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NEK Backcounty 3/27/14

from_the_NEK

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Note that all of the pictures here are of the friend that I talked into going late Wednesday evening. He has no touring gear so I let him borrow my snowshoes. From past experience I knew the slowshoes might be an issue up there, but as it turns out they weren't (I'll explain later).

We started the approach at 9:45. Sun was beating down.
Reached base of the main gully at 10:00. Sun was still beating down and looking at the view up the gully, you could tell it was getting baked.
Also looking up the gully I could tell it had slid at some point as the lumpy debris piles were evident on the lower 1/4 of the gully. Additionally you could see the crown at the bottom of the frozen waterfall. There was only 2-4 inches of fresh snow above the old weak layer (which I believe is the thin crust from the brief weekend thaw we had before the big storm. The 20+ inches of snow from that big storm were definitely not in the gully but coverage was still pretty good. We tried to skin/snowshoe up in the trees adjacent to the gully but the steep terrain and trees made maneuvering difficult and tiresome. We finally ditched the skin/shoe approach in favor of booting up the shallower/consolidated snow in the gully. You can see the crown below the icefall here.



The sun had baked the snow pretty hard and it was decidedly not powder. However, it was great some spring style mashed potatoes turns. That couple of inches of fresher snow on top slid away easily so we had to do a bit of slough management on the way down.



Since we had a boot ladder established we went back up and traversed across to another zone. Great turns were had here too. With similar peal away/sloughing mashed potatoes.





To avoid the manky piles of potatoes that had built up below us, we jumped into the adjacent trees and found the best turns of the day.





I'm good and sore this morning. I forget how much of a PITA the climb to the top of that gully is.
 
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Nice work NEK! Very aesthetic line, what with the frozen waterfalls and all. You'd think there would be ice climbers crawling all over those routes.
 

from_the_NEK

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Nice work NEK! Very aesthetic line, what with the frozen waterfalls and all. You'd think there would be ice climbers crawling all over those routes.
Difficulty of access likely keeps the climbers away. The falls are only between 60-70' tall (estimate). There is much bigger and easier to get to ice elsewhere in the area.
 
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jaysunn

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Those are Awesome falls, Are they free flowing during the melt? Do you know the names of them? Seems to be 2 directly feeding the same runout. Also, you mention NEK backcountry, is this NH presidentials? Is that even in the NEK? Dead serious questions.



Jaysunn
 

from_the_NEK

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There really isn't a lot of slope above the falls to create enough flow for a real free flowing waterfall. Maybe during a large rain event or during a rapid melt. The two falls do converge into the main gully about 75-100 vertical feet below the cliff base.




When I say NEK back country, I mean NEK back country. I’m not quite sure what you are asking about regarding the Presidentials? Are you asking if the Presidentials are in the NEK?
 

jacknoir

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Just answer his friggin' question. You are talking about vermont's northeast kingdom. Correct?
 

jacknoir

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Have a little consideration for people who don't speak your insider lingo.
 

from_the_NEK

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Have a little consideration for people who don't speak your insider lingo.
"NEK" is hardly insider lingo. :rolleyes: And don't think I'm trying to be crafty about not spilling the beans on a backcountry area by stating that it is in an area that is three counties wide by talking about it being in the "NEK". If Jaysunn really didn't know what "NEK" means, then he should have stated his question more clearly. For example: "What does "NEK" mean?". Rather than asking some multi-pointed convoluted question that included something about the White Mountains. Apparently, I misunderstood his question? In the age of Google, searching "NEK" and figuring out what result makes sense should be pretty easy (2nd result down for me).
 
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Cannonball

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For jaysunn. (My apologies to from_the_NEK for letting this huge secret out of the bag).....

vermontmap.jpg

Also for jaysunn, since you mentioned in another thread about heading to the Presidentials to hit Cannon.
nh.jpg

Hope this helps!
 

jacknoir

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Maybe you would have been less sensitive if I hadn't said "friggin." But you were the one copping an attitude. I'll let you have the last word though, because I can tell your ego needs that.
 
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Well, that took a turn for the bizarre.

I don't even live in the Excited States and I have known what "NEK" means, for, well, forever. And I am older than Scot Schmidt.

Not Even Kidding.
 
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