Three hardy souls met at 8:30 at the Richmond park & ride, then drove to the Burrows trailhead to meet two others. It was below zero F and cloudy as we started up around 9:15, and the forecast called for wind chills around – 20 F. The trail was packed, so four started with microspikes and the last with snowshoes. We reached the Long Trail junction around 10:30, and although the trail was still broken out for the whole hike, it was soft enough in spots that everyone switched to snowshoes. The wind was from the NE, and most of our hike was on the SW side of the mountain, so we didn’t encounter the strong winds until we reached the Alpine Trail junction, around 12:20.

Everyone was bundled up with goggles and face protection as we climbed up and over the summit, so the weather really wasn’t a problem. We stopped briefly for lunch at the hut clearing at around 12:50, and then headed down Burrows Trail. Although we’d had some views from the top, we looked back as we descended to see the summit covered with clouds or blowing snow. We reached the cars a little after 2 PM.

Participants: Jill George, Liana Edwards, Kevin Burke, Chris Luczynski, David Hathaway (leader). Photos: Chris.