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| Panther Summit Shot! |
Debbie, Krista
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Atop Panther with Couchie in the background!
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Stayed at the Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake with sights set on a Panther-Couchie summit attempt. Set off at the Bradley Pond parking lot at 7:30am, temperature at -20 degrees Celcius. Took us 4 hours to get to Times Square after skiing in on the road and part of the trail and snowshoeing up past the Bradley Pond lean-to and up Panther brook. Met up with two other groups and found the trail well packed down. My camera had been sent away to be fixed for a problem, leaving me to rely on Debbie to take all the photos this day. We summited Panther in the sun, with views of Couchie below. Clouds rolled in and we descended the trail to Couchie when about half way down the packed down trail diverged into about 5 different trails. Without the aid of a GPS waypoint, we were unable to find the unmarked snow covered path. Using my compass, we oriented ourselves and found our way back up to Times Square. Retraced our steps to the road and donned our skis for an easy ride out to the parking lot just as darkness set in. Although we were unable to bag the second summit, the experience was exhilarating. This trip has fueled a passion for summiting ADK peaks! Total time 9.5hours.
