The Twins

May 17, 2015

It rained on and off all night, but when I got up at 05:00 it was starting to clear. I read my book and drank coffee for an hour until the others got out of bed. We packed up and hit the trail by 07:30 and stomped up the snow to the Guyot junction, where we decided to do this short climb to the summit. It was clouded in, but occasional breaks would appear giving fleeting views of nearby peaks. We descended back down and then the next two miles was very slow going as we traversed the snow spine from hell. This took us a couple of hours of postholing through the rotting snow. At one point a group of three on snowshoes came past and we commented that they had the right idea. The last bit of ascent up to South Twin was snow free, so we could scamper along. On the top, which was unfortunately completely fogged in we met a large group of friendly French Canadians. We chatted for a bit and exchanged photography services, after which we turned north along the ridge to the second Twin summit. It was still snowy, but easier than the last traverse, and every so often there would be a nice relaxing stretch of snow free trail. We arrived on the summit of North Twin as the sun started to come out, so we spent a while up here eating lunch and drying out in the warmth. Finally we decided to go and hiked down a steep trail with a snow spine which was sometimes six feet high and only six inches wide. There were several moments of au-cheval avec un spine du neige. We met many people coming up, including a trio of very lightly dressed folk, and a boy scout troop with a lot of boys and a few leaders. At 4000' the snow became more comfortable, and at 3500' the last of it was left behind. A long gentle descent into the valley followed. When we got to Little River, it was roaring. We had to hike up along the bank for about a hundred meters before we were able to find a safe ford. It was knee deep here but easily surmounted and then we bushwhacked back to the trail. Another kilometer or so down the trail, it crossed back over the river, but we decided that it would be best to stay on the East side. Obviously many other people had done the same, as there was a fairly well trodden path along here. Another kilometer and the official trail crossed back. This was easy going as it now seemed we were hiking along an old rail bed. In short order, we arrived at the trailhead, which was deserted, due to the access road being closed. We figured we should just head along the river for another 1.5 km to pick up a road into Twin Mountain. We started out on a trail, which was flagged with orange tape. The path turned though and started climbing the ridge. We followed it anyway for a while, but it never turned back down the direction we wanted to go, so finally we just turned off into the woods and whacked back down to the river. This was occasionally tough going as the terrain was steep and the woods filled with a fair amount of blowdown. After about an hour of slow travel, I looked down and spied a road, so we dropped down onto it, and discovered the water tower for the town. We hiked down along the driveway, around a security fence, and then was on the road for a short walk back out to the motel. A couple of beers on the porch, and some tasty pizza and darts at the pub down the street finished the day.

Snowspine balancing.