Basin - Cougar or Kitten? 13/03/2010

[Snoglo]

Participants: Robert, Cliff, Stan Andrea, Gloria,
We depart the Garden at 5:30 am. walking in silence, the glow of our headlamps illuminating only a small circle on the path ahead. With seventeen miles of trail to cover we ease into the day with, what appears to be, a few moments of quiet reflection. My thoughts are far from quiet! They jump back and forth from memories of our failed attempt of Basin via Chicken Coop Brook two weeks ago, to my ’hike from hell’ to Basin last winter; equipment failures, 14 hours on the trail, breaking trail in 3 feet of snow from Shorey to Summit and roaring summit winds that brought us to our knees.
This is Andrea’s 46th winter peak and her comment of “Whatever it takes, we’re doing it today!” brings me back to present.
The micro spikes on our feet crunch as we walk on the hard packed trail to JBL. At the hut the snow is a little softer so we switch to snowshoes and head to the Bushnell Falls Leanto where we’ll decide whether to head up the Brook or continue on the trail to Shorey. The guys go ahead to find out what the conditions are like in the Brook. They are eager as puppy dogs when we arrive which means they think the brook/slide approach is an option. Andrea takes one look at the broken out trail going towards Slant Rock and says “Trail”. Today she ‘rules’.
At this point I’m thinking that breaking the trail from SSC to Basin summit won’t be so bad..we have a chance to make this peak today. Again the guys sprint ahead prepared to start breaking out the SSC to the Range trail. When we hear their whoops of pure joy we know the trail is broken out...can’t believe our luck! Big THANKS to the trailbreakers. So there’s one more trail to think about, the Range trail to Basin’s summit...right...it’s broken out too! It’s hard packed, snow covered right to the summit. Is Basin a roaring beast today ...NO...the winds are moderate, the sky is cloudy but clear and, for a winter day, the temperature might even be called balmy. It was a purrrrrfect day!
Well almost perfect...the Garden parking lot was a mud pit with 6-8 inch deep tire ruts down the centre corridor of the lot and brown slushy, sandy mud around the cars. Still some snow banks in between parking spaces so not full parking capacity yet.
FYI: hard packed snow covered trail from Garden to the summit of Basin. Trail from Basin to Saddleback not broken out. We wore micro spikes to JBL, snowshoes to the ladder just below the summit of Basin, crampons to the summit (optional). Depart from Garden 5:30 am, JBL by 7:00, Bushnell by 8:00, Shorey by 9:00 and summit by 11:30 a.m. Back to Garden by 4:50 pm after a leisurely lunch and a few leisurely breaks.
Good Job Andrea!

[mudrat]

Nice job guys!

[Ashfordite]

Great job everyone and congratulations to Andrea!

[billandjudy]

Congrats on the "W"

[Adirondack Ladies]

Congratulations Andrea on your W46 - that is no small accomplishment! Glad you had such a nice day for your big finish!

[Highonlife]

Congratulations...that is a huge accomplishment and something to be proud of, way to go

[Murph]

Great job, Congratulations! Glad to hear the trail was well broken.