Hellish Bushwack Having had no luck in finding the herd path, Markus and I decide to try and bushwack straight to the summit. Bad Idea. What follows is 2 and a half hours of unimaginably dense brush, with spruce traps covering pits in the snow over 6 feet deep. During a one hour period we manage to cover less than 200 metres. Here Markus attempts to wallow out of a tricky spot. [enlarge]

Human Snowplow More ridiculously hard bushwacking in the snow... we get to within 500m of the summit and realize we aren't going to make the summit without seriously getting into the evening hours. So we decide to head back, leaving the summit for another trip. More hellish bushwacking eventually gets us back to the trail. [enlarge]

He's had enough.... Markus looking not-so-chipper after 3 hours of exhausting toil. [enlarge]

Back at Marcy Dam Twilight descends as we reach Marcy Dam. From here it is a quick 40 minute hike back to the car, which we manage before it gets fully dark. Having looked at the descriptions on the net a bit more closely, I now understand exactly where the herd path to the summit starts......... Next Time! [enlarge]

Interactive trackmap with photo points - Tabletop Mtn (Failed Attempt) - click map to view Interactive trackmap with photo points - Tabletop Mtn (Failed Attempt) - click to view

Elevation Chart over Distance This chart is a GPS-derived representation of our elevation changes over distance. I've also put in timestamps to highlight how slow our bushwacking progress was. [enlarge]

Elevation Chart over time This chart is a GPS-derived representation of our elevation changes over time. [enlarge]

Annotated Topo Map This is a GPS-derived tracklog of our hike superimposed upon a topo of the area. Note how the location of the trails has changed in many spots from the original trails drawn onto the topo. This is typical with the USGS topos of this area. [enlarge]