Colvin and Blake

December 27, 2015

Today was probably the most non-winter winter hike I have ever done. Katharina, Claudia, Debbie, Ivan, and myself set out from the AMR parking lot on a fairly warm (4 degrees) morning in a light drizzle. We quickly hiked up Lake Road and in about an hour reached the Gill Brook trail. As I was having a bit of problems with a tendon in my left foot, I decided to wear shoes on the road, and then switched to my hiking boots when we took to the trail. The trail was wet and very muddy. We made our way up to the pretty twin waterfall and checked it out. As we were leaving, Katharina slipped on a rock and bashed up her knee pretty good. After a bit of icing it in the stream and bandaging the wound she declared it good to go, so we continued on upwards. At about 3500 feet, the rocks started being covered in a bit of ice, and after a while of this, we decided to put on microspikes. The terrain got steeper and icier. At one of the slabs, I was traversing a crack when one of my feet blew out. As I balanced on one foot, trying simultaneously to find a handhold above me and also trying to get my loose foot locked in again, I could feel the rubber of the microspike start to stretch, finally resulting in the second foot blowing out and sending me for a two meter slide. Luckily I was feet first so just gracefully stood up as I hit the bottom. It was a very good thing my crampons were safely stowed in my pack out of harm's way for this. We worked around this section by staying closer to the trees. It continued with steep, slightly iced pitches all the way to the top. It was now raining pretty hard, and the wind was strong enough that we pushed on shortly after taking a few photos of the fog. The descent down the back side is just as steep, but there was no ice on the south aspect, so I went back to bare boots while others remained in their spikes to help aerate the copious endless mudholes. After descending to the col, we stopped for a brief lunch break before making the final climb up Blake. The last couple hundred feet of mud-wallow got icy again and required the spikes, and before too long we were on top to the amazing blakey goodness of outstanding views of rotting trees in the fog. Another very short break as it was too wet and miserable to stand around for long, and then we were dropping back down into the mud pit. All the ice had melted out now, adding to the moisture in the ground to make more mud for us to slosh through. We met two French guys heading up as we were coming down, but these were the only ones we saw on this ridge for the day. The descent off of Colvin was easier than the way up as most of the ice was gone, and we were back to boots at 3800 foot mark. Then it was just a long slog out. At the Indian Head junction, we met another couple who had made an attempt on Nippletop, but said they encountered too much ice and flowing water to make it safely up. We walked with them for a bit, but then sped ahead. We took the bypass trail to get to Lake Road faster, and reached the road just as darkness set in. I stopped to change back into shoes and the rest sped ahead. As I was packing up to leave, all four other people on the mountain arrived, the two French guys sped ahead, and I walked with the Nippletop couple for about two kilometers and had quite a nice chat. They were slowing down, so I decided to go ahead and try to catch up with the others. I switched on my headlamp and jogged for the next kilometer, passing the French guys and finally catching up to Katharina. We walked together to the gate and met the others who were just signing out. A 10.5 hour day for one of the wettest, muddiest hikes I have done for a winter peak in October conditions.

Lake road.

Hiking up Gill Brook trail.

This snowshow hare showing off his winter camoflage.

Kat and I, summit of Colvin.

Soggy people on summit of Blake.

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