Celestial Skyline

[Ellen]

Howdy All

Hiked Skyline yesterday with Sally and her daughter Celeste who kept the conversation going as Sally and I huffed and puffed our way up

It will be interesting to see how much snow this storm added to the traverse.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[Ellen]

PS I suspect this storm has dumped several inches of new snow on the traverse.

[PatrickSupra]

Are we talking snowshoe-mandatory to complete it now? Thanks Ellen.

[Sally]

Hi Patrick, There wasn't much snow left on the trail yesterday, so unless the storm dumped a whole a bunch of snow, snowshoes are probably not necessary. Actually, I can't picture doing Skyline with snowshoes. Has anyone out there done the traverse with snowshoes?

Ellen is not kidding about Celeste entertaining us with her conversation. It probably has something to do with the amount of caffein she consumed. It was kind of like a one-way conversation at the dentists, except that instead of being unable to talk because somene has their hands in your mouth, I was unable to talk because I needed to keep breathing.

I kept up with Ellen and Celeste during the first 2/3 of the hike, but, as usual, I started lagging after Flat Rock. Celeste was either up front with Ellen, or back with me, stopping to take pictures and texting them to all her friends. With Grubbs Notch in sight, I coaxed Celeste to go on ahead and give it her all so she could do a sub-sixer, which she did. I decided to give it my all and managed to come in at 5:58, 3 minutes faster than my last trip, but 28 minutes more than my goal of 5:30.

Anyhow, it was a gorgeous clear day with great company. What more can one ask for!

[bluerail]

When there's 4 feet of snow in the traverse, you do whatever you can.