Elk Pass meadow tour

Trip date: Friday Jan 14, 2022

Submitted by Ωman

Particpants:

the unusual suspects

Discussion:

About -2 to start. Fox Creek was challenging and avoided on return. Beyond the lower hydroline junction our waxless grip improved on less altered snow. Travel through West Elk Pass meadows was OK just a little punchy and slightly upside-down trailbreaking where wind exposed. Rarely, following old tracks was tricky if settlement elevated them. Travel is very nice in sheltered meadows. Couch HQ and its wind wall are now in fine shape. Stopped to compact the Fork'n Meadow lunch'n log area. Log in still burried. Pushed track to the power line to find pole maintenance has stopped so the road is well covered and hut-goers track is meh, ok, so climbed it back to the tracksetting. A bit down Tyrwhitt to turn up East Elk Pass we found less supportive bridging but still OK. Some isolated one or two-step break-throughs which we filled in but thankfully no wallowing in the facets. We got all the way to east elk pass proper and compacted its future couch site. Returned home via Patterson Meadows, accessing by first going about fifty meters down hydroline. Elk Pass tracks were slightly more glazed on return than in the morning, so waxless may be a little frustrating there this weekend.

An owl strike print is about 20m south of the picnic table at elk pass-hydroline-tyrwhitt junction, just go down the hut-goers trail you'll see it on the right.

PS. Upload pics as JPG, not heic