#42 Seymour, #43 Seward, #44 Donaldson, #45 Emmons-September 29th, 2012

Debbie, Krista

After a flurry of emails discussing our approach to the Seward Range, Debbie and I decided we'd like to challenge ourselves but attempting the entire range (all 4 peaks) in one day. Our strategy would be to sleep in Debbie's pop up truck camper in the parking lot and get up early and attempt the peaks by doing Seymour first, then up to the ridge to to Sewards, Donaldson and Emmons, back down Caulkins brook to the parking lot.

Warm and dry in the Toyota Hilton

The first night in the camper was fantastic. Arriving just at sunset, we set up and settled into our warm, dry accommodations in what Debbie calls the "Toyota Hilton". Set the alarm for 5am and went to bed early caressed by the melodic sounds of rain hitting the roof. All night the rain fell, and our sleep became restless and we both arose before our alarm knowing what we were going to be getting ourselves into.

Seymour summit shot

Seymour lookout-swears Debbie...see?

On the trail by 6am, we heading off with headlamps on down the trail with rain pouring down on us turning left at the first junction an onward to the lean-to's. Made it to blueberry lean-to by 7:30am, and the Seymour cairn by 7:45am. It had only been 1 and 3/4 hours, and we had covered 8.85km. Marching up to the top of Seymour the rain continued. Going off the trail once on a side trail, it eventually hooked up with the main herdpath and we summited at 9:14am. It wasn't my fastest ascent. I got a muscle cramp in my stomach (probably due to the blistering anaerobic pace Debbie was setting) and felt nauseous an had to slow down. Took a few quick pictures and a snack and headed over to a look out point that Debbie swears is beautiful on clear days. I'll have to take her word for it as today the summits and lookouts were to be foggy and cloudy.

Returned back to the cairn by 10:30am in the rain and headed over to Ward Brook lean to for a 15 minute break out of the rain. On the trail again we left the Seward cairn (located just beside a truck bridge #1) and headed up once again. We passed an extremely scenic rocky brook, even for Adirondack standards. I guess this is called Ward Brook. Soon after we hit the famous Seward mountain rocky outcroppings which were tricky as the rivers flowed down them. Passed a pair of female hikers and caught up with another group of 4 men at the summit. It was 12:55pm now. Most trip reports say it takes hikers 3 hours to make the summit and we had made it in less than two even with my stomach cramp still annoying me. My only solace was that the rain started to fade out, but the trails were as muddy and wet as ever.

Final crux pitch before Seward summit

Debbie heading up slippery Seward

Took some summit shots and immediately left the summit in order to get ahead of the group of guys who were all carrying full packs with them. Forgot to waypoint the summit as a result. Headed to Donaldson and arrived there 50 mins later at 1:45pm. Met 2 solo men hikers at the summit (which we found out later was the faux summit) there and learnt that one of them, Steve was about to summit his 46th peak on Emmons! The other hiker had already been to Emmons and said it only takes 15-20mins to get to, contradicting the trip reports I had read. By this point we needed more fuel, so we took another 15 minute break to fuel up. It was quite windy and starting to rain once more. Heading over to Emmons, we found the true Donaldson summit with the actual marker on it and celebrated all over again.

On Donaldson's true summit

                                                                                               

Summit of Seward Mtn

Headed over to Emmons and met Steve once again on a rocky outcropping he thought was the summit. Checking my GPS, I would assure him that this wasn't the summit and we should keep going. The three of us continued on, and about 49 mins after leaving Donaldson, we were there at 2:49pm. We celebrated Steve's 46er finish and my 45th peak and then headed back, taking another 49 mins to return to Donaldson. We soon realized that many hikers mistake Donaldson's true summit from the lookout. Also, many hikers don't get to Emmons. The trip reports I have read some hikers say its only 30mins away, which it doesn't. I think many hikers cheat on these peaks and claim there are no summit markers which there are! We caught a few today!

Me pointing to the actual Emmons summit marker

On Emmons summit-photo by Steve!

Got to the junction at Caulkins brook around 4pm, and descended the wet, mucky slippery trail down to the bucket junction by 5:30. Steve had followed us down Caulkins but we left him in our dust with our use of poles on the slippery terrain-a godsend! Trudged up and down the road and turned left at the next junction and arrived at the parking lot wet and hungry by 6:18pm. This was an epic hike. The longest hike that Debbie or I have been on, and for me the on with the biggest ascent and time. We had to endure cold rain and wet, muddy trails all day long. Lucky we had a warm and dry camper to return to once finished. A wet tent wouldn't have been so nice. Check four more off the list...down to ONE!!

The views we were supposed to see on this hike but had to catch on the way home Sunday.

Hike totals: 33.33km, 7129ft of ascending, 12 hours 18mins. Epic.

#39 Cliff, #40, Redfield, #41 Allen-August 25-29th, 2012

Sharon, Don, Debbie, Krista

With full packs Debbie, Don, Sharon and myself headed into the Flowed Lands from Upper Works in humid weather in the afternoon of Sunday August 26th. We set up camp in a great camp spot near the junction overlooking the Flowed Lands and Colden.

View from our campsite

We arose at 7am and was on the trail at 8am to head straight to Cliff to bag Sharon's 46th summit. Sharon had missed summiting this mountain a month ago when she had come down to finish her last 3 summits. It was time to get the job done so on we went. It was my first time hiking from Colden Dam up to the Uphill lean-to. A beautiful hike up with numerous waterfalls. We arrived at the cairn at 9:30am and immediately after took the right path up to Cliff. As it's name suggests, there are several scrambles on cliffs that you must do before getting up to the summit which are loads of fun. Up on top, it seemed like forever along a plateau before the summit arrived. Sharon was leading and very excited to finally get there. That she did and we spent some time celebrating her success as a new 46'er with a balloon, noise maker, card, and some bubbly. Congrats Sharon! What an inspiration to me not only as a cancer survivor and new 46er, but giving me a boost to finish my remaining peaks!

Sharon's 46th peak!

We descended back down to the junction when the group split: Don and Sharon elected to go summit Skylight while Debbie and I headed up Redfield. About an hour later at 1:07pm, Debbie and I reached the summit in the rain. The weather forecast for the week showed only a 40% chance of rain and mainly a mix of  sun and clouds but we could tell by the low lying clouds that the rain was here to stay. At only a temperature of 18 degrees, hiking was comfortable.  Redfield was less remarkable than Cliff and reminded me somewhat of Marshall. Headed back down and returned to the campsite around 4pm. Hike totals: 15.9km, 8 hours 15mins, 3312 ft of ascending.

In Red on Redfield in the Rain!

Returning at camp Debbie and I quickly put up my Siltarp for some protection from the ongoing rains. After our meal, we had an early night in the tent. All night the rain came down, sometimes light, sometimes hard but  we were sure of one thing, everything outside was wet! It was a good test for my solo tent which rose to the challenge with ease.

At 6am Debbie and I rose to get ready for our second mission: Allen. Sharon and Don were going to pack up and head out as their mission was complete. Allen mountain has been on my list for too long and it was time to get it out of the way. On the trail by 7am we headed over to the dam to fill up our bottles and water bladders and headed towards Hanging Spear Falls. We marched down the trail in our rainpants through thick wet vegetation covering the trail. Passed an obvious Hurricane Irene destruction zone along the Opalescent River and were shocked at the widespread destruction. Today, being the one year anniversary of this disaster, the evidence was still very  obvious. By 8:48am we were at the junction to Allen, signed in at the register and by 9:18am, the skies darkened again and we heard a clap of thunder. Soon after the rains came down hard once again and we were soaked to the bone.

Red Algae on Allen's slide

After crossing Skylight brook, the terrain began to change. Rising steeply, we climbed a slide for over 1700ft. The slide was covered in rain water as well as some red algae which made the surface very slimy and  slippery. We safely made it up to the top and after a quick scamper through some forest and we had made it! I was very happy and relieved to check this one off the list finally! We summited at 11:41am and spent the next 15 mins or so taking the standard summit photos and grabbing a bit to eat on the protected treed summit. The skies had finally stopped raining and we were soon going down passing 4 other summit groups as we descended the slippery slide.

Soaking wet on the summit of Allen

By 2:48pm we were back a the junction prepared to make our final ascent back up to the Flowed Lands. Skies were a mixed bag of blue and sunny as well as dark rain clouds and the temperature was near 18 degrees. We reached the dam and called it a day at 4:04, dried out from the rain and ready to pump some more water. A little over 9 hours and the I had finished Allen. Totals: 23km, 4122ft ascending, 9:04 hrs.

Debbie and I spent some time down on the Flowed lands checking out various forms of wildlife: Red tailed hawk, Canada Goose, various ducks, orange salamanders, and various airborne and water insects. One type of wildlife we hadn't seen yet were black bears. Everyone we had talked to to that point that was camping had had a black bear encounter at either the Colden Dam, Avalanche Lean-to, or Slant Rock. Our luck was to change that night as we went to bed after cleaning up from dinner and leaving our bear barrels away from the site when we heard (what I originally thought were late arriving hikers) heavy foot steps (multiple creatures) near the site, and then ON the site. I heard some rustling on the campsite and quickly yelled at Debbie to check it out. I feverishly tried to get out of my sleeping bag, grab my pants, headlamp and get out of the tent. Debbie beat me too it and saw the perpetrator: A black bear cub. Debbie yelled at it and it growled back. Then she finally blew a whistle and it took off on the trail. By then we were both out screaming, wailing, whistling, and smashing sticks on trees. We decided to grab all of our food related items including dishes, stoves, bear barrels, and cleaning products and move them to the lean-to across the path. After doing so, we retured to our tents knowing that we have removed the attractants. Within another hour, the bear came behind my tent again, then beside it snortin' away. Again, I called Debbie and another round of hootin' and hollerin' ensued. We thought about moving our sleeping arrangements, packing out completely,  and creating a barracade. We decided we'd try the latter. We moved my tent so that our tents were side by side and away from the cooking area, then picked up a large metal bench type thing left at the site along with some balancing logs around our tents so that if they returned we would have some warning/protection. After 2 adrenalin producing episodes, I didn't get a wink of sleep for hours. Listening to hear the return of the furry creatures, they eventually did return at 1:45 am to find nothing interesting and eventually disappeared. This still didn't ease my anxiety and I got about 2 hours sleep max.

Our makeshift barricade to ward off furry black creatures!

Up at 6am, we quickly packed up our gear, headed over to the lean-to to find our foodstuffs still there, and headed down the trail. The air was crisp and the coloured leaves already on the ground we indicating that fall is just around the corner. Two hours later we were at the parking lot and on our way home.

Raindrops near Allen's summit

Google Earth track image

5 more to go!

#36 Haystack, #37 Basin, and #38 Saddleback-June 30th, 2012

Glenn, Krista

School's out for summer! On Friday June 29th Glenn and I headed straight from our last day of school down to Keene Valley. Arriving early, we headed to the Mountaineer to buy a pair of La Sportiva Nepal Mountaineering boots for our upcoming course in the Rockies in July. We hit the trail and backpacked in to camp just past John's Brook Lodge. Up to this point, I'd never seen the famous JBL Lodge so it was interesting for me to lay  my eyes this historic place. Camping was uneventful on Friday night except for the late arrival at 1:30am of another camping party of 3 who chose to pitch their tents right beside ours.

Haystack's windy summit

Up at 6am, and on the trail by 7 to beat the heat, we slogged our way up past Bushnell falls and Slant rock feeling the fatigue from our school year dragging us down. We arrived at Little Haystack to be greeted by a Trail Steward and gale force winds blowing up Panther gorge. We hiked up over Little Haystack albeit sometimes off balance, and up the home stretch to Haystack's summmit. Standing at over 4900 feet, Haystack's summit was breathtaking with its 360 degree views. We stopped to take many photos, have a snack, and enjoy the winds drying our bodies off! It was 10:40am when we reached the summit, and 10:54 when we left.

Basin Mtn's summit

Descending down to the col between Haystack and Basin was interesting with lots of boulders and loose rock to keep your mind focused. The hike up from the col to Basin's summit was difficult not because of the terrain but because the day's heat and humidity was starting to hit full force. Up at Basin's summit we enjoyed the breeze once again and took a snack and drink break before descending once again. It was 12:30pm when we arrived.

Glenn climbing Saddleback cliffs

Leaving Basin we were hit with a number of panoramic viewing sites as well as a number of tricky rock descents. The hike up to Saddleback was much shorter. We hit the well-known Saddleback cliffs and used our previous rock climbing techniques and skills to scramble up the cliffs without any issues. That said, I'm not sure I would want to be there in the winter months or on any slippery day for that matter. I'll have to remember to bring crampons and axes if I ever return there in the winter. We helped a group of 3 ladies also get up to the summit. We arrived at 1:30pm and once again took photos, ate snacks, and enjoyed the views.

Saddleback Summit

New slide and stairs on the Orebed

The descent down off Saddleback was long but also interesting in parts on the Orebed trail. The new slide destroyed a portion of the old trail but trail crews have been busy building stairs along the slide. The exposure on the slide in the sun put me over the top and I felt my body temperature rise. Once we hit John's Brook we immediately took off our boots and soaked our feet in the cold water and dunked our head and faces multiple times while sipping on water and eating delicious jujubes. Sitting the the river in the shade was very gratifying after a day of hardwork.

We headed back to camp and camped out the rest of the night sleeping the majority of the time and hiked out to the Garden the next morning. I've now summited in every month of the year! Hike totals: 17.4 km, 5374ft of ascending, and 8.5 hours.

#32 Macomb, #33South Dix, #34 East Dix, and #35 Hough-Saturday April 7th, 2012

Deb, Sharon, Don, Krista

Macomb Slide

This trip started with lots of bad karma. It started the Thursday before the trip when I wore new shoes to work and got blisters on my heels. That same day we found out the unfortunate news that Glenn's grandmother had past away. Arrangements were made for after the hike, so in the end it worked out that I could still head down with the gang. On the way to Cornwall on Friday, I realized that I had forgotten my passport at home, sending us back to Ottawa to meet Glenn to pick it up. The mistake had cost us over 2 hours of travel time. Feeling horrible about having Debbie drive the extra miles, I insisted to pay for her hostel costs for the weekend. It was the right thing to do. We were also able to arrange for Sharon to pick up a pair of glacier glasses that she had ordered from the Mountaineer before it closed. We stopped in Lake Placid to meet up with our fellow hikers Sharon and Don, and our KV friend Marie for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Finally arrived at the hostel after 8pm and had a good debate about bringing snowshoes or not right up until bedtime.

After a short night sleep, we woke up at 4:30am and arrived on the Elk Lake road just after 6am. Knowing that the Elk Lake road gate was still closed (despite the unseasonably warm spring and lack of moisture), we had all brought mountain bikes to cycle up to the actual trailhead 3km or 2 miles from where we park. But this was the day when my karma changed from bad to good as we got to the gate and it was open! We rejoiced thinking that the DEC must have decided it was dry enough to open the road to the trailhead. We drove down to trailhead and started off at 6:30am. We had cut off 6km of the hike already!

Macomb summit

Trail Conditions

We marched on the dry rocky path to the Slide brook camping area where we made the decision to head up Macomb first and do the loop counterclockwise. Debbie took off her pack and by accident broke her $172 pair of new glacier glasses. Add to that the piece of plastic that popped off them the day before. She was not impressed and decided they needed to be returned. More on that later. Sharon lead us up the trail to the bottom of the Macomb slide. Being that the temperature with the wind was below zero, most of the loose sand and rock on the slide was frozen in the ground, allowing for fairly easy climbing. We were  up before we knew it. Onward to the Maccomb summit, we donned our microspikes hitting a thing covering of snow ice near the summit. We arrived at the summit at 8:58am, about 2.5 hours after our start. The summit was very windy and cold, and there was a summit marker on the ground waiting for us. We were hoping the temperature would warm up to the expected 8 degree celcius high soon.

South Dix summit shot with Macomb in the background

View of South Dix and Hough from East Dix

After a quick photo session and snack, we found the herd path from the summit over to South Dix. The herd path was blanketed with snow but routefinding was fairly easy as you could see the snow spine that had been packed down all winter. Walking on the snowspine provided a great hardpacked surface allowing us to move very quickly. Arriving at the base of some exposed bare rock, we took off the microspikes and scampered up to see the impressive views. After some photos, we kept on moving to the actual summit, passing a cairn that marked the junction we would be returning to later to go to Hough. The South Dix summit was incredible. Sheltered, warm, and south facing, I saw views I never had seen before in the Southern pa
rt of the park. We arrived at 9:59, about an hour from the Macomb summit and about 3.5 hours from the start. We decided to take a longer apple break and I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed feeling.

East Dix Summit shots

Moving on to East, we hiked down hill and hit a junction. We initially walked the wrong way first which was going downhill but realized quickly that we should be going up instead and backtracked to the junction and up we went. Another fantastic rock summit! I scrambled up to the highest summit rock a few minutes before the rest of the gang came up and took a couple self-portrait photos. Another summit without a marker. We took many photos from this summit of the rest of the Dix Range along with the Santanoni range in the distance which I've never seen from any other summit. We arrived at East Dix summit at 11am.

I lead the group back up South to the cairn junction. By now the temperatures had risen and the snow had began to soften. There was a definite noticable difference between now and earlier. We headed over Pough and on our descent into the col, conditions became treacherous with the snow balling under our microspikes and the slick ice lying right beneath that. We slowed our pace for safety and reached the campsite in the col, marking the junction with our GPS'. From there it was only about 20mins up to the summit of Hough, however much steeper than we had encountered in awhile. We arrived on the summit of Hough at 12:49pm. I was in total shock that we had 4 summits bagged by 1pm! Back in the wind on Hough's summit we took some quick summit photos, added some layers and ate lunch. The views from Hough were incredible: Elk Lake, Skylight, Marcy, Haystack, Basin, Nippletop, Dix, Beckhorn, etc. Amazing.

My Hough summit shot

We descended back down to the col and hooked up with the Lilian Brook herdpath. Steep at first we had to again be careful of our steps on the snow covered ice until we hit a cairn junction where the grade eased and we marched out eventually losing all the snow and therefore our microspikes. We met up with the main trail at 2:51 and hiked over to the Slide Brook lean-to for one more break before heading out. We met our first hiker of the day there and noticed that there were others using the lean-to. Soon after Sharon reminded Debbie that because our hike was much shorter than anticipated, she could make it back to the Mountaineer in KV to return her glacier glasses. Tomorrow was Easter Sunday and the Mountaineer would be closed so this would be her only chance. Debbie and I immediately doubled our pace speed and practically ran out to the truck. Behind us, the solo hiker Adam kept up with us in hope he could hitch a ride to the gate where he had parked. Sharon and Don lagged as they were in no need to rush and had their own car. I quickly signed out at the register and took a photo of my GPS and off we went. It was 4:15 and we had finished the hike int 9hrs and 45 mins, 21.5km and 4601ft of ascending.

Deb, Don, Sharon, Krista-Group shot on Hough

We noticed that there were no other cars parked where we were so we wondered if the gate was really open or not. Debbie drove like a wildwoman to the gate and when we arrived it was closed. Adam hopped out and was ready to open it for us but it seemed to open automatically and so Debbie hit the gas and were back in KV in no time and she was able to make it back to the Mountaineer. When Sharon and Don arrived  at the gate, the ranger came out to say that she had left the gate open by mistake in the morning and so the gate hadn't officially been open for the season-we were just really lucky! I'm not exactly sure why it wasn't open-the road was bone dry and hard packed. All in all we had a fantastic day with great conditions, competent group, and a little luck!

#29 Gray, #30 Skylight, #31 Marcy-March 15, 2012

Glenn, Krista

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.

Gray summit shot

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.

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.

Finally atop the highest point in NY state!

Enjoying a rare uncrowded sunny summit atop Marcy

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!

Marcy summit cone north side

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.

Rocky south facing side of Marcy summit cone

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!

The bare truck trail

Totals: 32.4km, 11 hours, 10 mins,5260 ft of ascending.

Our track highlighted in blue

#27 Colvin and #28 Blake-Saturday January 28th, 2012

Glenn, Krista

Looking down on Ausable Lake from Colvin

Freezing rain!

Twelve of us ventured down to Newcombe through a horrible snowstorm on Friday January 27th. It was a 'Snow Day' where the buses are cancelled so Glenn and I had an easy day at school without classes and exams and was able to leave a bit early to get a headstart in the storm. We followed Pat and Debbie down which turned out to be a good thing as I wasn't confident navigating the route and when we we got there all the road signs were covered in snow so routefinding could have been impossible!

Views from Colvin of Basin

The alarm went off at 5am at the Tamarack cabin where 6 of us slept. The other cabin labelled the Pilot's cabin where the remaining 6 slept also awoke at 5. The gange was off to do the Santanoni range but as I have already completed it I had thought of doing Allen. Due to the mild weather above freezing the entired week before the trip, most of the river crossings were open and so we decided to consider other options. I decided to drive over to Keene Valley to bag Blake and Colvin, two peaks that I need for my 46'er quest. At 5:30am we were out the door and driving the Blue Ridge road over to Keene Valley. We pulled into the Ausable parking lot around and hour later and had signed in at the register by 6:57. Temperature at the car was -3 degrees celcius. Within meters of the register we had to don our microspikes. The Lake Road was sheer ice! I guess the storm the night before had brought freezing rain to Keene Valley, not snow.

Atop Colvin

View of Blake

By 9am we were at the Elk Pass-Colvin junction. There we switched our traction devices to snowshoes. You could have probably continued on in crampons or microspikes but I wanted to avoid post-holing and wanted to use the heel lifter bar on the steeper sections of the ascent that did come in handy. Climbing up to Colvin's summit we encountered many steep icy pitches that proved to be quite tricky in parts. The temperature was around zero and we stripped down to baselayer without hats or mits on all the ascents. We landed on the summit around 10:15am and were pleased to see many views of Great Range and Nippletop. We quickly took some pictures and marched across towards Blake, and passed a group of two gentlemen from Buffalo who had been ahead of us until this point.

Negotiating ladders with snowshoes on

My Blake summit shot

Again, we encountered some steep and icy sections desceding Blake and two ladders! We arrived at the Col and noticed that no one had travelled the trail down to the lake. We ascended immediately up to Blake and our heel lifter bar worked magic up the steep icy sections. Before we knew it we were up the 600ft. Glenn had nicked his finger on his new snowshoes so we bandaged him up, ate some lunch and took our photos. The two gentlemen caught up to us on the summit of Blake just as we were leaving at 11:57. On our descent we figured out the best way to descend was to downclimb backwards down the ice in order to keep things safe. This technique was slow, but the safest way to proceed. We marched our way up out of the col with our heel lifter bars in action again and passed another group of guys headed towards Blake. We arrived back at the Colvin summit about 1:15 and took another break to fuel up and enjoy the views. The clouds had lifted so we took a few more photos and carefully downclimbed numerous steep pitches down towards the junction. There were a couple times I wish I had had a ice axe.

Descending backwards

The Lake Road or "Ice" road

On the past 3 hikes I have been testing out a new jacket called the Mountain Hardwear Drystein jacket made of the new Dry-Q Elite fabric that is dubbed the new Gore-tex. It claims that it breathes so well that it doesn't need armpit zippers. I am pleased to report that the jacket stands up to all its claims. I am amazed at how much longer I can leave my shell on. Fabrics like the Dry Q are going to revolutionize the industry I'm sure.

At the junction again we switched back to the microspikes and marched out to the Lake Road and signed out at the register at 4pm.

Totals for this hike: 23.6km, 4373 ascending, 9.5 hours