Dog Mountain - March 3rd, 2017
Posted: March 3rd, 2017, 5:26 pm
This was plan B for today but it still turned into a pretty good adventure due to the snow accumulation. Still, I'm sure it was a lot better than Plan A would have been - Herman Creek.
Studying the weather maps this morning told me I might just beat the rain if I got back by one or so and it worked out great - The rain was just starting as I got back to the TH at 1:50. There was a light east wind at the TH as I set out at 10:18 but it became a stronger west wind above about 1500' but never a problem.
The trail is free from all but some very minor blowdown that never posed a problem - maybe three or four very small trees and virtually no other debris but the usual fir sprigs and cones.
There were only a few scattered small patches of snow for the first mile but then it abruptly changed to continuous snow cover for the rest of the way. This trail isn't so steep, even snow covered, that spikes are needed until the junction about 2.1 miles in. From there, the grade is much more steep and I was glad to have the spikes.
As I got to the meadows, I was glad a few folks had already put some footprints down:
Wind Mountain:
The view of the summit area:
There had been some melting in the exposed areas but that only lasted for a quarter mile or so.
Then it got way worse!
All tracks disappeared at the distant bend in the trail in this photo. It was too icy for me to attempt as well and the unstable fresh snow atop fairly hard ice convinced me to just go straight up from there.
Approaching the summit:
All trace of the trail is under two or three feet of ice and snow:
Epic snowdrifts all over the summit area:
Rather than risk doing the traverse in the downhill direction, I headed to the east and picked my way down to the trail through the drifts and open meadows. The snow and ice is pretty hard and even my 185 pounds didn't punch in more than 6 inches to less than a foot so it was not too bad a descent.
6.1 miles, 3 hours, 33 minutes, 2,833' vertical.
dn
Studying the weather maps this morning told me I might just beat the rain if I got back by one or so and it worked out great - The rain was just starting as I got back to the TH at 1:50. There was a light east wind at the TH as I set out at 10:18 but it became a stronger west wind above about 1500' but never a problem.
The trail is free from all but some very minor blowdown that never posed a problem - maybe three or four very small trees and virtually no other debris but the usual fir sprigs and cones.
There were only a few scattered small patches of snow for the first mile but then it abruptly changed to continuous snow cover for the rest of the way. This trail isn't so steep, even snow covered, that spikes are needed until the junction about 2.1 miles in. From there, the grade is much more steep and I was glad to have the spikes.
As I got to the meadows, I was glad a few folks had already put some footprints down:
Wind Mountain:
The view of the summit area:
There had been some melting in the exposed areas but that only lasted for a quarter mile or so.
Then it got way worse!
All tracks disappeared at the distant bend in the trail in this photo. It was too icy for me to attempt as well and the unstable fresh snow atop fairly hard ice convinced me to just go straight up from there.
Approaching the summit:
All trace of the trail is under two or three feet of ice and snow:
Epic snowdrifts all over the summit area:
Rather than risk doing the traverse in the downhill direction, I headed to the east and picked my way down to the trail through the drifts and open meadows. The snow and ice is pretty hard and even my 185 pounds didn't punch in more than 6 inches to less than a foot so it was not too bad a descent.
6.1 miles, 3 hours, 33 minutes, 2,833' vertical.
dn