[at-l] Boy Scout Debate

[Bob C." <ellen@clinic.net (Bob C.)]

If  Max was mistaken and they had started in early May, not June, and the season
was  so  cold  that  they waded through a lot of drifted snow through Maine, the
scouts almost certainly did not start on Katahdin.

Remember,  that in 1936 no plowed roads lead to Katahdin. A May start would have
required  driving  through 35 miles of unplowed drifts. June would not have been
easier.  Mud  season  would have been underway. The nearest tarred road ended at
Millinocket.  Baxter Park was still partly a dream. Only the clients of a couple
of  sporting camps had any reason to approach Katahdin. My guess is most arrived
at the mountain by horse and carriage.

Also until the snow and ice of winter disappear from most Maine trails, Katahdin
tends to be a technical climb, not a hike. "Prepared" Scouts should have carried
ice axes, worn crampons, and used rope protection.

A  final  note in the interests of accuracy. Once winter breaks, the packed snow
that Max seems to be describing, rarely is found on the open summits and ridges.
Rather it is found on shaded slopes, protected from the sun and warming winds.

I  once  found the conditions Max describes along the southern shore of Crawford
Pond,  north of Whitecap. One May we were scouting ways to keep four-wheel drive
pickups  off  one  of the ponds sand beaches and discovered wet drifts five feet
deep  where the AT skirts the shore. Winter storms, sweeping across the lake had
evidently built up a huge mound of snow -- enough to last well into late spring.

Weary