lftgly
New member
On Saturday, four of us left the Cog base at 8:45AM. Because it was cooler and cloudier than earlier forecasts had predicted, we changed our plans, and skied up Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to Monroe Brook.
We had to use crampons to ascend the upper part, which was still very "firm".
I tried out my new CAMP aluminum crampons, which are 1 pound lighter than my old steel crampons (yeah!), and they worked great.
At 11AM, we ran out of snow at the top of Monroe Brook. We did our best to hike across rocks and not damage the fragile vegetation on our way to Lakes of the Clouds hut (Guy Waterman, forgive us). It was pretty windy, about 40-45MPH, out of the west-northwest. Hiked over Crawford Path to Oakes, via the rock wall boundary of Robinsons Cinquefoil protection area.
Three of us skied down the first snowfield.
Mariel traversed across to ski the main gully that runs down the top of Dry River Trail.
Then we skinned up most of the way, boot packed the rest, to ski a short, steep gully that starts near Davis Path.
At 3PM, Monroe Brook had not softened up near the top - it was like a bad day at Cannon.
About a quarter of the way down, the skiers right started to soften up. Halfway down, the whole streambed turned into nice corn snow conditions.
We were able to ski down Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail with no trouble until the last 100 yards, where we should have walked, but stubbornly sidestepped across mud and rocks to the trailhead kiosk. We were back at the cars by 4PM.
The skiing was pretty good in Oakes, though the snowpack is shrinking. Getting between Lakes of the Clouds & Monroe Brook is a problem. Monroe Brook itself was fantastic lower down, and will still offer some great turns for another week, if the snow softens up. There is little or no open water at the bottom, and someone has thoughtfully done a lot of trailwork on the exit path through the woods, which had been clogged with blowdowns from the Patriots Day storm.
We had to use crampons to ascend the upper part, which was still very "firm".
I tried out my new CAMP aluminum crampons, which are 1 pound lighter than my old steel crampons (yeah!), and they worked great.
At 11AM, we ran out of snow at the top of Monroe Brook. We did our best to hike across rocks and not damage the fragile vegetation on our way to Lakes of the Clouds hut (Guy Waterman, forgive us). It was pretty windy, about 40-45MPH, out of the west-northwest. Hiked over Crawford Path to Oakes, via the rock wall boundary of Robinsons Cinquefoil protection area.
Three of us skied down the first snowfield.
Mariel traversed across to ski the main gully that runs down the top of Dry River Trail.
Then we skinned up most of the way, boot packed the rest, to ski a short, steep gully that starts near Davis Path.
At 3PM, Monroe Brook had not softened up near the top - it was like a bad day at Cannon.
About a quarter of the way down, the skiers right started to soften up. Halfway down, the whole streambed turned into nice corn snow conditions.
We were able to ski down Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail with no trouble until the last 100 yards, where we should have walked, but stubbornly sidestepped across mud and rocks to the trailhead kiosk. We were back at the cars by 4PM.
The skiing was pretty good in Oakes, though the snowpack is shrinking. Getting between Lakes of the Clouds & Monroe Brook is a problem. Monroe Brook itself was fantastic lower down, and will still offer some great turns for another week, if the snow softens up. There is little or no open water at the bottom, and someone has thoughtfully done a lot of trailwork on the exit path through the woods, which had been clogged with blowdowns from the Patriots Day storm.
