B y Nate Higgs.
Climbing Katahdin
On March 6, the Green Mountain College Adventure Programming Office (GreenMAP) launched its first Spring Break trip, a seven day expedition to Baxter State Park in Maine. While hordes of college students chase the first warmth of the year during spring break, a group of ten rag-tag adventurers set out instead to quest for the last eastern stronghold of winter — Katahdin.
A ring-shaped cluster of four peaks, Katahdin (Mt. Baxter), at 5268 feet tall, is the tallest mountain in Maine and among the tallest on the east coast. Much of the mountain rises above treeline, and from the summit you can see the vast expanse of lakes and lesser peaks that make up central Maine. The slopes of Katahdin are ripe with ice climbs, ski lines, and hiking trails. Perhaps its largest claim to fame is its role as the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, a footpath that extends over 2000 miles to Springer Mt., Georgia.
The students who attended the trip ranged in ability from beginner to intermediately experienced in the offered activities, skiing and ice climbing. Many of the ice climbers had only participated in the sport once or twice before. The students who came for skiing were experienced alpine skiers, but were beginners when it came to telemark skiing, a free-heel method of skiing which allows the skis to be used for both downhill and cross country travel. Despite the serious nature of the activities and the location, GreenMAP stayed true to its desire to offer trips that people of all experience levels can enjoy.
Perhaps the most physically intensive aspect of the trip was the hike into base camp on Sunday. In summer, it is possible to access the heart of Baxter State Park via a maintained road, but in the winter the road is not plowed and becomes a snowmobile trail. Access to the center of Katahdin, once a simple three mile hike, becomes a twelve mile trek along the snowmobile, followed by the a three mile hike up into the center of the ring of peaks.
After two intensive days of hiking, the group arrivedsore and slightly blisteredto base came at Chimney Pond Campgroud. Monday afternoon was spent winter-proofing the shelters of the campground by building igloo-style walls infront of the open faces.
The ice climbing and skiing during the week were phenominal, but the mishaps are more often what make a trip memorable. Perhaps the most unexpected elements of the trip were the adorable, ferocious and furry residents of the campground. Years of campground use at Chimney Pond have habituated a family of pine martens to life around humans, and they have become very efficient theives, though not without a sense of humor. Early in the week, before the group completely learned the martens’ game, the fuzzy terrors had made off with hot chocolate, sausages, socks, and any number of other objects. Mostly nocturnal in nature, they could often be heard scratching in, around, and under the lean-tos late at night.
The highlight of the trip, for many of the participants, was the hike to the summit of Katahdin. Some of the climbers also summitted the peak via the Cilley-Barber Route, an eighteen-hundred foot alpine ice and snow climb which ends on a sub-ridge of Mt. Baxter. All of the climbers enjoyed several days at the Pamola Ice Cliffs, a 200 foot tall slab of ice on one of the walls of the valley. Skiers on the trip hiked and skied in the Hamlin gullies, as well as summitting and skiing from the summit of Katahdin down the ridgeline to The Saddle, the lowest point in the valley wall.
Dinner at the Scootic In in Millinocket, Maine topped out the trip after the fifteen mile, one-day push out to the trailhead on Saturday the 13th. After a deep sleep in the Appalachian Trail Lodge, the group of students drove back to school, sunburned, smelly, tired, and elated from the trip.
Because of the success of the trip, it is safe to say that students at Green Mountain can look forward to more GreenMAP Spring Break trips in the future. If expeditions are not your style, though, you can always attend a weekend or day trip to get a taste of the adventure without all the sore muscles, blisters, and smell. Oh yeah, and without the pine martens.
