2019-01-26 Aalmat Al Shmaliyya - Ishtar Trail
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 5.58 mi
- Elevation gain
- 1,532 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 1,532 ft
- Max elevation
- 5,533 ft
- TrailRank
- 40
- Min elevation
- 4,282 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- 6 hours 8 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1235
- Uploaded
- January 28, 2019
- Recorded
- January 2019
near El Bahsâssa, Mont-Liban (Lebanon)
Viewed 327 times, downloaded 10 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Snowshoeing in Aalmat - Ishtar trail was never organized or done before; especially, that Ishtar trail was opened last summer as a Spring to Fall hiking trail only. The expedition started about 3 km before the expected start due to heavy snowfall covering the road to the trail. The hiking trail marks were completely covered and our navigation was left to the young guide from Aalmat; (the guide never did this trail with snow).
Initially the trail was a moderate uphill; then, the trail started a series of steep uphill climbs to get to the highest point of the trail at the middle of the loop section. The downhill back was a bit difficult and tricky to navigate; as mentioned before, the trail was never attempted during the snow season and hence, most of the trail and marks are covered in snow. The downhill trail was littered with rocks covered with melting snow leading to sinkholes (and a lot of postholing) that posed an imminent danger to the group; to avoid the steep hill descent, we tobogganed some 400+ meters to get to the bottom of the hill.
The snow was wet and melting because of warm temperature and the fact that the last snow fall was 9 days before the expedition.
All in all, it was a great day and experience and I do recommend the trail only for expert snowshoers. Also, a word of caution, a snowshoeing trail does not automatically qualify it as a hiking trail. I plan to do this train again in the Spring and the Fall to compare.
I rate this trail as difficult.
Initially the trail was a moderate uphill; then, the trail started a series of steep uphill climbs to get to the highest point of the trail at the middle of the loop section. The downhill back was a bit difficult and tricky to navigate; as mentioned before, the trail was never attempted during the snow season and hence, most of the trail and marks are covered in snow. The downhill trail was littered with rocks covered with melting snow leading to sinkholes (and a lot of postholing) that posed an imminent danger to the group; to avoid the steep hill descent, we tobogganed some 400+ meters to get to the bottom of the hill.
The snow was wet and melting because of warm temperature and the fact that the last snow fall was 9 days before the expedition.
All in all, it was a great day and experience and I do recommend the trail only for expert snowshoers. Also, a word of caution, a snowshoeing trail does not automatically qualify it as a hiking trail. I plan to do this train again in the Spring and the Fall to compare.
I rate this trail as difficult.
Waypoints
Intersection
4,611 ft
Waypoint
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