Bearpen & Vly 3/2/13

[Jon]

So I was supposed to go hiking with a few people but everyone bailed. I was headed up to Bearpen and Vly for my 3500 progress. I read about it on this website and looked for exactly where to park. I decided to go from the south from Rt.3 and go to Vly first. These were climb 35 and 36 for me.



Right when I got there I noticed that there was a lot of snow. In NJ there hasn't been snow on the ground for over 3 weeks, and I didn't have my snowshoes with me! I brought the crampons in case it started getting slippery and I started up the snowmobile trail.

Bearpen from the trail


The trail was well used, there were snowshoers ahead of me, and 4-6 snowmobiles buzzing around the mountains.


The cabin through the trees


The pictures I have are deceptive. I was following snowshoers, so the snow only looks to be a few inches deep. It about 1-2 feet deep though, and the snowshoers ahead of me just weren't sinking as much as I was. I could sort of stay on top if I moved fast and stepped where they did, but it was slow going.


A shot of Bearpen through the trees as I climbed up vly


The rime was nice.




Vly canister


After I went down past the cabin I just followed the snowmobile tracks up Bearpen






My right leg sunk in up to my knee, and my left is on top of the snow. Sometimes I would just hit a soft patch and sink.






On top of Bearpen I didn't get much of a view since a snow cloud was moving in and it was flying low




Around the summit the snowmobilers came to congregate. I didn't stick around for long, there was no view I just took a couple more pictures, ate my lunch and headed back down.




Vly from the trail down

[TrunksWD]

Great shots as always. You must be getting close to finishing. I was in the Catskills on Tuesday and it was at most a few inches of snow. If I do go one day this coming week I'll probably have to get my snowshoes out of my buddies car.

[Jon]

Thanks trunks. Yah almost done only 3 left. Sherill Northdome and Grahm. Hopefully I'll be done by April. =)

And as Mike said in the other post....def bring both. There has been no snow down here in NJ but it's still full on winter in the mountains. I was sinking too much yesterday. It was over 2 feet deep in some places.

I much rather would have had my snowshoes. I had taken them out of my car when I had mechanic work done on it and forgot them in my garage. I'm just so used to them always being in the trunk. Now they're staying in my trunk until June!