Winter Record Attempt 12/22 - 12/31

[HuiYeng]

Go Mats!

It was fun breaking the Kinsman Ridge Trail, here are my pics from the hike http://www.huiyengchang.com/hike/07cannonballs/index.html GO MATS! Probably see you again this week! Merry Christmas!!

 

[Double Bow]

Back home and resting from a tough weekend...

On Saturday, I had intended to do a loop of Galehead and Garfield. I was breaking trail solo all the way up Gale River Trail and on to the summit of Galehead. By the time I got back to the GRT-Garfield Ridge junction it was 4pm so I skipped Garfield and headed to Gorham.

Yesterday, I went up the north loop of the Imp Trail. It was broken for the first 2mi, then the tracks turned back 100' or so from Imp Face. Broke trail to North Carter Trail, hoping to see tracks from the other loop. Nothing. Broke trail up to Carter-Moriah Tr hoping to see tracks there. Nothing. Broke trail over Middle & South Carter, each summit hoping for tracks. Each time, nothing. Broke trail to Zeta Pass (5pm) then descended the broken out Carter Dome and Nineteen Mile Brook trails. Middle Carter had freezing rain and 60mph winds! More detailed TR to come...

Planning to head up Carrigain on Wednesday, prolly 'round 5 or 6am.
Thursday I'll prolly take it easy and start up Waumbek 'round 8am. Anyone interested in joining me, send me a PM!

 

[Nif]

Good effort doublebow.

I went with Mats to the O's on Sunday. He was going strong. We came down kinda wet, and went to the parking lot for the Hancocks. Mats had a couple of sandwiches, and some energy drinks got into his dry layers and gortex and hit the trail.

I couldn't suck up going back out with what I had, so I went back to Parkers took a quick shower to get warm, got some dry stuff on and packed some snacks and hot tea. Then Bob and I went back to he trailhead in case Mats decided it was too bad and had decided to turn around.

At 4 during a break in the rain Bob and I headed in to meet Mats on the way down. The trail was packed out nicely, we ran into bear dave and his sled coming out. He had seen Mats so we knew he was doing well and headed around the loop. Bob went in a little further then turned around when the rains began to come again. I continued on and met up with Mats. He was doing fine, but had gotten a little chilled in the wind and rain between the summits. I gave him a little chocolate and tea, then we headed out. It was pouring pretty hard at the end, but it was pretty warm and we were sheltered by the trees, so no big deal. We were back at 6:30 and Mats decided to call it a day and go back and try to dry some of his clothes and get cars spotted and things coordinated for today.

 

[Mats Roing]

12 of 48 done......

OK, so things were on the rough side again today with trailbreaking and fat rivercrossings......managed to get Twins and Galehead in before Farmer and I realized we spent 1hr20min going 0.6 miles on Garfield Ridge. NH_Mtn_Hiker also ran out of Dew on the other side of Garfield and after talking over the cell with him we decided to continue towards each other and then bail out Gale River Trail. More details later.....

So tomorrow I'm going back up Garfield where we left off today and then do Franconia Ridge. Wednesday will be Pressie traverse due to favorable weather conditions.

 

[timmus]

Go Mats !!

I wish you many peaks for christmas day !!

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

The "Rescue"

12 of 48 done......

OK, so things were on the rough side again today with trailbreaking and fat rivercrossings......managed to get Twins and Galehead in before Farmer and I realized we spent 1hr20min going 0.6 miles on Garfield Ridge. NH_Mtn_Hiker also ran out of Dew on the other side of Garfield and after talking over the cell with him we decided to continue towards each other and then bail out Gale River Trail. More details later.....

So tomorrow I'm going back up Garfield where we left off today and then do Franconia Ridge. Wednesday will be Pressie traverse due to favorable weather conditions.

I was just on my way into Woodstock Station for a Pemi Pale Ale when I got a call on my cell phone: "anyway you can 'rescue' us at Five Corners?" Mats and company later rewarded me with pizza and beer at base camp.

Funny that I had just driven by Five Corners about a half hour earlier after reconnoitering Jackson to Mizpah and wondering how they were doing on Garfield/Franconia Ridge.

Southern Presi's should be well prepped for a full Presi traverse tomorrow.

Good luck, Mats!

Dr. D.

 

[Double Bow]

Hope that my work on Gale River Trail helped w/the "escape".

I'm still sticking w/ my plan of breaking trail on Carrigain tomorrow, then hitting Waumbek on Thursday. Hope to see you.

Godspeed, Mats!

 

[Mats Roing]

Achievements of today:

Garfield via Garfield trail. It was extremely windy up on Garfield

Followed the ridge trail to Lafayette, and ultimately to Flume. Followed the Osseo trail to the car spot in Lincoln Woods.

Peaks today:


Garfield
Lafayette
Lincoln
Liberty
Flume

17/48

Hoping for the presidential traverse tomorrow.

 

[NewHampshire]

You are amazing Mats!!!! Steve and I were hoping to cross paths with you on Tecumseh saturday, but the time switch killed that. Keep up the good work man. You are impressing us all yet again!

Brian

 

[sli74]

Good Luck Mats . . . GO, GO, GO !!!

Here to broken trails.

sli74

 

[Tom & Atticus]

Good day for Pressie Traverse for Mats

As long as the snow in the Northern Pressies isn't too deep, Mats and Frodo have a great day for their Pressie Traverse. (At least as of right now.) If they make it to Washington okay, they'll most likely benefit from the trailbreaking being done by Ed Hawkins group who is going from Washington through Pierce and out the Crawford Path today.

 

[mtnpa]

...Not sure Thoreau knew what deep snows are really like when he penned that line in my sig!

The deep snow he refered to was the half mile trek he did from his famous cottage on Walden Pond to his mother's house for dinner


I set out monday morning from 7 Dwarfs to find Fire Warden Trail. Followed tracks from two sets of snowshoes and one post-holing moose. I presumed the tracks were from Mats and a companion. Not sure if the moose was with them or on his own
Never been on Fire Warden before, but I thought I had a good idea where it was from map and descriptions. The river was gushing pretty good, and I was glad to be staying on one side. After I passed the first crossing I began to look carefully for any signs of the trail. At one point I climbed over a small berm and found some ski tracks. There seemed to be a corridor that headed up at the proper compass bearing. I heard that people use FW to ski, so I scouted along the tracks. They never headed up. Went back to the first spot and started to climb. Fairly steep climb through open woods. The snow was 3-4 feet deep with a crust on top. I was glad to have the 30' Tubbs. It was easy to keep my bearings. Had to negotiate around a few rock formations, then reached the birch glades. At this point I wasn't sure I was still on the trail (or if I was ever on the trail ), but it was still pretty easy to maintain my direction. After passing through the glades it got a bit steeper and eventually I came to an outlook. Continued up and the forest began to get thicker. Was able to work through eventually coming across a set of post hole tracks running perpendicular to my path. Followed them for a bit, but they seemed to head across the hill then started down, so I continued along my bearing. As I approached the ridge the spruce got thick. I tried to work around it. Got to the ridge, but I was still north and west of the peak. Had to get home early for holiday festivities, so I followed my tracks back out. If you do see my tracks on the way down they take a fairly direct route down to North Twin trail.

 

[marchowes]

Friends,

If anyone wants to help break out Isolation tomorrow show up at the rocky branch parking lot on rte 16 at 7:15-7:30 am Thursday. Also, please PM ME so we know who to expect, and if there are any changes we can let you know.

The trail is broken out at least to approximately the wilderness boundary (a bit less than half way)


the plan is to use the BW route.

 

[giggy]

Pressie Traverse is done - Mats said beutiful day up there and everything went well.

Sounds like tommorow might be the moose, kinsmans, cannon

probably starting with cannon about 5am.

25 down/23 to go

 

[FARMER]

keep at it mats. i had a blast on mon. not sure if i can make it back out with you on this one unfortunately. its in the bag. you own it!!!!

 

[Frodo]

He had a stellar day to do a Presidential Traverse Unfortunatly, due to a time constraint I was only able to do the 1st half with him, but we had spectacular weather!

25 down, 23 to go...

 

[Tom & Atticus]

Today got you right back in the game, Mats. To be in the game right now with all of this snow is pretty remarkable. Onward, by all means!

 

[Steve-o]

And he keeps on rolling...
Great pics for a 1/2 day trip Frodo!
Glad to see you're saving your strenth for this weekend!
Go Mats! We'll try and hoist a keg in your general direction!
Steve-o

 

[bunchberry]

Go Mats! Your progress is absolutely fantastic, and I look forward to reading more about your accomplishments! I wish I could be out there helping to break trail for you, but haven't been able to get up there this week so far. But I am sending you good vibes of strength and endurance each day!!

-katie

 

[Mad Townie]

Keep on keeping on, Mats! The Wilderness and Bondcliff Trails should be ready for you by Sunday night (or maybe early Monday morning ).