Playing in the Adirondacks snow Traversing 11 peaks in two days By Real Perriard A FINAL CHECK shows we’ve packed all our equipment from Bushtukah — crampons, snowshoes with crampons, ice axe, sleeping bags, tent, rope... This is my fifth traverse of the Adirondacks Great Range, but the first winter trip along these 11 Adirondack summits. We’ll park in Keene Valley and climb Roostercomb, Hedgehog, the two Wolf Jaws, Armstrong, Gothics, Saddleback, Basin, Little Haystack and then head to the two major peaks, Haystack and Marcy. We’ll return to Keene Valley on the lengthy John Brookes Trail. In 1997, we covered the 40 kms and 9,000 feet of vertical ascent in 15
Photo by Real Perriard.
embarrassed, we quickly pack up while the stove melts snow for our day’s liquid intake. Munching frozen bagels, the serious part of our little adventure finally begins. Hedgehog is a soft summit. We cruise over it without snowshoes and only the weight of our packs slows us down until the Lower Wolf Jaw climb. Steps are more deliberate here and conversation slows, but we reach the top
Our romp catches us in deep snow where we’re trapped underneath thick Adirondack cedars. hours in torrential cold rains that slowed our pace. Now, with large packs and unknown snow conditions, we’re giving ourselves two days to complete the trip. With our bellies full of pasta we park the car, change into trekking clothes, don our packs and head into the forest after 9 p.m. The early trail is well traveled and we move easily without snowshoes, reaching the junction to the first summit by 11 p.m. Roostercomb has a pleasant lookout. In previous trips, I’d always reach this summit at sunrise, and now it has its own beauty at night. An hour later, we use our snowshoes to leave the main trail and find a good tent site. We’re comfortable in cushy sleeping bags by 1 a.m. and we set our tiny watch alarm to wake us at 5 in the morning. We awake to bright sunlight at 7:30a.m. and skip breakfast. A little www.OttawaOutdoors.ca
easily enough. We race down and feel like we’ve warmed up. Miles go by steadily as do the next two summits. Armstrong gives us a good view of the range, with Marcy far in the distance and the intervening summits all covered with snow. Inspired by the vista we enjoy our longest rest, take some photos and eat before we head to Gothics and Saddleback, hoping to make the last descent in daylight. The final steps on the Gothics ridge give us our first real feel of the mountainscape. An icy blast pushes our trekking poles horizontally and snow piles into high drifts. We struggle with snowshoes sinking deep in powdery snow, our progress reduced to a frustrating crawl. Reaching these summits in winter is not like an elegant warm-weather rock climbing expedition.
We sweat it out in the cool temperatures and our crawl is further reduced as we’re forced to travel upright, taking high, difficult steps on snowshoes laden with snow. The ridge evolves into the Gothics summit as the snow turns to rock and ice and the hard light of the late afternoon sun urges us on. Saddleback slows hikers even on a nice summer day. It has a series of vertical rock steps high enough to require hand holds. As we summit, we avoid the regular route when we notice evidence of a winter route. Off to the right, a steep trail leads down the wrong side of the mountain, but eager to avoid using the rock steps, we head down the steep decline. Our romp catches us in deep snow where we’re trapped underneath thick Adirondack cedars. Seeing an uncertain future that could involve a nighttime bushwhack at best, and a slope that’s too steep to be safe at worst, we make the difficult decision to retrace our track to the scary rock step. On the summit, we find the main trail downward and slowly begin the descent. I favour a short ice gully. With ice axe placed judiciously on slivers of ice, I feel like a real mountaineer. Relieved it is over, we race to the bottom and find a tent site on level ground. With tent pitched, we settle into an evening of horizontal relaxation, up on our elbows chatting, a pile of snow within reach for melting into hot drinks. The –10ºC temperature makes for ideal winter camping conditions, perhaps even
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