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Would you hike this?

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    • Seen a bunch of videos of this climb.

      If it were in the USA, maybe. I wouldn't pay thousands of dollars to head to China to make an ascent on what I can only politely call questionable technical hardware.

      I'm just getting into climbing this year, but I'd sooner trust anchors that I set myself.
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • Here's another video of an seriously awesome place that I won't be doing any time soon. (There are some adventures where I'm happy being an armchair quarterback.)

      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • No way I am doing any of that. I've done the Grand View Trail to Horseshoe Mesa at Grand Canyon and the trail down to Miner's Spring from there. Both had some exposure with the trail actually on logs jammed with stones and the whole thing supported on hundred year old iron rods- but nothing as crazy as that or that video.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

    • jimmyjam wrote:

      No way I am doing any of that. I've done the Grand View Trail to Horseshoe Mesa at Grand Canyon and the trail down to Miner's Spring from there. Both had some exposure with the trail actually on logs jammed with stones and the whole thing supported on hundred year old iron rods- but nothing as crazy as that or that video.


      But was there TEA at the end? Craziness is relative. If you knew my relatives, you'd know just how true that is.
      Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less. - Robert E. Lee

    • After voting "no" I checked the poll results and was relieved to see that I'm not the only wimp.

      I've done Katahdin's knife edge twice, but the last time was 25 years ago and I probably wouldn't have the nerve to do it again.

      I did a TINY bit of white-knuckle hiking in Zion National Park -- but bailed on the last few hundred feet of Angel's Landing. No room for error. There's an 18 inch wide ledge. A chain anchored to the cliff wall. A good 1200 feet straight down, nothing at all to stop ya.

      There were a couple of spots on Mt. Mansfield (in the Long Trail in VT) that had my palms sweating. Zero room for error.
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    • rafe wrote:

      After voting "no" I checked the poll results and was relieved to see that I'm not the only wimp.

      I've done Katahdin's knife edge twice, but the last time was 25 years ago and I probably wouldn't have the nerve to do it again.

      I did a TINY bit of white-knuckle hiking in Zion National Park -- but bailed on the last few hundred feet of Angel's Landing. No room for error. There's an 18 inch wide ledge. A chain anchored to the cliff wall. A good 1200 feet straight down, nothing at all to stop ya.


      There are a lot of pretty sketchy trails out there, even in the East. The one that I'd like to work up the nerve and stamina to do - and I'm nowhere near that level - is the Trap Dike on Mount Colden in the Adirondacks. This guy's helmet-cam video gives the idea. (The real action starts about four minutes in.) I'm guessing that at my age it ain't happening. But I do wonder who the heck labeled this one a Class 4 route. Everyone free-solos it in the summer. In the winter, I understand it turns into a beautiful WI4+ climbing route.

      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • Mt. Mansfield on the LT has its moments. On the trail south of Mansfield, every single LT thru-hiker I talked to commented on it, with rolling of eyes and shaking of head. "Twisted" and "sketchy" were the words they used. I figured, if it made that kind of impression on thru-hikers, it must be something. I wasn't the only one unnerved by it. The spooky bits were few and far between but they were intense.

      I think the designers of the LT are as warped as the folks that routed the AT through the Whites, if not more so. The AT is tough, no doubt -- but usually not "scary".

      There was one of those twisted bits on the north side of Camel's Hump . Coming off a rock escarpment, you're made to traverse about fifty feet along the narrow top edge of a tombstone-like rock, with a fifteen or twenty foot sheer drop off one side, and vertical wall on the other. This tombstone-like rock is really just a chunk that's broken away from the cliff face, with about a two foot wide gap between it and the cliff face. You don't want to slip off on that side, either. Fifteen foot fall might not kill you, but it could mess up your day big time.

      I dithered for quite a bit before doing it. There was really no other way down. There was a blaze leading right to it... it had to be the trail. I thought about waiting for another hiker to come by (in either direction) so I could see it being done before I attempted it... but I might have had to wait for hours for that to happen.

      Sadly, I have no photos. I needed my hands to crawl and straddle along the ledge. I'm not sure the photos would have done it justice.

    • rafe wrote:

      Mt. Mansfield on the LT has its moments. On the trail south of Mansfield, every single LT thru-hiker I talked to commented on it, with rolling of eyes and shaking of head. "Twisted" and "sketchy" were the words they used. I figured, if it made that kind of impression on thru-hikers, it must be something. I wasn't the only one unnerved by it. The spooky bits were few and far between but they were intense.

      I think the designers of the LT are as warped as the folks that routed the AT through the Whites, if not more so. The AT is tough, no doubt -- but usually not "scary".

      There was one of those twisted bits on the north side of Camel's Hump . Coming off a rock escarpment, you're made to traverse about fifty feet along the narrow top edge of a tombstone-like rock, with a fifteen or twenty foot sheer drop off one side, and vertical wall on the other. This tombstone-like rock is really just a chunk that's broken away from the cliff face, with about a two foot wide gap between it and the cliff face. You don't want to slip off on that side, either. Fifteen foot fall might not kill you, but it could mess up your day big time.

      I dithered for quite a bit before doing it. There was really no other way down. There was a blaze leading right to it... it had to be the trail. I thought about waiting for another hiker to come by (in either direction) so I could see it being done before I attempted it... but I might have had to wait for hours for that to happen.

      Sadly, I have no photos. I needed my hands to crawl and straddle along the ledge. I'm not sure the photos would have done it justice.


      Now it is starting make more sense to me. I (unknowingly, or at least it meant nothing to me at the time) hiked Mt Mansfield back in 1998, but the experience did leave me with wanting to take up backpacking at the time. Started hiking the AT in 2010 and then started wondering where he had gone in Vermont back in 98. Saw my wife's aunt who led this hike back then and found out it was Mt Mansfield. Perhaps I will try it (and the Long Trail) again sometime in the future
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General