Sunday, September 9, 2012

9-2-12 Mt. Madison via King Ravine and Chemin des Dames by Chris Strewart

Snyder Brook photographed last Sunday (9-2-12) by my great friend Chris Stewart who had invited me to hike with him up King Ravine last Sunday, a hike I had to cancel due to the vicissitudes of my work.  I like adding other people's work either as photos or stories or both to add variety and varying perspectives to the blog.

Sphagnum moss which often has this red color. (There are hundreds of species of both Sphagnum and Hair-cap moss from the White Mountains across the north to the arctic: Greenland to Alaska.)

Looking down onto the floor of King Ravine with it's boulder field which is actually a "rock glacier" which I'll write more about in the near future as research was done at one time by a PhD grad student with conclusions drawn that the boulder field moves incrementally and is actually sitting on a remnant of ancient ice. Pretty cool!

Chris titled this: Rock Formation. There are myriad comparisons to make between King Ravine and Tuckerman Ravine. They're both glacial cirques, of similar size and shape and have other features in common as well.

 And this is Chris in a self portrait as he tops out on Chemin des Dames.
 Looking down the Valley Way and the Snyder Brook drainage. That's the Kilkenny Wilderness and the town of Randolph in the back ground.

 Mt. Madison from the junction of the Air Line and Gulfside trails. Thanks Chris. Anytime!