TR: Song of Katahdin

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Song of Katahdin

ml242

On the second day we reach the rock,

Lynchdogger, D-Roc, Brian, Moops

carved out by hard centuries of ice,

Brian, Lynchdogger

suffocated by snow,

Cat in January, ml242

pelted with rain,

Lynchdogger

and blistered by a pitiless wind.

Brian, D-Roc

The Penobscots feared to crawl into its maw,


and climb the grizzled fangs,

Cat in January, ml242

but ours is a race guided by folly,

Brian

trusting Pamola to be kind,

Brian, VTFreeheel, ml242

and grant us moments of illumination,


while beckoning us toward the sky.


So climb we do,

ml242, Cat in January

higher,

VTFreeheel

much higher,

D-Roc, Cat in January, Lynchdogger

taking shelter along the way,

Brian, Moops, Lynchdogger

crawling through cruxes,

Brian, ml242

proceeding higher yet,

ml242, Cat in January

into the clouds,


and out the other side,

ml242, VTFreeheel, Brian

to the realm of the gods.

ISBD

Would our waxen wings hold strong,

ml242

anchoring us o’er the abyss?

ml242

Or would we teeter,

Cat in January

and plummet,

Cat in January

toward sharpening cliffs?

Cat in January

Would we carrom,

D-Roc

off granite,

Lynchdogger

basalt,

Brian

and rhyolite?

VTFreeheel

With no clear path,

D-Roc

we aim toward the light,

D-Roc

careening along corridors,

Lynchdogger

of frozen turquoise.

Lynchdogger

continued...

[I've seen black diamonds!]

We find ourselves floating,

D-Roc

sinking,

D-Roc

knifing,

Jack

slashing,

Lynchdogger

speed our only offering,

D-Roc

our presence our homage,

Lynchdogger

to this wild, looming place,


that dwarfs us,

Cat in January

and makes us infinite.


...Although, in the end, none of this impresses the pine marten.

pine marten

[Vt-Freeheel]

As the others have stated this trip was long in the planning and quietly came together over the winter. It certainly was an aventure and I hold many great memories of time well spent.

Prep ended with the smoking of some bacon the week before leaving. I wish I had thought to capture an image of the bacon cooking, I think we had around 150 slices total in house.



Of course this looks great, but alas the wrong side. 10 minutes into a long journey.




Lynchdogger laying down some tracks



Cat in January does the same



D-Roc Skiing ,after I fixed my bindings last year, the only holdout skiing free



After our summit we got to some skiing, ML242



Ever steady, ISBD shows us how it's done



non Mag Brian focused



Does it get any better?






D-Roc cutting off a skin flap aquired during a fight with some krumholtz, the krumholtz was victorius.

[ex-powderbroker]

ISBD summed it up perfectly, here is the longform and boring version:


Frederic Church

With a trip two years in the works, I considered myself lucky to be invited on an expedition headed by Cat In January on what was to be possibly the greatest expedition of my life. Emails circulated and a fellowship started to take place. Cat took care of the midnight run to Baxter to make sure we got primo reservation - no getting the check mailed back this year.

I cancelled any thought of flying west; one trip to rule them all. The party made a blood pact to be in the greatest shape of our lives and I would show off some pictures of maggots at the gun show right now but we decided to let ourselves go over the past couple days. Sorry ladies. Some of these guys are real Mainers and have no use for photography. Just compasses, axes, and the like.

Katahdin is a hudge contradiction. I had only seen it once while driving to the Gaspe Peninsula a couple years back, and I'm not likely to forget the view. It's a hulking monster that rises out of the plain to the east like a volcano. There isn't another town for 30 miles at a minimum. Even if you already live in Maine, it’s goddamn far; so far north that most Canadians probably think you’re crazy for going there. But for my party from NYC, it held the promise of everything life here is not and we were psyched to meet the other maggots and lay down some lines.

In typical TGR fashion, our 7:30 meetup at the trailhead was honored to a standard deviation of 1.5 hours. Baxter State Park is ruled by an idiosyncratic code related to Hammurabi’s, so a park ranger stopped by to make sure we knew what we were doing. When we dropped our TGR handles he backed off and peaced because he didn’t want any trouble.



When we finally got going we were greeted by an astonishing view of the The Greatest Mountain. A little winded, I myself had to check our location. Surely we had done three or four miles, but alas, we’d only gone somehow .75.



Katahdin is a privilige, I'm sure, in any season. But in the winter you have far more big lines than you do people. During our ski days we were the only ten people on the hill, plus the two rangers we saw.



15.5 miles to go before shelter.



Our slog continued. The 100 mile an hour winds that prevented us from taking the short-cut over the Abol slide seemed to be just over the canopy but all was still in the forest. Outside of the window of sky we had few views compared to most days outside. Slog is the only word to describe it though. Going from the private road to Chimney Pond used to be illegal in one day, and just because it's legal now doesn't make it a walk in the park. har.



...sufferfest... gliding up to the Chimney Pond cabin with 50+ pounds in a sled, me and Lynchdogger were greeted by Basin Pond at sundown.



Unfortunately, Basin Pond is not Chimney Pond. Time for more up.



The next day we were greeted by a pleasant gray Maine sky, more wind, and ominous weather. Although we had just brought what I thought were ten gallons the night before, they had gone fast and it was time to do it again.



Hopefully someone instagrapic'ed some meal shots because we ate pretty well on this trip.


Home on the range:


D-roc had offered to take out the group to do some avy recon and snow science as a refresher, and they began to dig pits and lay down lines all over the bowl. I wasn't sure about the skiing, so me and Cat and January decided to do some recon on another aspect.







The snow was really good so I put the camera away and we just kept hiking up to see what we'd find. Eventually we were thick in the clouds and at an impasse. We decided to descend.









Man, the scenery was good.



The next day we split up into two groups, more or less. Summit Team 1 and the Southern Comfort destroyers.

ISBD leads the charge to the summit:


The finest day this winter was probably the last day this winter:







Sacrificing some great lines, the tourist shot (me, brian, ISBD, VT-Freeheel):



Another world:





Slay-team 6 had fortunately already hit this ridge:



VT-Freeheel finds another route:



Cat in January, the smile says it all about this one:



This trip was a week ago, but it's still hard to wrap my head around it. Hopefully the accumulation of some of our thoughts (poems^^^) and pictures will do the mountain some justice.

[NHguy]

wow. balls. good on you

[VTColdSmoke]

fuck yeah!

[Vt-Freeheel]

Obligatory pic from the Top-O-Maine



"Victory is mine"



Scenics









"There be Dragons here"



"I'm not afraid of dragons"



Everything went really well with 10 skiers crammed into a space smaller than my living room. Wet shit was hung to dry and removed as soon as it was to open up space for more wet clothes. DO NOT load the fucking stove after dinner.





Eyes closed, eyes wide open



Everyone enjoying "family" dinner



The kitchen was always a busy place, D-Roc "It's a Royale with Cheese"



After starting the trip out with 6" of new snow and the sky dumping it changed to sleet with a fun trip on the Abol Narrows with a 40-50 mph wind doing a sleet pellet facial demabrasion and the widowmakers shaking in the air. When I got to the lot it changed to 35` pouring rain before I could get changed, good fun.

It had stopped when these trail bums rolled out 3 hours later

[splat]

FKNA. Well done, ISBD.

[Moeghoul]

Looks like an amazing a trip!

[byates1]

nice work, great place for sure.

[BFD]

looks like a great trip, way to make it happen. good to see someone sporting a real beard in the mountains.

[PlayItLeo]

FKNA!!!!! That was a fucking TR! Nice.

[peterslovo]

Beautiful...way to get after it. Katahdin and Baxter are such special places, any time of year.

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[Mike Pow]

Well that's made my day.

Many thanks.

[powbmps]

Hell yes! Great shots.

[Danno]

FKNA!!!!

[cat in january]

Strong work ISBD and ML242!

Of the original 10 who made the commitment way back in mid October, only 1 was unable to make it and was substituted for. Good times, good skiing, good food and great memories. A little bit of back country big mountain skiing in the East.

This year there were fistfuls of lines all over the place and by the time we reached them on the last weekend of March, it was good edge able snow all around.

[lynchdogger]

Amazing trip! Thanks for the effort and invite Cat. You assembled a stellar crew! The start of many more epic adventures. Great snow; sweet turns; lots of whiskey and bourbon, great food and gut wrenching laughs. Thanks to the Baxter State Park crew and your army of pine martens for hauling my sled all 33 miles. Katahdin is a special place and it was a pleasure to schuss it up and close it down with all of you.

Amazing photos and even better poetry. Long live the TR and that was a exemplary example. So sweet to be a part of such a great trip. Thanks all.

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[neufox47]

Awesome tr guys. Looks like an awesome time. I need to get up there.

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[yellofin]

Wow congrats ISBD and crew
East coast trip of the year this is what it's all about. I think I have the will and hope the stamina and I will be training this summer for a spot next year

[BigDaddy]

Awesome TR... looks like an amazing all time adventure.

Way to get after it and glad you all made it home safe...

[weasel1]

Out-friggin-standing!

[geomorph]

Nice pictures. Those couloirs look fun.

[Vinman]

Woot! Well done boys!

[moops]

It cannot be overstated...this is a destination that requires commitment and resolve. It is an arduous 16+ miles from the car to the cabin at Chimney Pond...human power is the only way to get there...unless for one reason or another the ranger takes a liking to you (they spend a lot of time alone)...VT-Freeheel, you sure got a pretty mouth ...I'm just jealous...very jealous...I can't tell you the thoughts that were going through my head when I saw the ranger go by on his snowmobile and VTFH's shit was in his sled...WTF?!?
...nobody really knows how their feet are going to react to being in ski boots, going up for 16+ miles until you do it...mine were none too happy ...I'm still balled up from the approach and slog out

The crew was awesome. There are so many lines and so little time...as a good friend of mine told me before..."Never finish business in a place you wish to return"...needless to say business is not finished.

I will however, NOT haul 130+ pounds (sled and pack) up that mountain again...I will not go with less decadence, but I will figure out a way to do it lighter...what a 12 hour beat-down...that's right it took me 12 hours to get in...that was only because of the generous efforts of Cat-in-January...Thank you again!

Moops out!