Up/Down Gregory/Long Canyon/W. Ridge. Finally it feels as though Winter has arrived. A dusting at home turned into snow covered roads by Chautauqua and then several inches on the trail. Followed 3 sets of tracks up Gregory and was playing the tracking game. What kind of shoes, gait, age of tracks, is it somebody I know?, how fast are they moving, when or if I will catch them?.
I finally passed them at the top of Gregory, a group of 3 hikers with serious day packs and gear. I was still following some down tracks to the cabin and was itching to get some freshies, so I headed up Long Canyon. Damn, more down tracks, a new set laid by a duck footed hiker, male, size 11 or 12. It was snowing reasonably heavy, very peaceful though and when I topped out, I noticed a OSMP ranger truck and did the track math, figuring out who belonged to the tracks.
Coast clear, up through the woods to Super Flag, then got the freshies I was looking for on W. Ridge to Green and was surprised to be the first one to summit that morning (or at least since the snow accumulated). On the way back down, I passed the 3 well equipped hikers from earlier and the duck footed ranger laboring behind. It was fun to follow my own tracks back and critique my own prints. I definitely do not pronate or supinate and was impressed with my artwork, perfectly straight, in line and well spaced, cutting the apex just right.
Footing was REALLY crappy all day with the several inches of light snow and no base. Traction would not have worked, as you would be scraping on everything underneath, but it was slick and prime conditions to roll an ankle, so I took it super casual, especially on the descent (and even then, still managed to minorly roll my weak right ankle). An amazing morning in the snow, let's hope for more.
Splits:
56:27 up
41:59 down
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