Monday, November 18, 2013

Jefferson Via Castle Ridge and Castle Ravine Trail

We had a plan which was to do Jefferson, Adams and Madison.  The plan slowly faded away as we slowly dragged our bodies, literally, through The Castles.  The Castles, could be some of the coolest feet of vertical in The Whites.  I am not sure how many there are, but they start at the trail junction of The Castle Trail and The Link.  The snow depth was something that caught be off guard.  I knew the mountains were covered in snow but we hit some styrofoam snow that was beyond knee deep.  We had to do some clearing of sections of The Castles just to find hand and foot holds.  The weather was the balls, see picture below.


The visitibily was in the 100 miles + range and there was not a cloud to be seen.  Wind was totally mute and we could stand around for a little while before getting chilled.  It took us over 5 hours to get to the summit of Jefferson.  Everything was covered in snow and the landscape looked identical regardless of where you looked.  It is a vast openness on Jefferson, brought back memories of Mutha and I wandering around in Edmunds Col and somewhere in there.  We hit the Edmunds Col junctions and decided to call it a day.  It was VERY slow going with the rocks completed covered and every foot step being a guess of how deep you would plunge.  You would have thought with the great weather we had the original plan would have been accomplished.  I think The Castles slowed us down but the fun factor was worth it.  

 
The descent could have been the highlight of the day.  We were originally going to take the Israel Ridge Path down but a zig and a zag lead us to the headwall of Castle Ravine and since it looked step, worse than Abol slide I figured was an excellent exit plan.  2+ hours later of loose rock, wondering where sections of trail went we made it below treeline and marched out on the well marked and very well maintained Castle Ravine Trail.  This trail crosses the Israel River several times and the crossing are simple, I would imagine tough in late spring.  It is a vast wilderness.  There was one or two couloirs that I thought would be of significant interest in the ravine to climb.  

Great day, lots of sunshine, laughs, all kinds of animal tracks, coyote, moose, deer and more than the average black bear tracks.  Surprised to see the bears still on the move.


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