Basin

December 10, 2012

Twenty-two months. Almost two full years that I have not been able to climb a mountain thanks to a world gone insane. The logistics of this trip (practically in my backyard) was almost as complex as a trip around the world to Mt. Kenya... both trips needed a vaccination and lots of government forms to be filled out. Anyway, with the Canada/US land border finally (partially) re-openned, Paul and I headed out early on a Friday morning to go play in the upper Great Range. Our objectives were Haystack which Paul needed for his 46 initial round, as well as Basin and Saddleback which I needed as the final two peaks to complete my autumn round. However with a very narrow weather window our main goal was just really to get up into the mountains and have some fun.

Happy to finally be hiking here again after far too long a break

We arrived at the Garden trailhead at 09:00 and stared hiking up an icy trail to JBL in microspikes. Here we chatted with a couple of guys who had similar plans to us, but in the opposite direction. We wished each other well and hoped to meet up again later in the day. The trail towards Bushnell Falls was unbroken, and the spikes were balling up pretty severly in the wet snow so we ditched them and continued on in bare boots all the way up to Slant Rock. Here we pitched a tent, stashed the overnight gear and took our lunch break before continuing on.

Johns Brook Lodge

Crossing Johns Brook

Ah, muddy hiking up a stream... oh how I have missed you!

We decided to tackle Basin first and then head over to Haystack, abandonning any plans of Saddleback due to the forecasted horrible weather tomorrow. The snow was now sufficient enough for snowshoes, so we climed the steep ascent up towards the range trail, slowly breaking a path in the fresh powder. Going was tough and as we finally we reached the top of Haystack's shoulder, our out-of-practice mountain legs were screaming at us. Thoughts of Haystack's summit began to evaporate as well. A quick descent was made down to the Range trail and then we were immediately climbing the steep slopes of Basin. The last kilometer took us almost two hours. Deep snow at mid thigh level, coupled with several pitches of challenging ice (at least in snowshoes) had us moving slowly. Finally things started to level off and Paul was ready to quit. I knew we did not have much further to go so I insisted we take a food break and finish this mountain off. A little more snow slogging and at last, the headwall appeared. A quick icy scramble in snowshoes up this and then we were on the summit of Basin, just as the cloudy day was winking out into the darkness of night.

Paul very narrowly avoided a swim here as the ice collapsed

Climbing the steep snow slopes of Basin

Some icy stretches

Twilight summit

Headlamps on, we began our descent. Travel was much easier now with gravity on our side, and in almost no time at all we were standing at the top of the ice pitches. We decided to switch to crampons, which made down climbing these on front points much easier than the scrabbling up on snowshoes. A ladder proved to be very entertaining to climb down wearing the pons, after which we post holed for about a hundred meters thinking that there was soon another steep pitch. This mode of travel got old really quick though, so we switched back to snowshoes and made it down the final steep part just fine when we came across it. The climb back up the Haystack shoulder was painful, but the last 200m of vertical drop went fairly quickly and we arrived back to camp at 19:00. Supper under Slant Rock was divine. Crawling into a sleeping bag two hours later was pure heaven.

Downclimbing ladders in the dark

December 11, 2012

Woke up to a steady rain. We packed up camp under headlamp and ate our breakfast under the dripping shelter provided by the slanty boulder. At 08:00 we were back on the trail, all lingering thoughts of climbing another mountain being disolved by the blustery wind and wetness. We sloshed down the slushy trail towards Bushnell Falls in boots and put on spikes for the icy rock hop across Johns Brook. Here the trail was icier so we left the spikes on for the rest of the day. Stopped for a short break on the covered porch at JBL to get out of the rain for a bit and then continued spiking down a the ice packed trail towards the Garden. We passed a very large group of boy scouts heading in for a wet winter camping weekend, but other than that, did not see a soul. Very strange for a Saturday in the High Peaks. Finally the parking lot apeared after just under four hours of hiking. Changed into some drier clothes and then headed over to the Noonmark Diner in time for brunch.

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