The Adirondacks: traverse

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

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 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.

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

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.

Photo by Real Perriard.

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

more restful than a hot summer day with mosquitoes buzzing about. The tent door is wide open as darkness envelops us. Our freeze-dried dinner is surprisingly good — nothing like those tasteless concoctions of the 1980s — with much better ingredients and more nutritional value.

Now at the halfway point in our trip, we are satiated completely as the stars disappear and a light snow begins to fall.

We awake at 5 a.m. this time and see the light snow turned heavy. We enjoy an oatmeal breakfast with hot drinks before we’re on the move.

The added snow turns Basin, the first peak of the day, into an aerobic challenge. After we summit, we run and slide on our snowshoes down the steep, long slope on the other side. Aside from the fresh blanket of snow, the second day is straightforward and our final climb is the highest summit of the region. Even at 5,344 feet, Marcy is a “soft summit” with a gentle slope that’s easier on the lungs.

We move steadily to escape the forest before dark and we’re back at the trailhead by 3:40 p.m., just three hours after we were at the top of Marcy. We remove our trampoline footwear and eagerly head for a hot pizza in Lake Placid.

I don’t know if anyone has done the Range in a single winter day, but as I sit at the keyboard drinking hot chocolate, the math is tempting. I can imagine hitting the trailhead at 3 a.m. and making it back to the car in 18 hours of travel time at 9 p.m. We’d be eating pizza in Placid before 10… hmmm... — Real Perriard has been an active outdoorsman for the last 20 years – leading expedition cycling, canoe, and backpacking trips across North America and into New Zealand. Real was very busy adventure racing since 1998 with Team Phoenix and is now training for the 2005 Marathon Des Sables in Morocco.

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