My only goal for this Saturday morning was to SLEEP in. Reagan was at a friend's house and Dan was off today and available to take Greg to his early morning basketball practice. Mission accomplished...I got up at 11:30 when Reagan called to ask if she could stay longer at the friend's house. With more freedom than I anticipated having and the sun shining warm and bright, I began itching to go snowshoeing. Of course it would be a late start so the obvious destination would be somewhere close to home. I quickly called my father and it took him about 2 seconds to answer yes to my suggestion that we climb Hadley today. We signed in at the trailhead at 1:30 and began the climb which is steep right from the beginning. There were several other climbers taking advantage of this spectacular day. The trail is very well packed down and we actually could have worn just boots with yak traks. However, there were several pretty icy spots that required the teeth of the snowshoe crampons. We know the trail like the back of our hands at this point so it was humorous when the people coming down assured us that we were "almost there". 
We saw 2 golden retrievers (made me wish shadow was with us), a black newfoundland, a black lab and 2 other mixed dogs...each one looking like he was happy to be doing his favorite thing in the world. We reached the summit at 3:30. As usual all of the people that had passed us going up were also on their way down before we summitted. This works in our favor though because we had the top to ourselves. It wasn't particularly windy today and with the sun shining it felt warm. Too lazy to take our snowshoes off we didnt climb the tower today. We spent about a half hour taking in the strangely hazy view and started down at 4:00 ejoying the orange glow of the sun setting as we walked along the ridge. We had seen the tracks of a bushwacker on the way up who had been cutting off the switchbacks and decided we would follow his trail on the way down. So off the beaten path we went. It definitely cut off some time and allowed us to travel in some snow that was deeper and not slick with ice. The register was ahead of us in no time. Good thing....we signed out by headlamp at 5:10 and joked that we closed the mountain. 
We saw 2 golden retrievers (made me wish shadow was with us), a black newfoundland, a black lab and 2 other mixed dogs...each one looking like he was happy to be doing his favorite thing in the world. We reached the summit at 3:30. As usual all of the people that had passed us going up were also on their way down before we summitted. This works in our favor though because we had the top to ourselves. It wasn't particularly windy today and with the sun shining it felt warm. Too lazy to take our snowshoes off we didnt climb the tower today. We spent about a half hour taking in the strangely hazy view and started down at 4:00 ejoying the orange glow of the sun setting as we walked along the ridge. We had seen the tracks of a bushwacker on the way up who had been cutting off the switchbacks and decided we would follow his trail on the way down. So off the beaten path we went. It definitely cut off some time and allowed us to travel in some snow that was deeper and not slick with ice. The register was ahead of us in no time. Good thing....we signed out by headlamp at 5:10 and joked that we closed the mountain. 
4 comments:
that's so awesome Corin. i envy you...climbing mountains! i wish!
i guess for now i will just live vicariously through you. ;)
My mountain climbing days are behind me now,... but I'll always enjoy tagging along with you via your blog. What great pics and trip report!
beautiful photos...i think that haze made for great light.
Love the photos of the late afternoon haze.
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