Mendon Peak is #85 on the New England 100 Highest Listing. Situated adjoining to Mt Killington in Vermont, it’s an 8-mile out-and-back hike alongside outdated logging roads with a 2-mile bushwhack on the finish. I snowshoed it final weekend with 4 different hikers on a visit run by the Killington Part of the Inexperienced Mountain Membership.
We encountered a stunning quantity of snow on this hike. Ultimately it was stunning for me. Whereas I’ve spent a number of time in Vermont this winter, I can not for the lifetime of me, predict what the climate will probably be like alongside the west aspect of the Inexperienced Mountain Vary or discover a forecast that’s dependable sufficient to extrapolate what circumstances will probably be like. I believe the terrain has an uncanny and extremely localized impact on the climate which creates a excessive diploma of variability between areas. The one approach to cope with it’s to be ready for “something” as a result of it can seemingly occur.
So for this hike. I packed my regular winter off-trail gear checklist…which isn’t that completely different from my on-trail winter gear checklist together with microspikes, snowshoes, insulated water bottles, a pair pairs of gloves and plenty of meals.
We parked within the lot on the base of the Bucklin Path which climbs Killington and headed up an adjoining logging highway. We donned our snowshoes and stayed in them for the following 7 hours. Seamus, the journey chief, had bushwhacked Mendon beforehand so he was conversant in the route, though we nonetheless checked our smartphone navigation apps at junctions, since every part appears so completely different in winter.
A gaggle of backcountry skiers had damaged out a path forward of us, however we tried to remain out of their tracks in case they deliberate to exit by the identical route. There was a couple of foot of energy on the path, however the snow was very dry, so the going was fairly simple. No less than till we began gaining elevation up a smaller and far narrower logging highway.
The trail as much as the beginning of the bushwhack could be very simple to observe on Mendon as a result of, for good or in poor health, it’s displayed as a path in each the GaiaGPS and Caltopo Smartphone Navigation Apps. Nevertheless, the ultimate strategy shouldn’t be properly marked on these apps.
For one, there’s a false summit that’s not obvious on the topographic map: we needed to bumble round earlier than we realized it. After which, deep snow tends to make three-season routes impassible as a result of the snow weighs down vegetation and covers obstacles which are simple to keep away from when you’ll be able to see them. That’s when it helps to have a compass and a very good sense for find out how to discover openings within the forest which you could climb extra simply.
Once we realized that there was a false summit and that we had been on it, it was simple to achieve the true summit of Mendon. However after we reached the highest, we couldn’t discover the summit signal or the canister, a PVC pipe connected to a tree and containing a logbook which you could signal. We unfold out and scoured each inch of the summit searching for that signal or canister. And simply as we had been prepared to offer it up and name it a day, Seamus noticed the signal. We by no means did discover the canister although.
You don’t should signal the logbook for discover the signal to have the climb “rely” when you’re engaged on one of many peak-lists that Mendon is on. But it surely’s enjoyable to learn names within the logbook and see who’s climbed the mountain earlier than you. You’ll usually see a reputation or a buddy you acknowledge.
The day was waning and we needed to get again to our automobiles earlier than darkish. We determined to backtrack over our prints from the hike up fairly than navigate alongside a brand new route. That’s at all times a prudent course on a winter bushwhack, fairly than create and escape a brand new route filled with unknowns. The occasions I haven’t heeded that recommendation have required much more vitality than simply reversing my earlier route.
It was nonetheless a slog down the mountain once more and took hours earlier than we acquired again to the parking zone. We’d simply made it out earlier than needing to don headlamps and shortly parted firm, hoping to hike collectively once more.
