Work-chum Chris H. felt we should have another "intro" kick at the snowshoeing-can in Gatineau Park before we tackled something bigger in the Adirondacks. So, this little report documents our second such hike in a month (the first being available
here).
In many ways, the day was very similar to the one we had a month ago: mid-minus teens, generally sunny weather, and very little snow cover. In fact, we'd not received any significant snowfall since, and I was worried that the day would simply be an exercise of tramping snowshoes over a very thin layer of powdered frozen water.
The snow was indeed quite thin (In fact, we started off by bare-booting up the old road that marks the start of our route), and no one was sinking in in the slightest. Still, as we got to the first bit of steepish-ness, we decided to put the 'shoes on, if for nothing more than for traction and so that the new people in the group to experience them.
We again headed on up to the icefall on the main cliffs below King Mountain's summit. From here, though, we decided to do something a little different - head east around the base of the big cliffs until we could find a route up the eastern side of King Mountain. It would be a little more challenging and interesting, and anyway we didn't want a complete copy of last month's hike.
The route along the base of the cliffs gave us lots of close up looks at the craggy overhanging walls of granite, as well as a way to show off the traction abilities of the snowshoes (the path along the base of the cliffs has a lot of short but steep up and downs).
