
