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Cornell & Wittenberg Bushwhack - 5/31/2012

Balsam Cap, Breath, Cornell, Cross, East Wildcat, Friday, Garfield, Giant Ledge, Hanover, Lone, Panther, Peekamoose, Pleasant, Rocky, Romer, Samuals Point, Slide, Table, Terrace, Van Wyck, Wittenberg, Wildcat, Woodhull
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TobiasTicetonyk
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:55 pm
Location: Wittenberg (Home) / Missoula (School)
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Cornell & Wittenberg Bushwhack - 5/31/2012

Unread post by TobiasTicetonyk »

I like these pictures so here they go.

I grew up in Wittenberg, always looking up past Ticetonyk & Tobias at Wittenberg & Cornell looming over. I've explored that area pretty extensively, but I figured it would be nice to hike up Cornell straight up the ridge from Moon Haw. It was extremely steep and never seemed to end. At ~2500'amsl the slope ended and the terraces began, marked by a very nice high elevation hemlock grove. From there, the hike was more like an endless scramble. It's a challenging and rewarding way up. It leads to some "secret" cliffs on cornell, seen easily from Slide, that the trail doesn't lead to. The cliffs have a very nice view, where in one turn of the head one can see from the end of the Ashokan, past every other mountain the Slide mtn. area, to Panther and the Devil's Path beyond. There is another ledge, in the proximity of the conglomerate rock on the trail, that also has a very nice unbroken view. It has another large boulder balancing precariously on an edge, and a long cliff stretching along the northwestern slope of Cornell's summit.

From there, I strolled to the top of Wittenberg, then tried to figure out where the absolute steepest part of Bruin's Causeway began. I think I found it, and just started going straight down. A short while later I was contemplating going back up, down the trail, and to any telephone in Woodland Valley. I turned my head around... no way I'm going back up that. So I continued down, and down, and down. The "hike" down was more like a sustained controlled fall. I just kept grabbing paper birch and mountain ash and swinging my body around them. Kind of like mogul skiing. Eventually, I got to the point where I could see eye level with the canopy, and I knew I was making progress. I kept tumbling, made it to reasonably pitched slope, took a breather, and out of nowhere I came across a rock cairn. I looked around, and saw another. I walked to that one... and saw another.. and another... all the way back on what seemed to be an old trail, leading to an old road that went on for quite a while, back to the strange area that looks like it used to be a trailhead but is now some sort of woodland retreat for the megalopolis.

Old yellow birch always have such great personality.
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Getting up there...
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Part of the way up, a nice view of Balsam Cap and Friday
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What now?
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There were 4 main terraces to the top of Cornell like this. This is all after endless other little ledges.
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Out of focus but I still like it.
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I wanted to get up to this ledge so badly, but just couldn't find a safe way there. Would have had an amazing view of Wittenberg.
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Old imprint
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Finally on some sort of ledge looking over everything - still a couple hundred feet below the summit
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The next few cliff photos are the last ridge of Cornell. It's Cornell's Cap. West Kill has one too... but anyway, this cliff band goes around the entire summit. It's the same strata with the Cornell Crack. It's the same strata as the views looking at Slide. It's... Cornell's Cap.
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The following pictures are from the "secret cliff"
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The balancing rock on the north side of Cornell
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The new balsamz needles
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paper birch and its glorious ground stratum associates
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hobblebush
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shiny goldthread
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Above the crack
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Looking down to the tiny insignificant little beaverkill valley between the two guardians
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And one from Wittenberg
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A much needed spring on the way down... my only picture from the way down
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I hope I didn't break any computers with this many pictures


More to come.
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mike
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:20 pm
Location: Ravena, NY

Re: Cornell & Wittenberg Bushwhack - 5/31/2012

Unread post by mike »

I have had some friends take the same route. Quite difficult and challenging. You had some great pictures. No problem with the pictures.

There is another way that comes out east of Wittenberg Mtn.
Nasrettin Hoca
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:50 am

Re: Cornell & Wittenberg Bushwhack - 5/31/2012

Unread post by Nasrettin Hoca »

Didn't break mine! Very nice. There's that house that corks the way in from Moon Haw that I found a pain in the a$$. New mud slide. But I guess you went straight up the ridge?

Strange, I was up in Connecticut yesterday and a lot of the leaves were already changing colour.
AntLive
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:40 pm
Location: Long Island

Re: Cornell & Wittenberg Bushwhack - 5/31/2012

Unread post by AntLive »

New too forum. Wanted to say that the pics look great. I'm going to Giant Ledge this weekend. With the possible rain I hope I can get some pics that look as good as yours.
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