My 4th pre-work hike this year and the best video footage and photos yet. I think I’ve finally nailed down my gear, as well as the timing for being on the summit to capture civil twilight through sunrise. If all of my gear and work stuff is packed and ready to go, I need to wake up approximately 4 hours before sunrise.
If you still haven’t had your fill of snowshoeing this year and live in the area, I recommend checking out Okemo. From what I’ve found, they have the best uphill travel policy around, allowing guests to use any open trails, free of charge.
Geek Stats
Ludlow Mountain, via Nor’easter Ski Trail || Distance: 1.86 miles || Duration: ~2 hours (~30 min break to take photos & video) || Gain/Loss: +2,000 || Max Elevation: 3,156′ || Difficulty: Strenuous
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Gear
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- Trew BeWild Jacket
- My go to weatherproof shell, whether I’m hiking in the rain, in a snowstorm, or just need something to break the wind. Over the last year it’s also gotten tons of use on the ski slopes, worn over a down sweater. Despite being thing and lightweight, it’s proven to be durable.
- Baffin Zone Softshell Boots
- These are my favorite boots winter hiking hiking as well as everyday boots during the winter months. I will update my review soon.
- Seek Outside Divide 4500
- The capacity of this pack is overkill, but the support and attachment points provided by the external frame are great.
- WoolPRO Layers
- A Juno T-shirt and Agena Longsleeve worked well underneath my Trew Gear BeWild Jacket. The jacket served as a wind breaker and the WoolPRO layers provided plenty of warmth while moving. The temperature on the mountain was around 18° when I started my hike.
- Tubbs Xplore 25
- I made it a point to get more experience using something other than my Flex VRT snowshoes. Today I used a set of Tubbs Xplore 25s and they worked fine on the flat and slightly inclined areas of my hike. I did however, miss features of both the Flex VRT and Wilderness models that I have, namely the Active Lift heel lifters and aggressive crampons. My calves definitely tired more quickly and on some of the steeps I felt like I was walking on the beach.
- Photo & Video
- Google Pixel 2 – all photos, other than time lapse
- Sony A600 – used for time lapse photo/video
- GoPro Hero5 – all other video
- Trew BeWild Jacket