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Ascent to Beartown Mountain-N ridge on 2012-05-06

Climber: Tom Layton

Others in Party:

Charlie Zerphey
John Hamann

Date:

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Ascent Type:

Unsuccessful - Turned Back

Point Reached:

Beartown Mountain - N ridge

Location:

USA-Virginia

Elevation:

4500 ft / 1371 m

Remaining Elevation:

189 ft / 58 m (9% left to go)

Ascent Trip Report

Three members of the COHP Century Club will now attest to Beartown's reputation as one of the toughest COHPs in the Southeast. (We returned 2012-11-11 for a successful ascent via a different route.)

We started near Denison's Chapel around elevation 2840, found an old woods road, and made steady progress to 4400 feet on a ridge on the north side of the mountain--just a couple of hundred feet below the summit plateau. But the undergrowth was so thick that we could not get past 4500, even though we tried several approaches.

If you try Beartown from the north, you'll be wise to avoid the temptation of the old road in the woods and instead stay in the pastures. If we had left the road around 4000 feet and angled to the SW, I think we would have had a better chance.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

1860 ft / 566 m

Elevation Loss:

1860 ft / 566 m

Distance:

6 mi / 9.7 km

Quality:

9 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions:

Unmaintained Trail, Bushwhack

Weather:

Hot, Calm, Partly Cloudy

Ascent Statistics

Elevation Gain:

1860 ft / 566 m

Extra Loss:

200 ft / 60 m

Distance:

3 mi / 4.8 km

Route:

Pastures, woods road, N ridge

Trailhead:

Denison Chapel road 2840 ft / 865 m

Time Up:

3 Hours

Descent Statistics

Elevation Loss:

1660 ft / 506 m

Distance:

3 mi / 4.8 km

Trailhead:

Denison Chapel road 2840 ft / 865 m

Time Down:

2 Hours

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