Glenn, Krista
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| Glenn ascending a tricky part up Gray |
Glenn and I ventured down to Keene Valley for a few days to spend part of our March break playing in the snow in the Adirondacks. We arrived in Keene Valley to find not one speck of snow on the valley floor or on any of the nearby hills. The recent warm temperatures really started the spring melt early and it was obvious in the region. The forecast was for a high of 59 degrees farenheit or 14 degrees celcius for the day of our hike, about 10 degrees above normal. Recent trip reports warned about an impassable river crossing at Marcy Brook. We decided that parking at the South Meadows parking area and using the truck trail approach was the safest bet.
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Gray summit shot
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Arriving at 7am and leaving at 7:15 we traipsed down the trail alternating on bare ground, deep mud, and ice all the way to Marcy dam. We didn't reach the dam until almost 8:30. We marched right up to Lake Arnold using microspikes on the frozen packed trail. Continued downhill to the Feldspar lean-to in a beautiful alpine valley and arrived at 10:45am under grey skies. After peeling off the layers going up to Lake Arnold and then layering up going down, we once again de-layered going up to Lake Tear. This would be a day of wardrobe changes for sure.
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| On Skylight's summit cairn |
Arriving at Lake Tear, the herdpath up to Gray was obvious so we ditched our packs, donned our snowshoes, and headed up the herdpath. At one point the path split but within a few metres one of the trails ended so it became obvious which way to go. One small struggle on a small steep icefall and before we knew it we were up on top of Gray. It was noon. Took a quick photo or two and zoomed right back down for a quick snack and jaunt over to 4 corners. The sun had begun to shine and the snow was really beginning to soften up. Ascending Skylight was very straight forward but the soft snow made it slightly more energy intensive. Down to our baselayers, the summit provided a cool alpine breeze that was a welcome reprive. The views from Skylights bald summit are outstanding. One of the best summits I've been too for sure. It was now a quarter past one and time was ticking so we quickly descended again to face the more arduous part of the day.
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| Finally atop the highest point in NY state! |
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Enjoying a rare uncrowded sunny summit atop Marcy
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Donning our packs we climbed up Marcy with the strength of the sun beating down on us. Sweat rolled off us and we wished we were wearing shorts and ball caps. Approching the summit cone, ninety percent of the terrain was bare rock with rivers of water flowing everywhere around us. We were able to piece together a ice path and keep our snowshoes on during the final push, feeling every step in our legs and our overheating bodies. Finally we reached the summit and surprisingly had the place to ourselves. It was very windy, but we had views of the entire high peaks area! This was a true delight as many of my summits have been clouded in. We snapped many photos and layered up for a lunch at the summit. It was around 2:20. We were soaking up the moment when we heard some music playing. Another hiker was just arriving with a music player blaring as loud as it could play. I found this rather odd. It sure set us in motion quickly as we packed up and began our descent off the summit towards the VanHouevenburg trail. Off the summit we noticed that the north side of the summit was snow covered whilst th
e south side where we had just come up was bare rock!
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Marcy summit cone north side
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Glenn and I really enjoyed the initial part of the descent as we have a keen interest in alpine touring skiing. We have started to buy equipment and would love to one day skin up to the summit of Marcy and ski down. We could ski with the sun reflecting off the sun where the ski tracks have been drawn and marked the exit point on our GPS for future use. We jokingly called it our 'reconaissance' mission. As we hiked down the Van Ho trail, we we comfortable with the width and the idea of skiing down its entirety.
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| Rocky south facing side of Marcy summit cone |
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| Thin cover just before Marcy Dam |
We tramped down the moderate descent all the way past Indian Falls, Tabletop and ski trail junctions, and down to Marcy Dam. By the time we got to the dam, our snowshoes had been replaced by microspikes once again. Passing the Marcy brook we could hear (along with most brooks) that the water was running hard off the peaks. Marcy dam area had only a thin ice cover but above 3000' we had over 3 feet of snow in most placed except bald summits. On our final push back down the truck trail the ice and mud was very soft and we sunk down in it several times slowing our pace. We finally finished at 6:25, 11 hours and 10 min after starting. A half hour of daylight to spare! A great day all round with many litres of liquid consumed and lots of sweat exerted!
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| The bare truck trail |
Totals: 32.4km, 11 hours, 10 mins,5260 ft of ascending.
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Our track highlighted in blue
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