It was Black Friday and I had no desire to do any shopping. The weather looked OK for hiking and after waking up at 6:30am I decided to head for the Goose Creek Mountains south of Twin Falls. Unsure about the snow conditions in the area (Magic Mountain Ski Area reported 6" of snow) I was hoping I could get close enough to my destination. The road into the mountains was snow covered but fortunately with decent tread from other vehicles having packed down the snow somewhat. The Escape made it up until the road started to get steep roughly 2.5 miles from Monument Peak - close enough!
My trip consisted of snowshoeing from the vehicle up to Monument Peak (both summits), then over to Trapper Peak, thence to Flatiron Mountain. Conditions were decent - temperatures in the 40s, overcast, with a light wind. Other than worrying about a lack of daylight, it was a pleasant day for snowshoeing on roads, ATV trails, and a little bit of cross-country terrain. Of course, most of the ridge tops were free of snow so I had to take the snowshoes off on several occasions. The area, normally known for being overrun with ATVs and snowmobiles, was actually pretty quiet. The only people I saw were woodcutters looking for Christmas trees!
Summiting all three peaks enabled me to reach my goal of climbing 25 peaks in 2009. Now I can be lazy for all of December :-)
Goose Creek Snowshoeing Pictures!
Trip statistics: 14 miles, 2600' elevation gain, 5.5 hours
Thursday, December 3, 2009
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4 comments:
So what is the summit goal for 2010?
4
I think I'll stick with 25 once again. It was also my goal for 2008 (which was exceeded with 28).
Why don't you try to match up with the 2008 achievement rather than lolling around? Should one not try to exceed previous goals met?? Whatever.. better than my 0 peaks!
I think Katie feels like I'm gone enough already :-)
Plus by following that rationale I would target my 2002 record of 56 peaks... ain't gonna happen!
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