A postmortem to Winter 2012

January views of the High Peaks from the summit of West Crane Mountain. The photo is deceiving, as there was only about 7-12in of snow on the ground, much of which melted in the following days of warm rain.

 
March and April are historically the biggest snow months at elevation in the Northeast, and over the last few years winter hasn’t really stuck around until Presidents Day weekend, chiefly because of arctic highs forcing moisture snow) south into the coast and southern mountains. However, unlike this year, we’ve had a few false starts in those years. Plenty of snow, then a warm rainy spell with it's accompanying meltout. Enough that snowshoes and skis would have seen some justified use by Presidents Day, even if skiers and climbers weren't completely happy with conditions. 

This year, despite snow in the High Peaks and lower elevations right on schedule, it’s been pretty much shoulder season conditions since the start. It hasn’t been typical Northeast extremes keeping us in a state of perpetual November, just consistently mild weather. No record highs, but lots of 40 degree days with rain.

Looking at the climbing logs, it looks like it’s been a decent ice season for people putting up free climbs I couldn’t aid with a bolt gun. Some very ballsy and serious routes have gone up all over the Northeast. But Scottish mixed climbing has existed in conditions like this for decades across the pond, even if it is just now making a renaissance in the Northeast USA.

Skiers, on the other hand, haven’t had much to choose from. Unlike ice climbers, skiers -as a general rule- don’t get masochistic pleasure from finding the worst possible snow conditions and skiing.

While I’ve gotten a few trips out on ice, to date I haven’t actually needed my snowshoes. Granted, I haven’t needed them largely because lower elevation conditions are so poor I just haven’t wasted the fuel to get to the North Country’s 1000m+ elevations where snow can be found.  Uncharacteristically, I’ve yet to take a trip to Vermont or New Hampshire either. Often they have better conditions at various times of the winter. In the Adirondacks, above 2000ft there begins to be some sign snowshoes could be necessary, and I hear wonderful reports of snow upwards of 20-30 inches at 4000ft.

I haven’t really needed my winter gear at all. It’s been mild enough most days that I’ve worn my base layers and soft shell pants. Other than wearing my insulated boots because they are required for ice climbing/steep crampon terrain, I haven’t needed those either.

The lack of snow also has meant my camping gear has pretty much been mothballed. I love snow camping and winter backpacking. Pound out a perfectly flat tent pad where ever you choose, and sleep like a king in the quietness of a forest sound proofed by fresh snow. Camping on the solid sheets of ice that has replaced snow cover or the forest floor is a lot less fun.

Crampons, or rather the necessity of crampons, are a completely different story. These are standard gear from car to summit and back during 2012. Even in the Southern Adirondacks, where there was almost no snow at all on Super Bowl Sunday, we needed crampons the entire two miles back to the car, hiking on a moderately graded low elevation trail.

The most depressing fact is that looking at the NOAA CPC long range data, I can’t say I am particularly optimistic winter is going to start anytime soon. NOAA says that we will continue with above average temps into April, along with normal precipitation. Neither of these factors scream big snow systems or extended cold.

No doubt we’ll get a blizzard in April to muck up spring hiking and rock climbing season. Other than that, I don’t see our recently historic trend of 8 grand weeks of winter beginning in late February.

I suppose the silver lining is I didn’t fork out $220 on those Tubbs Flex Alps I’ve been eyeing since last winter. Maybe I’ll score a used pair over the summer for a bargain price. I’ve also driven 75% less than a typical winter, which is good for the wallet, good for the odometer, and good for the environment.

All that said, I like living in this part of the country because of our four “over rated” seasons -as Left Coasters and Gulf Coasters like to put it. So no matter what the benefits, it still sucks to completely miss out on the most unique of those seasons.

Winter 2012, you had so much potential, but you never really stood a chance in this cruel world!

Long term consequences of improper streambed reconstruction in the Adirondacks post-Irene

Stream reconstruction on Styles Brook. Jay, NY. All photos courtesy Adirondack Council.

The Adirondacks are unique in concept and design, and because of the very nature of the patch work of public and private lands, the suspending of the permit process following Irene was both necessary and dangerous.

While people refer to the Adirondacks as a park, they really are nothing more than patches state forest preserve co-mingling with perhaps the nations most regulated zoning laws on private land.

Gulf Brook. Keene, NY. 

This, however, is a problem because, perhaps, no where else does there need to be such a fine balance between the needs of the people that live and work within the blue line and remaining true to article 14 of the New York State constitution. The the APA and article 14 are perhaps an impediment to life in this region, but they have prevented the Adirondacks from becoming another Catskills of the state. The idea that regulations have hindered growth is foolish, rather, they have made the Adirondacks relevant to both tourist and exploiters alike. They have also made the Adirondacks relevant in the hearts and minds of people from all over.

When Governor Cuomo announced a suspension of APA permits for rebuilding, I winced. Not out of selfishness, no doubt did cleanup and rebuilding need to be swift and without "unnecessary" red tape, but like with anything in life, it needed to be done correctly.

Following that bold announcement, the DEC did enact detailed guidelines, but many towns and DOT divisions either didn't receive them or chose to ignore them. It's human nature to be given a long leash and stretch it as far as you can.

At issue is the fact that permitting processes have not been entirely suspended. Water quality standards are still in effect. Dredging and channelization should only be occurring where there is "imminent threat to life, health, property, the general welfare and natural resources." The straigtening of channels and other man made changes to various brooks and rivers is actually potentially a threat to human lives and property, under far less intense conditions than Irene brought.

During Irene, nature showed us how in control it still is despite our technology and repeated attempts to control it. The DEC, despite budget and staffing cuts, still employs many intelligent and passionate people capable of making correct decisions necessary for long term success. Many of those people live, work or recreate in the towns affected by Irene flooding, and they certainly do not want to hamper the process of reconstruction and flood prevention. So it amazes me that the town supervisors and residents are so gung-ho about ignoring APA-DEC warnings and doing their own thing with the idea it can be fixed later.

Roaring Brook, now a ditch with water.

Fixing it later means fixing it FOLLOWING the rest of this years tropical storm season and next springs melt off. Fixing it correctly the first time means less chance of future flooding from insignificant rain falls. Remember this storm was a 500 year flood, not a regular occurrence, even in a region that is one of the wettest in the US.

Unfortunately, the towns and DOT divisions are intent on assuaging the fears of the residents -whom are also their constituents. However, to even have a shot at protecting those areas from Irene like flooding ever again, it is estimated some water ways would have to be 20ft deep and 200ft wide and constantly redredged. This simply isn’t practical, and the state would be better off relocating those residents and businesses within the 100 year flood zone to a different location. Furthermore, even heavily controlled waterways still are subject to flooding. Quite simply, water doesn't play nice with human interference, and trying to make it do so is only going to lead to bigger problems.

Entirely forgetting about the potential environmental impacts of improper stream bed restoration, which include reducing or eliminating trout habitat  and preventing tree regrowth on the banks of these brooks and rivers. Historically we've seen what bad flood control projects lead to, just look at Katrina. The Army Corps of Engineers is often at fault for massive flooding due to poor engineering and planning. It’s entirely possible that these poorly engineered flood control systems and stream reroutes that the DOT is doing, could actually cause flooding issues on much smaller floods than letting the streams naturally flow, or at most reverting them to pre-Irene state.

I sincerely hope these towns in the Adirondacks aren't attempting a quick fix, only to deal with bigger problems in a few years!

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The Adirondack Councils statement of concern can be found here.

Route 73 from Exit 30 to Keene Valley is now open

Route 73, linking Keene Valley to the Northway (I-87) is now fully open. Initially only a single lane was planned to be open within 10 days, but the DOT, Governor Cuomo and private contractors put together an amazing feat and came out way ahead of schedule. Truly amazing based on the photos and descriptions of the level of destruction to Route 73.

Based on business numbers while the roadway was closed, it appears Route 73 truly is the lifeblood of Keene Valley. Business owners reported a 75% loss in business. However, this could also be attributed to the Adirondack Forest Preserve's; High Peaks Wilderness, Giant Mountain Wilderness and Dix Mountain Wilderness all being closed for much of that time. These happen to be 3 of the most popular wilderness areas in the park for 4 season recreation and contribute immensely to the local economies of surrounding hamlets. The Forest Preserve contributes over $1 billion yearly to the New York economy.

Full press release from Andrew Cuomo's office available here.

The red line on the map below outlines the section of Route 73 heavily damaged by Irene and now reopened to the driving public today. Good news, indeed, for leaf peepers, hikers, peak baggers, rock climbers and ultimately the business owners who benefit from the tremendous variety of recreational activities in America's premier weekend wilderness!

Adirondack Park is still open for business post-Irene!!!

While en route to Whiteface Mountain and the Whiteface Slides on Friday (separate blog post/trip report), driving through Keene, Upper Jay, and many other areas of the Adirondacks, seeing the devastation created, in many places by relatively small innocuous brooks, really put things into perspective. Businesses, and worse, homes were destroyed. Peoples personal belongings put out to the curb or in there yards to be carted away. Beyond that towns pretty much cut off from the Northway and even other parts of the Adirondacks in what is the busiest month of the year. Labor Day through Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving, this 6 weeks is perhaps the most important of the year for the bottom line of businesses. Labor Day is gone, there is hope that the roads and infrastructure can be ready for Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to perhaps soften the blow.

There is tremendous misinformation about what is open, what is closed. And even on scene things were difficult to discern. 9N beyond Jay was closed last night, though I'd heard previously roads into Ausable Forks had reopened. 9N between Upper Jay and Keene is also open only to local traffic and because we already had made one mistake, we chose to not drive 9N to see how much of it is closed or if it is in fact passable all the way through.

That said, the Forest Preserve/Adirondack Park is open for business. There are over 6 Million acres of land inside the Blue Line (the line on maps that denotes what most people refer to as Adirondack State Park, though it is not a state park at all, it's really not even a park). Of that 6 million acres -an area the size of either Vermont or New Hampshire- the state owns or has easements to close to 4 million acres. Of that 4 million acres, only about 300,000 is closed. That means that all areas of the park, including Long Lake, Old Forge, Indian Lake, Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Speculator, Cranberry Lake, and countless others are open and have outdoor recreation available.

However, the areas that are closed are being enforced, and I'd recommend really not testing the police powers of the NYS-DEC Forest Rangers or ECO's. I know these guys are nicer than your average cop, and they are probably the only law enforcement officers that I am generally happy to encounter, but they have all the authority and quite a bit more than a New York State Trooper. The difference is they don't approach you as a criminal as cops are trained to do, so people often forget they do have tremendous authority. Personally, I don't see why a forest needs to be safety inspected for my use, afterall, many of us are happy to hike or climb up unmarked routes in the first place. But I'm going to respect the authority of the state to do what it needs to do on the Forest Preserve, and also realize that many people simply do not have the backcountry skills to deal with the potential damage.

Nevertheless, there might be a silver lining to all this. Many people get fixated on "High Peaks" and forget that sometimes the little peaks are pretty awesome too. This weekend is a great opportunity to explore other areas. I recommend Catamount, Whiteface, Silver Lake Mountain, Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area, the (officially) trail less Jay Wilderness (if roads allow access, possibly not yet), McKenzie Mountain Wilderness, Sentinel Range Wilderness. These are all in the Lake Placid/High Peaks Region. Also, the Western High Peaks is open for business. This includes 7 High Peaks, and the wonderful, yet often ignored Ampersand Mountain.

Ampersand to me is the Adirondacks! It's perfectly positioned between the High Peaks and Nortern/Western Lake Country. What a view!

I cannot forget Debar Mountain, Lyon Mountain and St Regis Mountain, all a little further north and east or west. Or Goodenow, Vanderwhacker, and Mount Adams to the south.

One last note, Keene Valley business district is open for business. There are quite a few nice shops in Keene Valley, and the town is cut off from it's lifeblood traffic from the Northway. And with the High Peaks Wilderness on lockdown, no one really has a reason to visit Keene Valley. Worse, the DOT has put up a roadblock in Keene inferring that Keene Valley is closed. KEENE VALLEY IS NOT CLOSED FOR BUSINESS! If nothing else, stop by the Mountaineer for some shopping, eat dinner at the Ausable Inn and visit the Noonmark Diner for a piece of pie! It would be a shame to see any of these places close due to this. The Mountaineer is one of the friendliest most helpful shops I have ever dealt with, and the two restaurants are pretty tasty too!

Don't Build Your House At The Bottom Of A Mountain.

All this really shouldn't be surprising to anyone. First, it's well known the Adirondacks have generally poor soil. Second, it's well known the Adirondacks have thin soil that is prone to "slides" following excessive rain or snowmelt, look around at the scenery, all those bare 2000ft rock slides came from somewhere.

My layman's take on this, it's a lot like when you get several types of snowfall in a short period of time. The different layers CANNOT bond together, thus they are more prone to creating an avalanche. These slides in Keene Valley are essentially dirt avalanches. And this particular slide is from multiple types of dirt, in different layers, unable to bond.

I guess I don't understand why people feel the need to tempt fate with selecting a home location. For example, when you build your house on the coast of the Outer Banks North Carolina, you have to expect it's going to get hit by at least one hurricane per year, if not several. Eventually, erosion, winds and flooding will destroy the house, one way or another. When it comes to mountains, just take a look around the base of them. They are filled with big piles of rocks, rubble and dirt that used to be somewhere closer to the top.Where is New Hampshire's "Old Man" of the mountains today? Despite being epoxied and wired into the mountain, he eventually succumbed to the forces of gravity and weather, and is now just a pile of rocks at the base of a mountain.

In spite of all our technology, we cannot defeat the forces of nature. Some disasters are just random acts of mother nature, but many others are people intentionally tempting fate.



From the ADK Daily Enterprise:

But what happened to the Adirondacks during the last ice age laid the groundwork for the landslide. Kozlowski said glacial ice advanced south into New York and then retreated at least 20 times. Water was often trapped in front of the glaciers, forming large, deep lakes where clay and silts were deposited.

"As we've been looking around over the past month-and-a-half, we're finding glacial lake sediments at elevations at 2,000 feet and higher on the sides of the High Peaks," he said. "This was not recognized prior to this."  - Adirondack Daily Enterprise

These Mission Plans Will Self Destruct in 5-4-3-2...

If you get no further than these words never forget..."there is more to life than the High Peaks Wilderness."

Even Dave was commenting on how crowded the Adirondacks can be before this trip, but I noted it's more that people flock to a few thousand acres of a nearly 4 million acre wilderness. If you seek solitude it surely can be found merely by crossing the High Peaks Wilderness off your itinerary and exploring some of the most diverse and most intact wilderness in the lower 48.

I don't really know exactly what to pin the collapse of this trip on but I certainly won't deny any responsibility in it's outcome.

Everything seemed planned well but at was a series of little issues that led to a complete failure.

The most important of which was the success of the trip required that we make it to a certain point the first day. There really wasn't a well thought out plan B for the first day. As I hadn't expected there to be a problem.

Secondly, route finding. For those seeking solitude, even Bald Peak is a reasonable overnight or single day objective. The reason, beyond Blueberry Cobbles there are very few tracks if any at all, and honestly I'm not even certain there were tracks up Bald Peak. The bigger problem was the before Blueberry Cobbles the previous groups seemed to have equal issues staying on the route as we did. So there would be false trails that ended in a return trip. This route finding cost us at least 1 hour, maybe more.

The fresh snow that fell the previous night was both a positive and a negative. On the positive end it allowed for us to avoid hiking on what was probably an icy trail below, on the negative end it meant we had to break trail. In spots the snow was soft and 3-4ft deep, in others it was either icy hard windblown or not very deep at all.

Finally, I have felt like I was getting sick for the past week. So Aim being "Miss Herbal" supplement pharmacist forced some echinacea tablets on me. I'm fairly confident they made me "more" jittery than I usually am the night before a trip. I fell right asleep Friday night but about 1 hour later I woke up and never fell asleep again. My heart seemed to be racing and I just couldn't fall asleep.

And the wild card that may or may not actually be the case, over estimating my fitness! It's hard to tell going on 1 hour of sleep, but I think my mind forgot how heavy a 40lb+ winter overnight pack is. And while some people are wondering how can you forget, let me give the men out there an example. You lift weights regularly for 6 months eventually benching 200 pounds, then the summer comes and you spend less time in the gym and more outdoors, when you head back indoors to the gym and weights, where do you put that bench press? Yep, right at 200 pounds, why? Not because you're stupid, but because your mind doesn't realize that your body hasn't bench pressed in 6 months, you only remember how relatively easy the number 200 was. It's not until you lift it the first time that you go, "holy shit batman, this is heavy."

So starting out with 1 hour of sleep, carrying a 40 pound plus pack just isn't going to be a great start. Usually my trips start out with not too much sleep the night before but usually 1 hour into the trip I am feeling better and just the excitement of being out in the wilds invigorates me enough to get through the day. Not this time, I felt like crap from the start and felt worse the more we hiked.

By the time we got to Blueberry Cobbles it was apparent I was not going to feel any better, and we were 1/3rd into the 6 mile hike to our 1st camp.

After some serious route detours we finally made it to the base of Bald and it's exposed rocky slabs to the summit. I grew tired of hiking with my MSR Denali snowshoes up the rock and at times icy slabs, so I stopped and switched to crampons. It was nice to not have to slide back with each step. When you are already tired, every bit of traction you can get is a plus.

There are only two styles of snowshoes I'd attempt to use on slabs with mixed rock, snow and ice, and both are made by MSR. I have the original Denali's, which many old timers snubbed their noses at back in the late 1990s when they came to market. Cheap plastic snowshoes, can't be any good. Well, 10 years later my Denali's are still ticking and unlike the only school shoes, I don't baby them. Rocks, talus, slabs, stream crossings, etc, these things just take the abuse.

MSR has come out with several evolutions of the Denali's mostly all are 90% of the original design that I have. For the most part the only improvement was the heel riser which raises your heel when climbing consistently steep slopes.

Dave, however, was using a brand new design, the Denali Lightning, that has some pluses and some negatives over my shoes. Pluses, even more aggressive traction that seemed to have less problems going up the mixed conditions rock slabs often found in the Adirondacks, the heel riser is built in, and the weight is perhaps a little less based on the flotation.

The negatives of the Denali Lightning are: 2 strap binding which doesn't hold the foot as well, the shoe is larger (25 inches vs. my 22 inch Denali's), while the decking is elevated and not bound on like the old school snowshoes, it is still a tarpaulin type material (probably Halpalon) that will eventually wear out over rocky terrain or trudging through spruce traps, and finally the size of the shoe isn't modular. Meaning the 25in flotation is set. My Denali's can go to 26 and 30inches with the additional tails.

Once we topped out on Bald Mountain 2 hours behind schedule and only 2 hours till sundown it seems to be prudent not to continue ahead. So we decided to back track and camp in one of the small cols that we passed on the ascent. Having taken nearly 5.5 hours to go the 4 miles and 2700ft ascent it didn't seem like a good choice to descend 500ft, and then reascend 1500ft to get to our planned camp 1.

My feelings on keeping yourself out of trouble are this, one bad decision usually doesn't lead to a tragedy but a series of bad decisions tend to end badly. The original goal was to be at Bald by 1pm and at Camp 1 by 4pm. We were way behind schedule and already new the conditions and potential places to camp if we back tracked. We didn't know the conditions ahead, and route finding would probably only become worse, as would trail breaking since undoubtedly no other group had passed Bald Mountain!

So Dave begrudgingly agreed to head back down. Definitely a disappointment for us both but I think the correct move.

We camped in the first depression below Bald Mountains final ascent. I'd actually had the ridge just above where we camped in mind so we could catch the sunrise, but with the forecast of 25mph winds overnight it seemed like a better choice to take the protected option.

We packed out a tent platform using out snowshoes, but a rarity for the Northeast, the snow never seemed to consolidate. Even after letting it sit for the usual 20 minutes after we stopped flattening the area we still ened up with very soft unconsolidated snow.

After setting up the tent the first order was to rehydrate. We were guinea pig testing my MSR hanger that I've only used once in more moderate weather. It's a titanium hanging kit that attaches to the Superfly canister stove.

Being a notorious vestibule cooker over the years I wanted something even more storm proof. Something that also increased the overall comfort level while camping in any winter weather, and something that would further reduce the amount of clothing we needed to carry on winter trips.

The hanging stove worked beautifully with the help of lots of research. I'll blog separately on it's wonders but lets just say it's superior to sitting outside in the wind and cold while wearing 10lbs of clothing just to melt snow and eat dinner. And the added bonus, is the tent hits about 35-40F and is bone dry, allowing your gear to actually thaw and even dry.

Oddly, I really wasn't hungry so I mostly drank lots of tea, apple cider, and ate just my freeze dried dinner rather than the whole meal of beef stew, mashed potatoes, and chicken noodle soup.

After 3.5 hours of melting snow, cooking, and rehydrating we hit the sack at 9pm. The Marmot Swallow is a huge 3 season tent, but with winter bags and bivy sacks it's just barely adequate for winter use. Still it vents well, and is big enough but moving around to get things setup is a real pain. My verdict on it, is that it's a n adequate all season tent, provided you don't get socked in with a heavy wet snow. The flat area just above the main vestibule would not do well to shed heavy wet snows. So this tent might be more of a all conditions summer tent (as marmot does market it) rather than a true winter tent.

Once we got things together we both slept like rocks. The overnight lows were just above 0F, and the morning temps at 7am were about 15F. Once the stove and the sun got going in the tent it was well over 40F as we were eating breakfast.

My boots seemed a little tight in the toes on the hike in so heated the liner just at the toes in a plastic bag in the boiling water for 10 minutes. The liner was pretty well perfectly heated and I simply crammed my foot in and stretched the toes a bit. 10 minutes later my toes had a little extra wiggle room on the downhills, so nice!!

We were on the trail before 9:30am after a little delay due to Dave spilling 16 ounces of tea in the tent and on my camera gear. Thankfully my Lowepro 65AW and my camera (a Pentax K10D) are both highly weather proof. I simply tossed the camera bag in the snow, camera and all, I we cleaned up the tent. Eventually I hung the 65AW and camera on a tree to completely dry out in the morning sun.

The hike out was a perfect day. Low 30s and perfectly blue skies, just a light breeze.

So while the trip as planned was a complete failure, it was a good workout, a good test trip, and overall two good days in the mountains. I think my brain just might remember for a few weeks how much energy it takes to carry that multi day winter pack compared to a 20lb winter day pack, and perhaps be a little more lenient in planning my next few overnighters. My knee was sore Saturday night, but only at the tibial screw site, and Sunday morning it felt like a $40,000 knee. So it's a work in progress, if only real work was this much fun!!! Besides, the planned trip will still be there next winter; yes, there will be a part deux!

And for Dave, a few shots of our 2005 trip to Marcy and Haystack (since I never sent him these):

technorati tags:ADK, Adirondacks, Bald Mountain, RPR, Rocky Peak, Rocky Peak Ridge, Blueberry Cobbles, Hiking, Climbing, mountaineering, NY, Giant Mountain Wilderness, hanging stove, MSR, Denali, Ascent

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3rd Time Is The Charm: Sunrise On Cascade Mountain

After 3 consecutive weekends of searching for a sunrise, I finally got one.

In my pursuit of sunrises, I am finally getting my fat ass in shape. After being in great shape to end the summer, my back was bothering me in October, nothing ever happened, but there is a feeling that anyone with disc issues knows, and I had it, causing me to put off my second 10 day paddling trip. It worked out because it rained torrentially for almost all 10 days.

I'm not a fair weather paddler or hiker, but 10 days of pouring rain is depressing, and even after my back was feeling like it wasn't an issue I bailed out and decided on work rather than waste a week.

Nevertheless, good intentions and excitement for winter turned to getting lazy as the winter was slow to arrive. Fitness is fleeting and once it's gone it's a pain in the butt to get it back. I'm going to venture to say, despite working out hard in November, by Jan 1st I was in the worst fitness I've ever been in.

So very slowly I am working my way into shape by chasing sunrises up some of the smaller Adirondack peaks, each one getting progressively harder (or easier if you look at it from a fitness standpoint).

Enough with the discussion of my seemingly 50 year old cardiovascular system, my weak muscles, and Krispy Kreme physique.

Sunday, I left home at 3:20am and got to the Cascade trail head at 4:55am.

After putting on my boots and gaiters, and making sure I didn't forget anything, I was on the trail by 5:20am.

I started to leave my snowshoes at the trail head, but since I took them I decided to wear them rather than lash them to my pack along with my 9lb tripod, and crampons. Big mistake! After about 2 minutes the trail turned to rock and mud. So I was forced to hike in the trees which was not too troublesome. The forest to Cascade is uniquely thin for the Adirondacks, and bushwhacking (albeit only meters from the trail) is relatively fast and unencumbered.

Walking on the frozen snow was like walking on styrofoam. No powder to be found in the Adirondacks after a week of record temps and rain.

At about 3000ft, approx 900 vertical feet from the trailhead, the snow coverage was more consistent and it was back on the trail full time. By 3500ft there was snow covering all of the ground for the first time.

The hike was under a star filled sky, which occasionally found me turning my headlamp off just to take in the starlight.

At about 3700ft there is a steep rock section which in a typical winter is covered with deep snow till the top of the slab where it is a sheet of 20* ice. Unfortunately, despite the great December, the mountains resemble early November rather than January.

At this point I removed my snowshoes, and put on my crampons, with the snow being rock hard and bulletproof, I ditched my snowshoes deep in the trees and hiked the rest of the way in crampons.

The summit of Cascade is a long fairly flat ridge, although somewhat slightly technical with a few scrambles to get to the high point. It's a typically non nondescript Adirondack summit that is often considered the easiest 4000 footer in the Adirondacks. It's not that Cascade is not a pretty summit, it actually reminds me of a mini Mount Mansfield when you come out of the scrub line on Sunset Ridge with the big expanse of exposed ridge, but it's not a conical summit like most people envision most summits to be.

What can't be minimized are the spectacular views which take in almost all of the 4000ft peaks.

I got to the summit at 7:15, although it's a bit deceiving as I wondered if stopping to photograph lower would have been better, I wasted a few minutes evaluating vantage points. For some reason I've always liked the views below the summit much better than on top.

After 45minutes up there, in what was an unusually windless day, and actually fairly warm in the sun, we headed down and I considered hiking to Porter Mountain about .7 miles further.

I started down the trail to Porter but about 5 minutes into it I turned around. Unfortunately while I felt great, my heels had blisters (feet need to get in shape too), and I decided to head down.

The hike out was uneventful. Other than of course the typical weekend hordes that hike to Cascades summit. The solitude of 5am starts suit me, but it's always nice to talk to a few people on the way down, and more so with the smug satisfaction of knowing it's around 8am and you are done with the day!!! In all about 12 people were hiking up on my way out.

There is no such thing as a bad day in the mountains, but it's occasionally nice to see the sun rise, to see blue in the sky, and to see a few feet in front of your face. What was sad was the drive home through the mountain passes. Typically filled with waist deep snow, frozen ponds, and ice covering the cliffs, which in turn are covered by ice climbers. Instead it looked like late fall or early spring. Had I been in a coma for the last few months, I'd have guessed it was November.

technorati tags:ADK, Adirondacks, hiking, climbing, winter, snow, snowshoe, Pentax, K10D, Blue Mountain Lake, sunrise, Fire Tower, cabin, summit, caretaker, Border Collie, dog, photography, night hiking, NY, NYS, New York, 518, upstate, North Country, Daks, DEC, forest, wilderness, Cascade Mountain

Mountain Visions New Years Day (almost) Sunrise On Rooster Comb

Leaving home at 3:30am and heading for Keene Valley for a 6:00am start, I thought I might sneak in a New Years sunrise before the weather turned snowy. Sometimes you just don't luck out. Despite the weather looking like it would cooperate and solid selection on the mountain, the sun never rose.

Well, obviously it rose, or you wouldn't be reading this, it just wasn't visible through the thick cloud cover.

After consulting my memory and then National Geographic Topo! Norteast I settled on a few possible options. The criteria were decent views, less than 3.5 miles and fairly easy to ascend. Afterall, I was hiking on 24 hours without sleep by the time I got back down. Rooster Comb, Hopkins, Noonmark, and Cascade all came to mind.

After checking out the azimuth of the sunrise and using the line of sight tool on the Topo! to make sure I had a clear view of the heading, I opted for Rooster Comb which was a fairly short 1:15 minute drive from home.

Rooster Comb is the traditional start of the Great Range Traverse and a mere 2700ft compared to the 4000ft height of the rest of the peaks beyond Hedgehog Mountain. It's about 3 miles from the trail head and a fairly nice hike with a lot of switch backs. The mountain has a nice open summit with 270* views, but the views are about average because the surrounding peaks block out any significant long range views. However, you peer right down Keene Valley, and the sun just happened to be rising behind the valley.

After putting on my boots and gaiters I was a little ahead of schedule but the weather wasn't looking like the 10am snow start that was predicted. After listening the the comedy channel on Sirius for a few minutes longer we started out at 5:50am. By the time we signed in at the register and I adjusted my poles and snowshoes it was 6am.

The issue wasn't getting to the summit early for me, but for Caney. He doesn't have a winter coat grown in yet and he gets cold easily when not moving, so getting there without too much standby time is key.

The weather was great, I hiked in my usual goretex bibs, and a thin base layer top under my goretex shell. Warm enough to unzip the pit zips and hike gloveless without a hat. When I left at 3:30a the temp in Lake Placid was about 18F so I'm guessing it was about 15-20F when we started, and windless.

After about 45minutes it was light enough to hike sans headlamp, but it was also snowing quite hard. Then just as I'd given up hope for a clean sunrise the snow stopped and it seemed to be getting clearer.

As we approached the summit, I could see some orange around the horizon but the sunrise was not to be. While it stopped snowing for about 45 minutes, it never cleared up and that faint orange glow behind the clouds was as good as it got.

We spent 25 minutes up there, of course the wind really picked up after sunrise (gusting to 25mph in Plattsburg at sea level), but nothing ever got photographically interesting. The trip down is fairly steep at the top, and well below the summit there are several chances to cut the switch backs and go cross country to link up with the trail. We really cut a few minutes off here and there and the deeper powder (about 3ft+) was more interesting then the well packed trail.

The hike out was very snowy with perhaps an inch falling. The poor weather was a great test for the weathproofness and usability in the cold of the K10D, as I looked to salvage the morning from a photographic standpoint . The camera and FA 28-70 f/4 lens handled the weather quite well, and even on digital this lens as been a workhorse for me since I bought it in 1998. (perhaps one of the best 28-70 zooms made from a performance to size standpoint, and only a stop slower but much lighter than most "pro" 2.8 zooms which I prefer not to carry while hiking).

The drive home was spoiled by flat landers and downstaters. Yep, I'm a geographic bigot and proud of it. If you can't handle the snow don't come to the North Country! My drive time doubled as people made their way home to their meager existence, in a life of expensive misery, in the sprawling metropolis of downstate NY and the equally crappy New Jersey.

So Happy New Year!!!

(Day 1 of 365...and I'm 1/1, solid 1.000 batting average, undefeated!!...if I could only keep this average till next Jan 1st I'd litterally be a happy camper).

technorati tags:Rooster Comb, ADK, Adirondacks, Noonmark Mountain, Hedgehog, Giant Mountain, Snow Mountain, Chapel Pond, Keene Valley, hike, backpack, photography, mountaineering, Mountain Visions, Pentax, K10D, weather sealed, NY, New York, downstate, North Country, sunrise, snowshoe

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