Ascent of Thorny Flat on 2013-04-20| Other People: | Solo Ascent
Only Party on Mountain | | Date: | Saturday, April 20, 2013 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Car | | Peak: | Thorny Flat | | Location: | USA-West Virginia | | Elevation: | 4848 ft / 1477 m |
Ascent Trip ReportWas not sure how to secure this peak without driving it and did not want to tresspass either. I scoped it out and descided to park in the vacant parking lot across from the Water Tanks. The signs all along the Snowshoe Drive up the mountain were covered with "no tresspassing signs" spaced so closely together you could never say you missed seeing the sign! it was 27F out in late April, and small snow flurries were falling on me. It was very windy, so I put on warm clothes and road hiked down to the intersection of the SR 66 and Snowshoe Drive. The road has a few roller coasters near the power line and I did take a shortcut down one of the power easements but then descided that the icey conditions on the very steep easements was not a good idea. Great place to slip and bust your butt. So after the one long shortcut, I elected to stay on the roadway to the bottom.
My trailhead thus, ended up the intersection at the bottom at the BM elevation shown as 3927. Regaining the elevation, I then hiked back up to my car but then headed straight for the water tanks and explored behind them and found a signed "snowshoe trail" which takes you behind the messy parking lot of snow vehicles and other equipment and on to a small maintained trail that you can follow to the area where the peak is and stop around.
I started at 8:25 AM at 27 degrees out and was back in the car at 10:10 AM and it was still 27 degrees out. I did the 5.6 miles in under 2 hours (1hr 45 min). Note the road grade is steep and in some sections is signed to warn trucks that the grade is 11%. This is steeper than the highway grades that warn trucks of 7% and have the run outs. |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 1031 ft / 313 m | | Extra Gain: | 55 ft / 16 m | | Round-Trip Distance: | 5.6 mi / 9 km | | Route: | Snowshoe Dr to upper snowshoe trails | | Trailhead: | intersection of SR 66 & Snowshoe Dr 3927 ft / 1196 m | | Grade/Class: | 1 and 2 | | Quality: | 3 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Road Hike, Maintained Trail, Open Country, Bushwhack | | Weather: | Snowing, Cold, Windy, Clear
cold and windy 27F small snow flurries | | Ascent Statistics | | Time: | 1 Hours | | Descent Statistics | | Time: | 45 Minutes |
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