brutal wind has nixed me out of the last two weekends for outings, yesterday was very windy as well, but today- perfect! I would have liked to bring my new skis, but between the warm/freezing/warm/freezing weather and the sheer steepness of this route, snowshoes would be the better choice
19 degrees when I left the truck, but the sun was shining bright (and no wind)- it wasn't very far up the trail that I started to shed clothing. The first 2 miles I kept my snowshoes strapped to the pack- the snow was densely packed and I could walk on it w/o breaking through, but then I started post holing and strapped on my snowshoes. It was tough snowshoeing as there was a thick crust on top (but not thick enough!) and powder underneath.
I finally was above Casey Meadows and about 5 miles in
I made it to the junction for Casey Peak and needed to tend to my feet, the tough sidehilling was starting to give me a couple of hotspots- Leukotape to the rescue
I was using my Frost River Summit pack (appropriately named!)- probably in the 20-ish pound range, more when I had the snowshoes strapped on
took a quick lunch break, my favorite high calorie meal- bagel, peanut butter, honey, bacon- ala "butthole" sandwich
the climb from this juncture gets really tough, the snow deepened as well- I was often sinking up to my thighs, this makes for a tough, slow go
hard to believe anything would be up this high, but saw snowshoe hare sign, coyote, bobcat and this blue grouse track & scat
about an hour up this steep portion of the trail (actually the trail was completely obliterated and had to wing it- ie go up) to the peak I was starting to fade, but as I closed in on the ridge and could start seeing the peak, I got my second wind
made it
this mile and a half from the last junction took me over an hour and a half! less than 1 mph
heading back down
it took me 45 minutes to get back to the junction- 2 mph, yeah!
what took about 4 hours to go 6.5-ish miles on the way up, only took a little over two hours on the way down
was very nice to get up to the mountains again
thanks for reading
19 degrees when I left the truck, but the sun was shining bright (and no wind)- it wasn't very far up the trail that I started to shed clothing. The first 2 miles I kept my snowshoes strapped to the pack- the snow was densely packed and I could walk on it w/o breaking through, but then I started post holing and strapped on my snowshoes. It was tough snowshoeing as there was a thick crust on top (but not thick enough!) and powder underneath.
I finally was above Casey Meadows and about 5 miles in
I made it to the junction for Casey Peak and needed to tend to my feet, the tough sidehilling was starting to give me a couple of hotspots- Leukotape to the rescue
I was using my Frost River Summit pack (appropriately named!)- probably in the 20-ish pound range, more when I had the snowshoes strapped on
took a quick lunch break, my favorite high calorie meal- bagel, peanut butter, honey, bacon- ala "butthole" sandwich
the climb from this juncture gets really tough, the snow deepened as well- I was often sinking up to my thighs, this makes for a tough, slow go
hard to believe anything would be up this high, but saw snowshoe hare sign, coyote, bobcat and this blue grouse track & scat
about an hour up this steep portion of the trail (actually the trail was completely obliterated and had to wing it- ie go up) to the peak I was starting to fade, but as I closed in on the ridge and could start seeing the peak, I got my second wind
made it
this mile and a half from the last junction took me over an hour and a half! less than 1 mph
heading back down
it took me 45 minutes to get back to the junction- 2 mph, yeah!
what took about 4 hours to go 6.5-ish miles on the way up, only took a little over two hours on the way down
was very nice to get up to the mountains again
thanks for reading
