Bushwhacking

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blazintoes
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Bushwhacking

Post by blazintoes »

Bushwhack (BW)

Perhaps there should be a new grading system. BW 1-5? 

  BW 1 is downright enjoyable and easy, also where trekking poles come in handy and it saves time. 
  BW 2 is a little harder and the enjoyment factor is still there but poles and backpacks become a nuisance. 
  BW 3 you start to wonder how much you're enjoying it and if it's wasting time.   
  BW 4 is utterly miserable and only enjoyable if it saves time and you get a few trail tattoos.   
  BW 5 describes anything that you're still stuck in and awaiting SAR because you're lost or you see a bloody bone. 

Using the grading system, send your pictures and tell your BW stories here.
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JQDivide
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by JQDivide »

blazintoes wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 6:01 pm Bushwhack (BW)

Perhaps there should be a new grading system. BW 1-5? 

Amy,
Did you have a recent experience that brought this up?

The up and over three miles of deadfall going up to Kit Carson via Spanish Creek comes to mind as a solid 4.

Joel
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susanjoypaul
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by susanjoypaul »

Bushwhacking 4 = "Shortcut" through burrs and briars on an attempt of Fishers Peak from the south. I turned around at Little Fishers Peak Mesa and when I got back to the trailhead, stripped off my pants to see why my legs were wet. They were coated in blood. Had to go back the next week for the Mesa and the Peak. I stuck to the trail for most of that one.

Bushwhacking 5 = Fremont County. If you've done it, you know.
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Mtnman200
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by Mtnman200 »

BW4 = willows over 6’ high and wet from constant rain.

Ask me how I know…
"Adventure without risk is not possible." - Reinhold Messner
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disentangled
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by disentangled »

In my experience, it's not bushwhacking unless there's blood, hundreds of cactus spines lodged under your skin, and a yucca that nearly pokes out your eye. Everything else is just a pleasant thrashing through vegetation.
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Bombay2Boulder
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by Bombay2Boulder »

Lot of Alaska terrain falls in BV4.5, you know exactly where you are, but that that won't help and you have to suck it up and just send, my most recent trip to Gates of Arctic is fresh in mind, bonus points for being terrified about the thought of running into a grizzly in the willows by the river and they can't hear you approach.

BV 4.5- The "route" up Whitehouse and Ridgway from Ridgway Hut was the absolute worst bushwhacking I have done for a peak in CO yet, . I think between the approach and return I almost went through this for 5 hours. Close 2nd is the Irving lake approach on this site.
Other memorable bushwhack for me was camping the night before at Mayflower gulch TH for Pacific, rained all night and early morning, when it finally stopped, I started hiking and went through the willows, within the first 10 yds of hiking, I was drenched from head to toe, turned back, changed clothes and drove back to Boulder :-D
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supranihilest
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by supranihilest »

Bombay2Boulder wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 6:45 pmBV 4.5- The "route" up Whitehouse and Ridgway from Ridgway Hut was the absolute worst bushwhacking I have done for a peak in CO yet, . I think between the approach and return I almost went through this for 5 hours.
Having done the same northern approach for Corbett Ridge from the Ridgway Hut area, I mostly agree - worst 13er bushwhack I've ever done, I think. Desert 8ers make it look like a joke, but for a 13er approach I give it a Jesus Christ/5. Whitehouse and Ridgway are actually quite delightful via Weehawken if you ever repeat them!
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planet54
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by planet54 »

Bombay2Boulder wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 6:45 pm Lot of Alaska terrain falls in BV4.5, you know exactly where you are, but that that won't help and you have to suck it up and just send, my most recent trip to Gates of Arctic is fresh in mind, bonus points for being terrified about the thought of running into a grizzly in the willows by the river and they can't hear you approach.
I'll second that. Brooks Range alder bashing with tussocks while swatting a billion skeeters. Not so bad above treeline though sometimes. Timing is everything. Can't wait to go back there.
Gore Range downed trees are no fun.
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blazintoes
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by blazintoes »

[quote=JQDivide post_id=754625 time=1633047183 user_id=5322]
[quote=blazintoes post_id=754624 time=1633046502 user_id=32831]
Bushwhack (BW)

Perhaps there should be a new grading system. BW 1-5? 
[/quote]

Amy,
Did you have a recent experience that brought this up?

The up and over three miles of deadfall going up to Kit Carson via Spanish Creek comes to mind as a solid 4.

Joel
[/quote]

Well none with you. Ha! Our outings have been super fun. Having been in all 5 BW scenarios but getting older and wiser my recent BW 3 for the TMT and reading what I wanted to read on the map vs. what was real I ended up left of Bill Ranch Trl seeing that it was shorter to get to Peak 10's ridge but the dead fall was time consuming. I backtracked to the origin and found the right way.

What spurred this was a good friend sending me a picture of his recent bushwhack experience and it definitely looked like BW3 but could easily turn to BW4 and that reminded me of my recent BW4 experience through Wheeler Basin to get back to Monarch Lake in IPW and one of us had bloody shins.

And I've called SAR once. https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archi ... VZdkJpKi00

No shame in calling SAR and the editor glamorized the wrong info. What is important to know is how many rescues happen on this traverse and why (now that I've experienced it. ) SAR told us that guide services regularly go out and vandalize the route by popping off the reflectors that SAR puts up and the 3 cat claw marks that climbers scratch in the rocks to keep the guide services in business. Who knows if that is true but I did find it difficult to navigate because of conflicting marker identification. Also we had plenty of rope to rappel if we would have been able to find the climbers raps. SAR has their own rap stations that require two ropes so we combined our ropes and got off the summit in two raps vs. 4

Also the sandwiches were tasty and they had one bad ass drone pilot!
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hokiehead
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by hokiehead »

other than a few miserable but short passages through horrible willows (Scott Gomer descent from Sawtooth, Casco Pk) that I'll call a BW4, the worst extended bushwack I've done is Copeland Mtn in RMNP from Wild Basin. I'll give that a BW3. Then, when exiting the forest, we got the opportunity to talus hop up the slope another 1000'.
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Skimo95
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by Skimo95 »

Amy,

Having been through 1-5 personally, I’d say a successful day stops at 3. A trip you really want to grind out and only have to do once, would rate at 4. I hope nobody who hasn’t already, finds out what that level 5 entails. Let’s put Ruby Basin at a 3, Ruby into JB at a 4 (with snow), and a mistrust your own devil regret at 5. Fun topic, besides the long approaches, the Sierras are quite nice in the whacking aspect.
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Re: Bushwhacking

Post by jibler »

yes I've been thru many of the grades


and I recall the very worst being some random terrain north of granby - off stillwater pass

and I made a trip report about my misadventures up there to warn the people


but the forest was unhealthy. the trees too dense together. I called it then that it was a fire trap.


and that's part of what burned in that unbelievable fire that scorched through there and across the continental divide last fall.


around that area in particular - the fire covered like 20 miles or more in less than a day - just blasted through there.
Keep looking up - Jack Horkheimer
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