i found winter on the east coast

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
So my brother and I went to the adirondacks in NY to climb the Trap Dike route on Mt colden..weve attempted it twice before but got sent back from crappy ice the first time, and an inexperienced partner the 2nd time. but as they say...third times a charm


we drove up to the adirondack loj friday night and set out on the trailhead about 10 pm. ended up bivying next to an occupied leanto at marcy dam.


saturday morning we got an early start and were on the trail up to avalanche pass by 6 am. it was a bit cloudy at first but blue started peeking out through the cloud cover by the time we reached the pass.


when we got to the dike, wow was it different from last year. irene really cleaned it out..alot less vegetaion.

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the ice was in good shape, solid all the way through, though at the top of pitch 1 i could hear some water running underneath. I led the first 2 pitches quickly because a team of 4, who arrived there minutes before we did let us slip by, so i didnt want to hold them up any more than i had to.

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when we got to the third pitch we found a rope that was partially frozen into the ice..it was kind of eerie. My brother took this one up and i shortly followed. FINALLY this is now the furthest weve gotten on the route. a little celebration for us at that point...and then it was time to continue upwards.

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the cloudcover was high up so we had great views of all of the surrounding mountains, and algonquin was continuously getting bathed in sunlight..it made for some awesome pictures.

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we kept trudging up over lots of low angle ice, and finally made it to the dike exit. the snow made for good kick steps, and we moved at a nice consistent pace. as we were climbing up we both were reflecting to eachother how this was probably the best day weve had up here in a while...pure smiles the whole way up the slide.

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at one point we were heading up the climbers right side of the slide, in some knee deep snow. My brother was kicking the steps and i was a few paces behind him. behind me was a team of 3 climbers as well. as we were heading up I heard two distinct WUMPH sounds off to my left in the snowpack. I stopped everyone there and told them what i heard. we looked around and saw the the climbers left side of the slide was much more windblown and stable looking, so we traversed one at a time over and continued on up. My brother and I had just completed an AIARE level one course last month at mt washington, so i was trying to keep my ears and eyes open for warning signs. Who knows if that wind slab that we were on would have let go or not..but i didnt want to find out. better safe than sorry.

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so the rest of the climb was pretty uneventful, but we all summited to soem great views of marcy and gothics and the surrounding mountains. awesome weekend to be up there!

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Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
wow, those views are awesome man! my legs hurt when i have to hike my bike up a section, i could only imagine how your calves feel :p
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Nice work man, thats some crazy stuff. Did you go back down the way you went up?
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
thanks guys,

utah, the top of this climbing route intersected with the hiking trail at the summit..so we descended that on foot.
 

don

Well-Known Member
Great pics and write-up!

One of these years I'd like to do what the Meathead films guys did and hike/skin the 5 highest points in New England/Northeast and ride down (http://www.meatheadfilms.com/epoch). They did Marcy in NY for one of them - but their way up was much easier than the terrain you guys covered.

Nice job on the AIARE Level 1. Another thing I would like to do/learn more about - mtn's don't mess around!
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Great pics and write-up!

One of these years I'd like to do what the Meathead films guys did and hike/skin the 5 highest points in New England/Northeast and ride down (http://www.meatheadfilms.com/epoch). They did Marcy in NY for one of them - but their way up was much easier than the terrain you guys covered.

Nice job on the AIARE Level 1. Another thing I would like to do/learn more about - mtn's don't mess around!

that is an awesome idea! definitely something id like to attempt. i think next year is the year i finally get a splitboard.
 

don

Well-Known Member
that is an awesome idea! definitely something id like to attempt. i think next year is the year i finally get a splitboard.

Yeah, part of the "one of these days" equation is getting a split. I am liking the Jones Mountain Twin: http://jonessnowboards.com/index.php/product/moutain-twin Not that I'm good at riding switch but like to have the option. That 159 split looks cool and I think would be pretty versitle on east coast hills.
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
i think im going to ebay a used split...to buy new is just so cost prohibitive..but ive seen full setups on ebay for around 4-600 bucks...thats much easier to do than 1000+
 

don

Well-Known Member
i think im going to ebay a used split...to buy new is just so cost prohibitive..but ive seen full setups on ebay for around 4-600 bucks...thats much easier to do than 1000+

Yeah, they are expensive. I think there are kits to do it to an old board but you run the risk of flubbing it up.

But, if you are in a location where you don't have to spend money on lift tix it can pay for itself pretty quick.
 

cbiker

Active Member
Lots of people also BC snowboard by snowshoeing up, you can also almost always get up to Tuckermans on Mt washington without snoeshoes or skins because its so well traveled.

I found winter as well unfortunately it look like spring is back up there and its raining. Finally got to ski on some real snow.

https://picasaweb.google.com/craigmarc45/NHBCSkiing
 

don

Well-Known Member
Lots of people also BC snowboard by snowshoeing up, you can also almost always get up to Tuckermans on Mt washington without snoeshoes or skins because its so well traveled.

I found winter as well unfortunately it look like spring is back up there and its raining. Finally got to ski on some real snow.

https://picasaweb.google.com/craigmarc45/NHBCSkiing

I was worried that Stowe was getting rain but they said they got a little snow instead. Mt. Washington is higher alt so maybe it got white stuff instead.

Need to get to Tucks again. Maybe in a couple years when my oldest is solid enough to get down. That place is rad and is a must for any good skier/rider in the northeast to experience.

Beautiful pic of Hillmans!
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
i got up to tuckermans for the first time ever this year for an avy course..it is AWESOME up there. the dacks are fun because i think you get more of a "backcountry" feel because some of the approaches are so remote. i was back up there this past weekend for the bc ski fest and brought my girlfriend up the whiteface toll road. it was her first time in the "backcountry" so i wanted to keep it mild for her..but the upper slides were in great condition and we had fresh powder the whole time. now that adventure racing season is starting up that will probably be my last grasp of winter..but it was a good note to end on!
 

don

Well-Known Member
i got up to tuckermans for the first time ever this year for an avy course..it is AWESOME up there. the dacks are fun because i think you get more of a "backcountry" feel because some of the approaches are so remote. i was back up there this past weekend for the bc ski fest and brought my girlfriend up the whiteface toll road. it was her first time in the "backcountry" so i wanted to keep it mild for her..but the upper slides were in great condition and we had fresh powder the whole time. now that adventure racing season is starting up that will probably be my last grasp of winter..but it was a good note to end on!

Nice! Glad you got some fresh. One very cool thing about the 'dacks is that they are growing while the Green Mtns range is mellowing out. I still love and go to the Green's as it's what I've grown up with.

Trying to head to Stowe for one more this weekend but the mild temps mid week might firm everything up a bit.
 
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