Table Mountain, north ridge, deep fresh snow

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kepPNW
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Joined: June 21st, 2012, 9:55 am
Location: Salmon Creek

Re: Table Mountain, north ridge, deep fresh snow

Post by kepPNW » November 13th, 2017, 10:54 am

Chip Down wrote:Ah, the illusion of solitude. It was so easy for me to assume I was the only one up there. Glad I at least had virgin snow. It would have been so disappointing to arrive later to find footprints. Although, from looking at your other pics, it looks like we both would have been better off starting the day a little later.
Know the feeling! I was taken completely by surprise when I ran into that other gal (yet to post here), and she reacted similarly. Until then, mine were the only footprints coming up. ;) Didn't see another human until I was way back in the landslide runout, much later, so I don't believe anyone got up there later than us. It was nice those last few hours of the day, when the sky wasn't dripping constantly, too!
Chip Down wrote:This might sound really weird and neurotic, but I feel a little self conscious about my footprints, as if somebody might look at them and think "wait...he went there, and then there...that doesn't make sense...and what's with that little weird indecision there...what an idiot...maybe he's been drinking". :lol:
Haha! Well, I wasn't drinking anything, but there are other things folks may wonder about, too. :lol:
Chip Down wrote:Anyway, really glad you posted. I love near-miss stories, and even posted one myself when I just missed Pablo in a weird off-the-beaten-track spot and wondered who was crazy enough to be there. I hit the Table plateau just before 11:00 I think, and spent nearly an hour up there. Glad to see you too found the weather around the table-on-Table junction to be unbearable. I'd feel bad if you said "what's the big deal, I rolled out my blanket and had a delightful picnic". It wasn't the temperature, it wasn't the wind, it wasn't the rain, it was all three that made it awful.
Yes! I've had near-Pablo encounters, too! Same place, even, I think. Fun.

And yeah, that was just prime hypothermia weather! Was telling my wife later, it'd have felt far warmer if it was 20° and dry! Despite having waterproof shoes and gaiters, post-holing slush past the knees made for some pretty wet socks, and my real concern was that my feet would become as dysfunctional as my fingers already had. Just needed to get back down at that point. (Saving the dry socks for when I got below the snow again!)
Marti M wrote:Haha now I know what all those tracks I saw were about. Crazy person # 4 here. I went up to Greenleaf via the PCT. <snip> About 25 miles total.
Just an amazing amount of ground covered, especially given the conditions, on such a short day! (I really need to work on making it to the TH well before 9am, I suppose. :lol:) Another near-miss! :)
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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Chip Down
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Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

Re: Table Mountain, north ridge, deep fresh snow

Post by Chip Down » November 13th, 2017, 7:25 pm

Funny that my first on-trail TR in months garnered so much fun discussion. I'm sure it's a fluke though.
Don't expect me to start joining you trail-hiking folks. ;)

Refering to Marti, Karl wrote
kepPNW wrote:Just an amazing amount of ground covered, especially given the conditions, on such a short day!
Agreed. A couple years ago I failed on an "easy" 17 mile hike in Nov due to snow and a stream crossing.

On the subject of other parties, pretty sure I heard voices around the saddle on Table's N ridge where the powerlines cross, and I saw snowshoe prints. This was a little before 1:00.

Marti, I grasp most of your route, but not every detail. My route is shown below.
Attachments
looney.jpg

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