billysinc
03-22-2008, 07:25 PM
With all the talk about insane winds we decided to hike Mt. Flume by the Osseo trail. We figured it's location would be pretty sheltered from anything big. We got a little bit of a late start due to the traffic coming through Boston but we finally got underway at 10:00am.
The LW trail was well packed out and even with snow shoes took under a half hour to reach the Osseo trailhead. Once on Osseo we had to break through the 4 or so inches of fresh powder that fell the night before and the lower section went quickly. The winds so far weren't anything to even worry about and it looked like our plan had payed off. Once we got to the switchbacks the winds picked up some and it began snowing or at least it seemed like it was snowing, who knows. Once we got about half way up the switchbacks it became ever more difficult to follow the trail. Any evidence of a trail was gone and the blazes were getting tougher and tougher to find. A couple of times we got off track but managed to find our way by turning around and looking at the backsides of trees for blazes. Judging by the amount of time we were chewing up we decided that we would turn around by 3:00 whether we reached the top or not. We finally reached an area somewhere near where the ladders should be when we could no longer find the trail. My altimeter read just over 4000 feet and we were in a section of steep snow that was loosely drifted waist deep. I tried going up and just found myself gaining a couple of feet then sliding back the same. The wind was now cranking and the visibility was going away quickly with all the blowing snow, the temp was hovering at 10 degrees. The other thing that was happening was that our tracks were filling in quickly as well. I searched the area a little bit more but I couldn't find anything that looked like a trail anywhere except straight up. Jay searched the area just below my position with no luck as well. Even though it was only 1:30 we decided that going on from there not knowing exactly where we were going and with no visibility and high winds was just not safe so we ended it there. My guess is that the steep section I was on had a ladder buried under it which would explain the lack of blazes. The trip down was quick with ever increasing winds. This time it just wasn't meant to be but even though we didn't reach the top we still had a great time instead of hanging out in our cubes at work.
I didn't get too many pictures, I'll try to post what I got soon.
The LW trail was well packed out and even with snow shoes took under a half hour to reach the Osseo trailhead. Once on Osseo we had to break through the 4 or so inches of fresh powder that fell the night before and the lower section went quickly. The winds so far weren't anything to even worry about and it looked like our plan had payed off. Once we got to the switchbacks the winds picked up some and it began snowing or at least it seemed like it was snowing, who knows. Once we got about half way up the switchbacks it became ever more difficult to follow the trail. Any evidence of a trail was gone and the blazes were getting tougher and tougher to find. A couple of times we got off track but managed to find our way by turning around and looking at the backsides of trees for blazes. Judging by the amount of time we were chewing up we decided that we would turn around by 3:00 whether we reached the top or not. We finally reached an area somewhere near where the ladders should be when we could no longer find the trail. My altimeter read just over 4000 feet and we were in a section of steep snow that was loosely drifted waist deep. I tried going up and just found myself gaining a couple of feet then sliding back the same. The wind was now cranking and the visibility was going away quickly with all the blowing snow, the temp was hovering at 10 degrees. The other thing that was happening was that our tracks were filling in quickly as well. I searched the area a little bit more but I couldn't find anything that looked like a trail anywhere except straight up. Jay searched the area just below my position with no luck as well. Even though it was only 1:30 we decided that going on from there not knowing exactly where we were going and with no visibility and high winds was just not safe so we ended it there. My guess is that the steep section I was on had a ladder buried under it which would explain the lack of blazes. The trip down was quick with ever increasing winds. This time it just wasn't meant to be but even though we didn't reach the top we still had a great time instead of hanging out in our cubes at work.
I didn't get too many pictures, I'll try to post what I got soon.