Grindstone Mountain

Trip Date: 6/28/14
Weather: Cloudy, foggy, scattered showers, high of 40F at summit.

We had a strong group, which was crucial, as the chilly & wet weather only allowed for short breaks before getting chilled.

There was massive avalanche damage that had obliterated a stretch of trail from 5,000’ to 5,300’. A new path had been marked through the debris with orange flagging, which minimized time delay of routefinding through this section. Snow was encountered at 6,200 – the point where we turned off-trail. The snow was firm, but not hard.

After crossing the 7,000’ saddle and dropping 100’ on heather onto the west side of the north ridge, we encountered snow for basically the entire rest of the trip. The first portion of the snow was a horizontal traverse. While this section could certainly have been done without crampons, we used crampons for an extra measure of security, as with cliffs below, an uncontrolled fall on this section would be extremely serious. The group seemed to concur that crampons were a good idea.

Approaching the summit, the fog thickened, making it difficult to find the summit. The snow was present almost the entire way to the summit. Conditions on the summit were quite wet, windy & chilly; we did not stay long.

Good glissades on the east side of the 7,000’ saddle. Scattered showers on the trail descent.