BEAVER BROOK CASCADES: 2/5/15

On a cold and windy Thursday, I teamed up with Linda Moore for a late afternoon snowshoe climb up along the Beaver Brook Trail and its snow-buried cascades. Near the bottom we met three young guys who had just skied/snowboarded the cascades. It was amazing to see what they had come down.

The wind was whipping at the top of Kinsman Notch and the temperature was 8 above. The Whites are in deep winter mode right now.

 

I always enjoy the classic Dartmouth Outing Club sign at the bottom of the climb.

These are the three guys who had ripped it up on the cascades.

They had swooped down the first cascade.

Snowshoeing up the steep trail alongside the cascades.

The top of the first cascade.

Where the terrain briefly eases off, we headed out onto the brookbed and followed the skiers' tracks upstream for a ways.

A soft spot gave way under Linda just after I had crossed it - yikes!.

There was cold water underneath, but luckily no harm was done save for some heavy slush on Linda's snowshoes.

The skiers skirted this pool in the brook. We went back up to the trail here.

The snow was deep off-trail. Bushwhacking is quite arduous in these conditions, with more snow soon to come.

An impressive snow load on this blowdown.

The skiers' tracks on the next cascade.

On this near-vertical pitch the snow was sloughed off. This is always the trickiest spot on the trail. We would have had to take our snowshoes off and kick some uncertain steps to reach that rebar above, or use crampons (which we didn't bring).When I climbed Moosilauke this way last winter, I used a steep bypass through the woods to the left. But with knee-deep powder that looked uninviting, so we opted to make a bypass along the right edge of the cascade.

We crossed the brook on a shelf and had a good look at the skiers' route below.

A side view of the cascade.

We made a brief detour through the woods, then climbed along the edge of the cascade.

From the flat spot at the top of the cascade, looking upstream.

We continued up the trail, then edged out to the brook again where it splits into a twin cascade. The left one was untracked.

Instead, they dropped over the more precipitous cascade on the right. Are you kidding me?

A zoom on the top of the drop, complete with ice flows under the snow and a nasty-looking hole.

We continued up to a favorite spot where the brook levels off for a short distance, with the tallest of the cascades visible upstream.

Downstream, a view of the Dilly Cliffs over the brink of a drop.

Back on the brook. This was our turnaround point since it was almost 4:30 pm.

Back down the trail on a great snowshoe track. And thanks to the skiers for breaking the track out on their way up.

I scooted onto the brook at another spot and looked up at the skiers' rollicking line.

Scar Ridge in the distance beyond the Monkey Cliffs.

The skiers' view at the top of the big drop on the twin cascade.

Our route across the brook at the base of the next cascade downstream.

Ice flow at the top of the lowest cascade.

Cold light in the hardwoods at the end of the day. It was a short outing (1 1/2 miles round trip), but a wonderful adventure exploring the cascades, which are more accessible in deep winter when the slippery ledges are buried in snow. Kudos to the skiers and snowboarder!

BEAVER POND CLIFF: 2/3/15

After morning snow shoveling and other tasks, I had the afternoon free and took a snowshoe ramble in Kinsman Notch, across Beaver Pond and up to a clifftop with a good bird's eye view. Spent a few hours plowing through knee-deep powder -- a good workout!

From the Beaver Brook Trail near the trailhead I cut through the woods to the south end of Beaver Pond, where there was a peek at South Kinsman looming in the distance.

Crags rising above Beaver Pond.The cliff I bushwhacked to is on the right end of the foreground ridge.

Some day I hope to visit those upper cliffs. I call this upthrust "Jakey's Crag," after Jakey McGraw, woods boss for the Gordon Pond logging railroad in the early 1900s. McGraw rigged up a drum  and cable setup to lower logs down off the steep slopes behind the cliffs.

Looking across the pond to the next ridge to the north.

Deep pristine powder in the woods.

There was serious snow depth in some of the open spots. The trail-breaking was slow and laborious.

A glimpse of that rugged ridge to the north.

Steep climbing up through the softwoods. The trade-off was a somewhat lesser snow depth.

The final approach to the clifftop. From the parking area this route was only about a mile, but it took two hours plus to get here.

From the open clifftop, looking across at Mt. Waternomee. Although the temperature was in the single numbers, there was no wind and I was able to enjoy an extended break here.

Beaver Pond and Kinsman Notch, with Rt. 112 running through it.

The bog at the south end of the pond.

In the other direction, Mt. Wolf is the triple-peaked mountain on the far left.

A more centered view of the notch.

Mt. Tecumseh and Sandwich Dome fill the horizon.

A good dropoff below.

On the way down, I found a new (for me) little viewpoint with a good look at South Kinsman.

The same vista, with a Black-Capped Chickadee stopping by for a brief visit.

The steep buttress rising above the Stark Falls Brook valley.

Down through the powder.

Heavy going in the hardwoods.

Beaver Pond with dusk drawing on.