Nicomen Mountain - December 24th 2021

December 25, 2021

Nicomen Mountain - December 24th 2021

Woke up at 7 and met Duffy and Raphael at the trailhead (same one as Raven's Bluff) at 8, by 8:15 we were on the trail. Duffy and Raphael were both experienced and fit hikers so we soon made it to the Bluffs which is as far as I ever have gone. We continued up a connecting trail and eventually to an old logging road that gained us some easy elevation. The logging road made one major switchback and you could tell the upper part was much less used because it was a lot smaller and more overgrown. Surprisingly I think that was my favorite part of the hike because of the way the trees closed in on you with all the snow, it was really beatiful (plus it was easy hiking :D). I knew at the end of the logging road would be the hard part and soon enough we were there.

At the end of the logging road it was 10:00 am and we were at ~550m and the summit was ~1200m so we had a fair bit of a grind ahead of us and sure enough it was basically straight up. Duffy lead the charge, the flagging was very good and a group had gone up a week before us and it hadn't snowed too much so he said it was easy to follow. At the beginning I admit being a bit worried because it was very steep and quite snowy / icy but of course I had to keep going. Raphael and I had brought snowshoes and Duffy had forgotten his. We were joking that we wouldn't need them and we had wasted our effort in bringing them but oh boy were we wrong. We took a short break at 950m elevation because I was starving and it was actually a nice spot to get a bit of a view. We had encountered some deep snow at this point because there was less tree cover so we donned our snow shoes, at this point it was probably ~11:00 and from there not much to say but we bashed up.

Duffy was having a heck of a time as he postholed a good 6" every step but he was such a beast that it honestly didn't slow him down and I brought up the rear. Its been a while since I did a big hike like this so I was really feeling it in my calves and thighs but after so long we made it to the top, yay! It was probably 11:45. The summit register was completely iced in and the views weren't great so we just took a few pics with the summit sign and continued to the viewpoint. I was pretty tired and wanted to get down but the two other guys wanted to see the viewpoint so they convinced me to keep going and I'm glad I did, it was only 5-10 minutes further and so worth it. Plus the snow from the summit to the viewpoint was so deep that Duffy was postholing to his waist! The snowshoes were paying off in droves for me and Jebby was light enough that he didn't sink.

From left to right - Duffy, Raphael, myself at the summit

Raphael and I blasted to the top of the viewpoint with Duffy a few minutes behind and had some food, took some pictures. Duffy actually took a while and Raphael started to get worried but I told him there was no way he could get lost as the trail was blisteringly obvious and he was only a minute or two behind. Eventually we saw him coming up, he said he was cramping and had been resting (which would happen quite a bit on the way down). We rested for a short time, it was quite cold and we were eager to get down and headed down at ~12:15.

Viewpoint

The way down, not much to say. The cheap snowshoes I had bought bit me in the ass quickly as I continuously slipped and fell on my ass. I wanted to take them off but Raphael told me to keep them on (which with hindsight was a mistake, he had better snowshoes). I was falling so much at one point I was worried I had hurt my wrist, I ended up falling quite a bit behind and even breaking one of my hiking poles and said fuck it and ditched the snowshoes. Good choice, after that the going down was still painful but I wasnt falling on my ass every couple steps. The rest of it was an uneventful slog, when we made it back to the top of the Bluffs I was hungry and wanted a break but the other two wanted to keep going so I bid them adieu. I have done this hike at least a dozen times so I wasn't worried about getting lost.

I only sat around for maybe 5-10 minutes, tried to call Sam, ate some food before boogieing down. I ended up catching up with them at the car and that was it! Got down pretty much right at 3:00 p.m. so it was ~6h45m C2C with only maybe 15-20 minutes of official breaks. Jebby did really good, I was very worried it would be too much but I think he actually did better than me! And he was excellent in the snow, didn't seem to get cold or sink in the snow at all. It is very reassuring.