Goodnow Mountain

[wanderingspirit]

Started hike in a light snow that lasted pretty much all of the hike. Trail up to fire tower from parking area is VERY ICY all of the way with several areas of hard water ice covered by a light dusting of snow. I made the climb with stabilicers which proved adequate for most of the hike but were just barely so on a couple of short icy pitches, and not so good on one particular little ice "ledge" covered by hard water ice were I took a nasty spill. I learned a couple of painful lessons, the most important of which are; do not underestimate any mountain, even one as small and as "easy" as Goodnow, they all can be dangerous, especially in winter; make sure you have the right tool for the job (crampons in this case). I also learned just how dangerous a fall on the ice on even a moderate slope can be, once I fell I was just along for the ride, and there was NO way of controlling the slide. Luckily I didn't slide far or crash into anything and came away with just one heck of a sore elbow and a hole in one of my fingers where I was impaled by a stick (as a side note, those Leatherman tools are great, the pliers worked perfectly for removing the stick from my finger). Oh well, good lesson learned in my short hiking "Career".

Besides the fall the hike was very nice, not too cold or windy, but the clouds and light snow conspired to keep the surrounding mountains veiled, and there were really no views to be had. There are several areas of blow down, including one very large pine tree which I had to crawl under but all of the other areas can be easily walked around.

Now I'm off to nurse my sore elbow, and check out some web sites for crampons. Happy hiking!