Trail much like reported on 27 December. Barefoot to herd path, then to the base of the climb. The First 500' of the climb is easier with microspikes than bare boots. Next 500' is a toss-up between micros and snowshoes. I noticed a downbound snowshoe track from yesterday so put mine on. Above 3000' elevation, I'd strongly suggest snowshoes.
I didn't encounter the ice issues that folks on the 27th found. I believe the reason is that a light coating of snow overnight soaked into the wet ice surface and made it crusty on top. Good traction in snowshoes.
Due to differential melting of the snowpack (denser snow in track melts slower than loose snow on sides of the track), there are many areas where there is no trench whatsoever, so even a...
Derek and I headed out by the St Huberts trailhead where it looked like spring was arriving quickly. we got my stuff together and headed down the road to the Adirondack Club at 8:20 AM. There were just patches of snow around but brought crampons and microspikes.
After signing in at the gate, we walked the 1.76 miles down Lake Road where things were looking more wintery. Here we crossed over the river by the Beaver Meadows Trail to the connection with the Wedge Brook Trail. I put on my microspikes further up the trail, just below the col between the Wolfjaws as the trail was finally covered in hard-packed snow with a light dusting on top. The trail had a nice steady grade up to the col between Upper and Lower Wolfjaw.
The steep descent...
A nice crisp morning started the day. I'm not sure what the temps were but everything was still frozen solid. We signed in at 7 am and tested the trail just beyond the sign-in, and decided it was a go-to use micro-spikes until Calamity Brook lean-to as it was a solid base. We switched over to our snowshoes to cross over Flowed lands and they would stay on the rest of the day. The trail up Marshall is well packed out and any false paths are obscure now. As the temps rose the layers shed and the snow bombs dropped. We arrived at the summit shortly after noon and were soon greeted by another hiker. Anyone out yesterday knew the views were superb. We relaxed on the summit for an hour having lunch and enjoying the views. We started back down...
On January 6, 2013, Derek, Mark, Adam, myself, and a friend of Adams set out to hike Gothics. All 3 of us needed it for some list (regular or winter season), or another.
We parked at the traditional Saint Huberts parking lot, where we began our hike around 5 am and hiked up to the Ausable Club gate. The Ausable Club allows hikers and outdoor enthusiasts access to the peaks through their property (no dogs or bicycles allowed). This is an agreement in place with New York State. It is a fortunate agreement because it allows closer access to several high peaks of the Adirondacks. Without this access, there would be a lot longer approaches to several peaks.
The infamous Lake Road walk is always described as a slog. I too have learned not...
My son and I hiked Seymour yesterday getting a late start we signed in at 8:18. We easily bare booted to the first large brook crossing where we put on our microspikes due to ice-covered rocks. From there we left them on to the summit just to save time. We reached the summit at 1:50 pm, took pics, and snacked then headed out at 2 pm. There was a serious amount of ice flow in the steep section along with the slide, so much that we stopped ahead of it and used our crampons going down that section, then switched back to microspikes for the rest of the way out, there was never a need for snowshoes. There was only one other hiker we saw all day.
We signed out at 6:18 pm.