03/04/2012 (Sunday) Jackson
(4052 # 39) 5.2 miles, 2547 ft elevation
gain, 2150 el change. 4:56 Book time. My time 6:00 hrs; (07:30 to 14:00 – 0.5 on top), 4 hours up, 2 hours down. ratio to book = 1.2. Easiest, shortest, and quickest mountain
yet. I picked it so I could try my snow
shoes and I may
have the option of going to Mt Pierce. I
told myself if I got to Jackson by 11:00, I would shoot for Pierce and still had a
bale out rout form Mitzpah hut down.
Turns out I made it by 11 but could not find the Webster cliff trail
over to Pierce. The trail up was well broken
out and I used hillsound crampons all the way up. Only 1 or 2 postholing when I
stepped off the trail. Off the trail the
snow was light with a thin crust and 3-4 ft deep. No real steep sections. Quite most of the way up. Almost no wind all the way up. Temps comfortable around 20. I was slightly
overdressed with two layers of teckwick (#2 & # 3) and upper and lower
shells. Carried heavy parker in pack but
it never came out. I needed a lighter pair of
gloves. Started sweating in the ones I had (not my heaviest mitts) and went bare
hands most of way. I did have to stop
and catch my breath leaning on my poles quite a bit, but that was mostly
because I was out of shape, not because of the difficulty. Views at top were
breathtaking. Top of Washington was in the clouds but I could see the rest of the southern
snow capped peaks. Group of 3 hikers with 2 dogs came to summit after I had been there
15 minutes. They also wanted to go over
to Ike but couldn’t find the trail either (evidently it hadn’t been broken out
recently). One in the group had done the
48, the girl in the group was at ~24/48.
They all passed me on the way down. Finally got to feed a Grey Jay at
the top, (right out of my hand). There were 2 flying around, fairly plump too.
They must hang at the peaks and wait for hikers and get fed all the time. The dogs spooked them off before I could feed
the second one. One of the dogs was a
bad barker and made a racket. Decided to
try the Snowshoes on the way down and help pack the trail more. MS lightening
25s. They worked pretty good once I got
the hang of them and stopped stepping on my own tails. I tripped pretty bad
once. Also found that you can’t butt slide with them. Tried and got all tangled
up and hurt my knee some. Also they
seemed real good going up on the uphill sections going down but are not very
good and difficult on the steeper sections. A better plan would have been to wear them up (I
think they would have been as good as the crampons) and use crampons or spikes
down so I could butt slide the few steep sections. But, I was afraid I’d get too
tired to summit if I used the shoes when I really didn’t need them on the way
up. Passed 2 groups of 2 & 3 hikers going up while I was going down. Also, just as 1 was going down one lone girl
summitted and she also passed me on the way down. My left knee went out on me again on the way
down (3/4 of way down). I think if I
hadn’t got tangled up trying to butt
slide , and didn’t wear the snowshoes down it would have been okay. I had worn an elastic brace (dollar store) on
that knee , and think it did help some.
I was carrying a better brace in my pack but I was close enough to the
bottom and the pain was bearable so I didn’t stop to take it out. This was my first presidential (though
Jackson is actually named after a NH geologist not a president). Over all, a good uneventful hike but does add
one more to my short winter list (3/48) . I still have been able to avoid any
really cold or windy conditions.
Pictures:
#8 Jackson
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