Kathdin in Winter

Four days at Chimney Pond in February

The phone rang Friday morning at 7:00 am. “Hey, Alex. Want to go to Katahdin for four days? We need to leave in six hours.” A friend had paid for an avalanche safety class and now he was sick.

I said “no.” There was no way I could rearrange my schedule to make it. Well. Maybe there was a way.

Calls were made. Packing began. Menus were planned. It was going to be cold, wasn’t it? This was a chance that wouldn’t come again any time soon.

Driving to Abol Bridge, the end of the road on the way to Mount Katahdin.

Getting to Baxter State Park and on to the mountain of Katahdin is a chore no matter what time of year you go. Baxter State Park is in central Maine, geographically, but farther north than almost all of the state’s population and by extension all of New England’s, guaranteeing hours of driving from basically everywhere. It is tough to get camping reservations in the summer and in winter the roads are all closed. The ski into Chimney Pond is a long day pulling a sled if you are fast, but most take two days to get there.

Snowmobiling from Abol Bridge to Roaring Brook. Hours of skiing reduced to one hour of hanging on to the back of a snowmobile.

The avalanche class was being offered to Baxter State Park rangers as well as the paying public, which meant the rangers carried us all in on snowmobiles as far as Roaring Brook campground, the end of the road in the summer. the trail from there is as wide as a snowmobile and climbs 1,600 feet in 3.3 miles. Enough to remind me that I am out of shape.

Practicing beacon search and rescue at Chimney Pond.

2014 has been a low snow year so far. There were a few rain storms in early January, destroying the existing snowpack and leaving a base of hard ice. Thankfully, there has been some snow since then, but not a lot. There was Enough snow to play in, yes. A little more wouldn’t hurt.

Booting up to the Saddle on tough wind-slab.

Over four days the temperature never climbed above 10-degrees Fahrenheit. Which made digging holes in the snow a warm, welcome change to facing uphill into the wind. Plus, the deeper the test pit, the better it worked at blocking the wind.

Digging a test pit below the Saddle.

The snowpack was stable and fairly shallow, so hunkering down was welcome and wind-free.

Sixty-mile-per-hour winds blow clouds across the south ridge of Katahdin on a -5 degree morning.

The ski down the mountain was smooth-going, following a stream bed back to the trail below Chimney Pond.

The last evening, as the temperature dropped below zero, the moon shone through thin clouds gathered around the mountain.

Plotting snow charts to help determine snow stability.

After skiing down a trail narrower than our ski-length, we reversed our snowmobile ride and watch as the sun set and alpenglow was reflected off the mountain onto the frozen ponds below. The heat of the car was a welcome change and a fast food coffee fuel for the drive back south, where double digit temperatures felt downright balmy.