[at-l] Katahdin

["Derek Dresser" <derek@neis.net>]

Hello all,

I spent the holiday weekend up in Baxter State Park.  I was with a 
party of four and we hit the trail at Abol Bridge.  We spent two 
nights at Abol campground.   It was crystal clear and the 
temperatures were well below zero at night.  Nice crisp sunny days 
though.  On sunday, we headed up Abol slide.   The slide was steep, 
frozen snow, and it was a cold sunny day.  Pretty much perfect 
conditions.  Even so, that mountain demands respect, especially in 
the winter.  We were decked out with crampons, ice axes, and roped up 
about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the slide.  It wasn't particularly technical, 
but there were two fairly inexperienced people on the trip, and it 
made sense to rope up.  A few weeks ago, a climber fell 800 feet on 
Abol slide when he tripped on his own crampon.  We helped to 
haul out a bunch of gear this weekend that the rescue party left 
behind.  

We made it up to the Tablelands at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  It 
was very sunny, but frigid and windy.   The whole mountain was white 
with rhime ice.  It was quite a sight to behold.  From there, it was 
pretty much a straight shot to the summit.  We decided to head down 
though becuase one of the new climbers was wiggin' a little and 
moving very slowly and we wanted to get everyone down the slide 
before dark.

All in all, I couldn't imagine a better way to spend Presidents day 
weekend.  I am starting a through hike in Georgia on May 1, and 
hopefully the next time I am at Katahdin will be September or October 
at the end of my hike.

Later, 
Derek
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