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A Long walk with no peaks

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  • A Long walk with no peaks

    And it was still a great day,
    So after warming up yesterday by doing a little training run up Mt. Adams with packs slightly heavier than normal, Kyler and I had decided that the Calamity slide would be a good recovery hike for today.
    We head out at about 6:30 this morning with cool temps but high humidity already. The deer flies were unrelenting all the way to the Opalescent crossing but as we stopped to fill our water bladders they subsided for a while but returned as we hit the woods again.
    Heading up the trail towards Hanging Spears I recognized the jumping off point to start the bushwhack and crossed back over the river to start the fun. Fortunately the pests had subsided but it was brutally humid. We had taken a general line in the direction of where I thought the bottom of the slide would be at around 2200 ft, actually we decided to climb higher and traverse to our right in hopes of hitting it a little higher.
    What we ran into was some dead-fall that looked very much like it could be run out from the slide and kept climbing up instead of over. No to bad but it turns out that the actual slide and run out was about three hundred feet to our right. We discovered this after we spent a half hour looking for the GPS I had dropped
    With the heat and the fatigue as a result of the prior days activities we decided that it just was not in the cards for today and since neither of us had ever been to Hanging Spears falls today would be the day.
    Rather than backtrack we decided to just head down the fall line to the Opalescent. We reached a point were the cliff wall was able to be down-climbed and we proceeded to do so.
    The water levels in the high peaks right now have to be the lowest I have ever scene and once we hit the river we decided that we would take advantage of that and started a rock hop up stream.
    AS many may be aware the river flows through a virtual chasm for over a mile with cliff walls on both side over a hundred feet at times. It was surreal to be standing in the river bed looking up at these massifs, something that can not be easily done when the river is at regular levels.
    The thought was that we are gaining elevation so at some point the river and the land should start to level out, obviously it doesn't, had we been to Hanging Spears falls before we would have known this.
    Rather than work our way into a really tough spot we found a section of cliff wall that showed promise as a bail out route. We ascended vertically and found our self back on the trail in no time.
    We completed the route to the Flowed Lands out the Calamity brook trail and then the short road walk back toe the East River TH.
    Long walk, nice day great company
    "Climbing is about freedom. There's no prize money; there are no gold medals. The mountains are all about going there to do what you want to do. That's why I'll never tell anyone else how to climb. All I can say is, This is how I prefer to do it."
    Ed Viesturs

  • #2
    Sounds like your years of experience with Neil is paying off. As for the lost GPS, what is it with you, the last time we hiked together you lost an ice axe and your wallet.

    Anyway, sounds like a decent day.
    What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

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    • #3
      Originally posted by RTSpoons View Post
      Sounds like your years of experience with Neil is paying off. As for the lost GPS, what is it with you, the last time we hiked together you lost an ice axe and your wallet.

      Anyway, sounds like a decent day.
      Actually I am getting better at LNT ( we found it )
      "Climbing is about freedom. There's no prize money; there are no gold medals. The mountains are all about going there to do what you want to do. That's why I'll never tell anyone else how to climb. All I can say is, This is how I prefer to do it."
      Ed Viesturs

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      • #4
        chasm

        very nice chasm hike.
        If you start at falls and rock hop down stream there is a seam in the cliffs so that you can climb out and up Clamity side and find some open rock views.
        With the low water levels anything is posible for stream wacking.
        Out and about on Sat. with Alister and NO WATER on DNCB loop all the way down to Ausable lakes. Driest I've ever seen.
        MG

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        • #5
          It was great to see the chasm of the Opalescent and Hanging Spear Falls. I hope to return to Hanging Spear sometime soon.

          Pictures from Mt Adams and the Opalescent

          Time lapse video from Mt Adams
          ADKHP Wiki

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Kyler View Post
            It was great to see the chasm of the Opalescent and Hanging Spear Falls. I hope to return to Hanging Spear sometime soon.

            Pictures from Mt Adams and the Opalescent

            Time lapse video from Mt Adams
            Totally jealous of the chasm hike. I am putting that on my list. It seems obvious that now is the time to do it with the extremely dry conditions.
            Be quick - but don't hurry. -John Wooden

            Middle age is having a choice between two temptations and choosing the one that'll get you home earlier. ~Dan Bennett

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Cory D View Post
              It seems obvious that now is the time to do it with the extremely dry conditions.
              Yeah, there was only one spot where we couldn't rock hop and had to hug a wall on the side and take a small leap of faith. It wasn't that bad though.
              ADKHP Wiki

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