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Bigelows Avery, West 3-14-07
The slog to end all slogs. it was 50 degrees out when I did this hike. Not good! This day was supposed to be a scouting day. I was going to hike in to firewarden's trail to see if it was broken in, if not I would drive down to the Abraham trailhead and hike in to check the same. Turns out the Bigelow trail (fire warden's tr) WAS broken in. Because I came equipped for a full on hike I decided to give it a go. I still haven't determined if this was a horrid mistake or not yet (I'm leaning towards not). Despite the trail being broken, I was still sinking in. This was because the snow was thawing and was very wet and heavy and lost a lot of its holding strength. The trail started off very moderate with a few gains here and there. I knew from studying the map that the last 1000 feet before the col were going to be brutal. I slogged along slowly for hours sinking in a few inches all along the way -- no big deal. Every now and then Id find a real soft area and I would sink down 18" for about 20 feet. No big deal. I passed the trail to the Horn pond. It was still not broken out. I was entertaining the idea of shooting across the ridge to the horns and breaking trail to the pond then completing the loop on the AT along where I hiked on 3/11. Sure enough the dreaded steep part began at around 2900'. It was very slow going, but the wet sticky snow actually made for decent stair stepping snow. Despite this good aspect I hated everything else about the stuff. I was soaked, not to mention the damned stuff gummed up my snowshoes on a constant basis. The worst was yet to come. At 3300' It began to rain. I was not expecting this and I sure as hell was not happy. I knew this would only further soften the evil snow. Thankfully it only rained a little (this time). Eventually I made it up to the col where I was greeted by spectacular views of Avery Peak which only stood 400 feet above me at this point. It was all rock. Avery peak was my first target so I hiked the .4 miles to the top, leaving behind my snowshoes for the last .2 miles as there was no snow! The sky was hostile, lots of moisture and worst of all to the west it was very apparent that it was raining. I snagged a few pictures and enjoyed the high temperatures. It was very windy but I was able to stand there in a long sleeve shirt and be comfortable. This would turn out to be the ONLY nice part about the high Wednesday temps. I descended into the col when it started to rain semi heavily. I pressed on anyways and started the .3 mile climb up West peak. That was when I heard it.. the most horrid sound a hiker near tree line could hear: THUNDER. I dropped my aluminum "lightning rod" ski poles and wandered further up the trail. I stopped for a moment and wondered. I heard a few more claps. all were distant. I pondered if it was worth it or not to wander above tree line. All the flashes and claps were faint, nothing close by. I decided I would venture on up to the tree line boundary and decide if I would turn back there or not. I proceeded slowly, and luck was on my side. The clouds cleared up and the thunder disappeared before I even reached the tree line. Things cleared up quickly. I took the opportunity and wandered up to the top only to see the clouds had mostly dissipated. Apparently the storm had rained itself out and disappeared. Such good fortune! I flipped the Horns the one finger salute (for evading me twice in a week) and started my descent back into the col I snagged my ski poles and was off. The descent from the col was HORRID. I was post holing constantly, and I was getting drenched every time I fell. It was such an energy draining experience. The whole way down to the snowmobile tracks (which ended at Stratton pond) was like this. I estimate I post holed on average every 5 steps. By the time I reached the tracks I was exhausted. This was of course because of the rain and the high temps. The snow was borderline slushy. From the start of the tracks it was another 1:30 to get to my car. I slogged along the tracks, all the while it drizzled. I did wear my shell so I was able to stay mostly dry, but my feet were soaked as were my legs. Finally I reached my car... This my friends was the best feeling in the world. Like the day before my car was in 4 inches of water so I had to be a bit acrobatic to get in without getting further drenched. All in all a very memorable hike. Sadly I was unable to get the Horns! I have mixed feelings about this hike. I was very glad to have reached the 4000 footers, but on the other hand this was a very very hard hike with a lot of challenges and dangers!
Click Here for the Hike Map
Click here for a video of a Lenticular cloud over avery peak. Click here for a zoomed video of a Lenticular cloud over avery peak.
2007 - Marc Howes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
