Hilary, Wendy, Debbie, Krista
 |
| Dix Summit shot |
 |
| Frozen hair! |
The goal of this trip was to bag
Hough, one of Hilary's remaining six 46'
ers. I needed both Dix and
Hough so I jumped at the chance to accompany this group of women (all members of the Ottawa
ACC) and try to bag 2. We drove down from Ottawa on a Friday and stayed at the hostel in Keene Valley. We had to go in from Round Pond as the Elk Lake entrance is still closed for hunting season. I was eager to try out my new hiking boots,icers, and GPS. I got a pair of
ASOLO boots to replace my defective
Zamberlans (thanks
GORETEX!) and I also bought a
Garmin GPS Map 60
CSX after our Big Slide hike. I like to know what elevation you are at and this GPS seems to do the trick.
 |
| The girls at the bottom of the slide after retreating |
We started from the parking lot at 7:40am and got to the lean-to in 2 hours. The trail up to the slide was partially snow covered and the ground beneath the snow was frozen mud, making the footing very uneven. There were many open brooks to cross. The slide trail was very
icey, snow covered, and STEEP! The snow continued to fall and was so heavy there was zero
visibility of anything around us. On the ridge up to the top of Dix the wind picked up so we took a break to add on another layer. On the summit the wind was so horrible that at times we had to be down on all fours. Headed over the summit of Dix to the
Beckhorn (a peculiar outcropping of rock) and were unable to find the
herdpath over to
Hough even though we had Debbie with us whose done it before! We decided to retreat down as the conditions and
visibility made it almost impossible to continue. Upon our return across the summit we were lucky to experience a few glimpses of sunlight enabling us to see the valley below. I learned a lot on this hike, like not using a bladder past Halloween, and bringing more gloves for my frozen digits. Bagging one peak was the safe thing to do on this day.
Total time 10.5hours, 22km, 5300ft of elevation gain.
 |
| Debbie and Wendy with the Beckhorn in the background |
 |
| Bizzare conditons on the summit |
 |
| Debbie on the way up past the lean-to |
 |
| The one view of the valley we got all day! |
