Camels Hump is a Vermont 4000-footer positioned exterior of Huntington, Vermont. It’s a simple climb in case you hike up the Burrows Path, simply 4.4 miles with 2000 ft of elevation achieve. I climbed it right this moment after a six week hiatus resulting from a hip harm that I incurred in October, which has made life and climbing a little bit of a problem. Whereas I’ve been in a position to hike, I’ve been sticking to reasonable low-level forays. So it was good to get out right this moment and expertise my first peak-bagging hike of the season in winter situations.
Not being a neighborhood, it was a bit difficult to determine what to anticipate when it comes to path situations since Vermont has such a small climbing group, in comparison with NH’s White Mountains, and one which is so dispersed. There’s no central clearing home for path situations or climate stories just like the New England Path Circumstances web site or the Mt Washington Climate Observatory. From what I can collect, some common hikers publish journey stories on the Fb Group “Mountain climbing in Vermont” and I plan to do the identical.
The newest journey report for Camels Hump was from two days prior and indicated that the Burrows Path was damaged out and may very well be hiked with simply Hillsounds. Since then a number of inches of rain fell on the area, considerably decreasing the snowpack within the decrease surrounding elevations. However not understanding the place the snowline was, I made a decision to pack snowshoes in case they had been wanted. They weren’t, however I feel I’ll find yourself carrying them way more incessantly this winter within the absence of plentiful path beta and if I enterprise over to the Adirondacks, the place they’re legally required.
The Burrows Path climbs up at a gradual tempo, at about 1000′ per mile, which is a wholesome fee of ascent. The temperature was brisk, about 15 levels, with a notable breeze. I used to be testing out a brand new layering system with a fleece hoody and an insulated softshell and whereas they had been too heat beneath 3000′, they labored nicely collectively once I received larger and it received colder.
The Burrows Path involves a clearing after 2.1 miles. From there, it’s a brief distance to the open summit. I began up and caught up with a fellow named Invoice who I’d met on the climb, simply earlier than we each popped out of the krumholz and into full publicity. We stepped out into the open collectively and hiked as much as the summit earlier than heading again down pretty rapidly to get out of the wind. The views had been restricted by low-lying cloud, however it was good to be on an above-treeline summit once more and I relished the second.
We descended collectively and struck up an amiable dialog, sharing contact info once we arrived on the trailhead. Invoice climbs Mansfield and Camels Hump repeatedly and I feel we’ll crew up sooner or later. I’m interested by gridding the Vermont 4ks this winter (climbing all of them in every month), and it’s all the time good to peakbag with a buddy.
