The trip was originally scheduled for Saturday, February 8, but it seemed likely that the road to the trailhead wouldn’t be cleared yet after the heavy snow the day and night before. The weather forecast also called for temperatures around zero F with wind chill approaching -40° F. So we waited a day, when the forecast was about 20° F warmer, the winds about 10 mph lower, and the road crews should have had time to clear the road.

Six of us met at the Richmond Park & Ride at 8:30, meeting the last at the trailhead at 9. We all wore snowshoes from the start, expecting to do some trailbreaking, but all trails had tracks, so we couldn’t even get decently lost (to Robynn’s disappointment). The sun was bright as we started out around 9:20, and continued until clouds started moving in as we passed the Alpine Trail junction on our last climb to the summit. We reached the Long Trail around 10:30 and the summit around 1:30.

After a lunch break at the hut clearing we headed down Burrows Trail, with several of us taking turns trying little sleds Jill and Andrew had brought. We reached the cars around 2:30, for a trip time of about 5 hours and 10 minutes, making this one of the fastest winter trips I’ve done on this route.

Participants: Jill George, Robynn Albert, Steve Titcomb, Marcus Keely, Dale Schmit, Andrew Chalnick, David Hathaway (leader). Photos: David, Robynn, Marcus, Andrew, Steve, Jill.