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Nov. 27, 2005 (Sun.)
Elevation: 4427 feet; Order of Height: 19
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Jennifer Innes, Pu Chen
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The idea for this hike was to satisfy the following criteria: 1) get out into the mountains (that one's obvious). 2) A 46er peak that Jenn hadn't done yet. 3) A 46er peak that I had already done in the winter ('cause I want to save my yet-to-be-done-in-the-winter peaks for winter). 4) wasn't super-duper long. Only a few peaks satisfied all of these criteria, and we picked good ol' Tabletop.

The weather was cold but clear and still as we started out from South Meadows. Marcy Dam was beautiful in the clear morning light. We decided to do a loop, going up the Lake Arnold trail, cutting across to Indian Falls, and returning via the VH trail. There was snow on the trails, about 10 inches at most, but it was unconsolidated and there was no underlying base. This meant awkward slippery moves on snow-covered boulders. We broke out snowshoes in the upper reaches, and it was a painful experience to hear them screech and gronch against all of the rock underneath.

We almost failed in our summit attempt when a very inconveniently-fallen tree fooled me off of the proper herdpath and into the network of old paths on the west side of Tabletop. Reminiscent of the 2003 fiasco with myself and Markus. I came to my senses and backtracked to where the tree had gotten me off track, and we then quickly made our way to the top on the proper route. We were soaked from wet snow by the time we got to the top. And, to add insult to injury, clouds had moved in, obscuring the already-limited views from near the summit. Anyway, with peak done, we made a rapid descent, choosing to use the ski run down the VH trail instead of the regular route (big mistake, not enough snow made for a most uncomfortable rough descent). Back to Marcy Dam, then the car at 5:30pm at South Meadows. Tiring with all that wasted bushwacking!

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: November 2005 Tabletop Mountain Hike


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