The following was written by Franklin Search & Rescue’s (FSAR) Vice President Pat Cyr. Pat organized FSAR’s first formal visit to the park which has opened the door to more training opportunities the in the future. There is a MASAR member (Maine Search & Rescue) rescue team training at Baxter on most weekends during the summer hiking months and on some weekends during the winter climbing season. All interested hikers and outdoors people are welcome to check out FSAR during our monthly meetings which are held at the Kingfield Fire Station on the second Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 13.
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FSAR Winter Training - Chimney Pond, Baxter State Park 3/25-3/27/11
Attending : Pat Cyr, Chuck Royce, Barry London, Pete Boucher, Seb Tooker
In February I submitted an application to Baxter State Park for FSAR to conduct a winter training at Chimney Pond. Several MSAR teams have been assisting BSP by providing coverage on weekends for both the winter and summer seasons. Teams include Lincoln, MDI, Wilderness, and Dirago.
Stewart Guay, Duputy Chief Ranger for BSP, contacted me and we set up the available dates.
Stewart was most helpful and really appreciated the fact our team wanted to come to the park.
3/25 – Friday
After a 2 1/2 hour ride from Farmington we arrived at the BSP head quarters where we had access to the building with a key made available for us. We unloaded and inventoried personal and team gear and repacked for the following morning. We took a last minute shopping trip and headed over to get takeout supper nearby before retiring for the night on the floor of the conference room.
3/26 – Saturday
We met Park Rangers Rob Tice, Mark and Issac at the Abol gravel pit. 3 park snowmobiles were headed in with us and and our gear. Gear was loaded into a large tow sled which Mark pulled with his snow machine. The five of us piled on another transport sled which was pulled by Rob’s snowmobile. The transport into Roaring Brook took a little over an hour and it was sort of like a kid’s amusement park ride. All we need were floppy ears on the front.
Roaring Brook campground was the end of the line for the people transporter. It was 3.3 miles and 1,500 feet of elevation gain to Chimney Pond. Rob, Mark, and Issac took all our gear all the way into Chimney Pond! We had a great walk in and had our first glimpse of the Great Basin when we approached the Basin Ponds. Katahdin loomed large and was wild with wind and clouds dancing off the rocks and snow.
A look at the “snow stick” off the trail on the way in showed 87” of snow.
We got to the crew camp to find all our gear stowed inside and the wood stove was loaded and hot!
After and orientation by Rob, we set out and spent the rest of the day exploring the Saddle Trail winter route. A warm supper and good company with friends topped off a great day.
3/27 – Sunday
The crew cabin was heavily banked with snow on all sides which provided a nice warm camp while the bitter winds whipped all night. The sky was crystal clear Saturday night. Morning brought clear skies which offered the opportunity for us to explore higher up the mountain. Pete, Seb, Barry, Chuck, and I had a quick breakfast before speaking with Ranger’s Rob and Mark who were shuttling in timbers on snowmobiles. We took Rob’s advice and explored the Cathedral winter trailhead by bushwhacking off the Saddle due to likely high avalanche area where the Cathedral summer trail normal tracks.
We returned back to camp in time to pack up, clean up, and load up. All our gear was loaded in the snowmachines for the trip out leaving us a light snowshoe out. Barry and I brought our plastic sleds for the downhill grades which proved to be a blast! We had the advantage of knowing there were no other people or snowmachines heading into Chimney Pond so we were able to cruise! While the 5 of us were crossing Basin Pond, Barry noticed the start of an avalanche in the North Basin behind us. He yelled out to the rest of us and we were lucky enough to see a huge avalanche over a mile away. I was lucky enough to get my camera out in time for some pictures.
We were shuttled out from Roaring Brook and back to the gravel pit by 4 pm where we parted ways with Rob and Mark.
Overall the experience was positive and certainly left us all wanting to come back with more team members and more SAR training ideas. Spending time with Seb, Barry, Chuck, and Pete was a lot of fun, especially in a more relaxed setting and not in the more intense scene of a search or rescue operation.
We hope to be back next winter with more members. More immediate however is the possibility of covering a weekend or two this summer. Stay tuned for more information to follow.
