Trailmaster Peak, Kearsarge Peak, Mammoth Mtn Closing Day

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Snow Nymph
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Trailmaster Peak, Kearsarge Peak, Mammoth Mtn Closing Day

Post by Snow Nymph »

Saturday, 31 May 2008 (Day 2 of 3)
Kearsarge Mine trail to Kearsarge Peak, and down Lily Pass.

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/50 ... 0254_aAVQJ

TomG met me at Onion Valley, and after setting up a car shuttle, we headed up the Kearsarge Mine Trail. A lot of it was overgrown, but we managed to keep climbing til we hit snow and lost the trail (it was steep, and we didn’t have snow gear). So we hiked straight up, using rocks as steps to avoid cold feet. I was warm, but feet were frozen. After reaching the wrong ridge, we descended and ascended to the right one. The rocky summit ridge was covered with snow, so we had to be careful not to posthole or slip. It was a long (time-wise) but beautiful hike to the summit. TomG had to dig to find the register box. We descended towards Lily Pass, traversing across some beautiful untouched snow. TomG postholed crotch deep once (and he’s 6’4”), so I probably would have gone in to my neck! He bashed his knee twice and I bashed my shin postholing. We scree skiid down Lily pass. TomG learned to boot glissade and had a blast. We made our way down the snow covered Golden Trout trail, no tracks to follow so we went by memory. It was a pretty awesome day to be out in the Sierra! Perfect weather, NO altitude issues (yay!), beautiful scenery in every direction and great company!

We followed the Kearsarge mine trail til we hit snow. Great scenery all around
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Snow covered the trail, so we went straight up
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Views just got better as the day went on
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View of Kearsarge Pass trail, Gilbert Lake
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Snow on the ridge made it a little interesting to get across
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Some climbing
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Some postholing
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Some traversing
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Finally on the summit
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Back via Lily Pass
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Soft but steep dirt on Lily Pass
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Some glissading
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Showed TomG how to boot glissade, he loved it!
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Great reflections by the meadow
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Great day!
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free . . . . Jim Morrison


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copeg
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Re: Trailmaster Peak, Kearsarge Peak, Mammoth Mountain Closing D

Post by copeg »

Sweet TR and photos! Looks like a blast, love that last photo :nod:
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Snow Nymph
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Re: Trailmaster Peak, Kearsarge Peak, Mammoth Mtn Closing Day

Post by Snow Nymph »

Thanks, Greg! Credit goes to Tom Gossett for pix of me. All day long he kept saying "you're gonna like that one!" The whole day was scenic!

I just noticed TomGs photos don't have my watermark. I just switched to a Mac, so I'm using iPhoto instead of Photoshop.
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free . . . . Jim Morrison


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Snow Nymph
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Re: Trailmaster Peak, Kearsarge Peak, Mammoth Mtn Closing Day

Post by Snow Nymph »

Friday, 30 May 2008 (Day 1 of 3)
Horseshoe Meadow to Trailaster Peak (12,336')

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/50 ... 6234_MBkcP


Last minute change in plans got me on the road late Thurs night. I had to pull over before Horseshoe Mdw to sleep, then drove the rest of the way in the morning. I knew from the first 5 minutes it would be a long day. Maybe its from driving from sea level to almost 10K with only a few hours of sleep? As long as I move slow I'll be ok. I left the Cottonwood Lakes trail and headed up into the trees, heading for the saddle NE of Trailmaster Peak. I made my way around the snow, and coyote tracks would appear in the snow on and off. I eventually got to the summit and found the register (buried in snow). No one had been up since our group last October. After 40 min I headed back, following my GPS tracks. It was a beautiful day to be out!

Pretty trees on the hike up
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Trailmaster from the meadow
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Sundog over Trailmaster, from the saddle
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Cirque, Whitney and Langley from Trailmaster
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Wooleyback and Cottonwood Lakes from Trailmaster
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More dead trees
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