2008 Trip Reports

La Malinche, Piedra Grande and Pico de Orizaba, Mexico.

December 18-28, 2007

Leader Neal Andrews. Participants: Andy Sansone, Derek Rutledge, Paul Navik, Jordan Harris, Gregory Chambers

As usual this trip was the cushiest RWMS trip since we went to Mexico last time: 10 days of eating great food and staying in hotels, then getting driven to 14,500' to the campsite for Pico de Orizaba (18,491'). We met without delays or lost luggage at Mexico City airport. We spent the first night in Mexico City enjoying delicacies of Taco Ojos (look it up). We went to Apizaco City next and bought food and arranged for transfer to the Malinche campground. An acclimatization hike was done up to the base of this mountain. The next day we were able to summit in beautiful warm weather. We then used the services of a collectivo to get to Zacatepec. Here we piled into a regular second class bus to El Seco where we celebrated our upcoming climb with a local family allowing everyone to see the insides of a Mexican family’s house. A transfer to Tlachachuca the next day was easy and in an hour we had made connections for a ride to the base camp of Orizaba. It is wonderful to have 100 liters of water and fine dining(?) (camping food in Mexico is hard to purchase) driven right up to where you are staying. We went up to the glacier the next day to acclimatize more and practice self arrest on the ice (hard pack snow). A day of sun and rest followed with the third day, Christmas Eve, our group was the 5 highest men in North America. The summit visit was cut short by incoming storm clouds and not wanting to be caught in a white out on a glacier. We headed down without incident. Christmas was spent with another family that Neal knows and we went to their traditional Christmas celebration which was enjoyed by all. Thanks to all who went. If you are interested in climbing the third highest mountain in North America, talk to the group members or contact the leader.

MacNaughton from the Loj - Introductory Trip

January 4 to 6, 2008

Leader: Mike Forsyth. Old Hands: Frank Cabron, Dana Mills, Jeff Wright. New Member: Gabe Stampone.

Our group met Friday night at the Brookside. Owing to a last minute cancellation Mike tossed a 2 person tent in the car, and he and Dana did a re-pack at the Brookside.

We were up by 4:30, out about 5:30, and leaving the cars at the ADK High Peaks Information Center parking lot at 6:30. On the trail for Indian Pass, we could see the crescent moon and Venus and Jupiter over Heart Lake as night gave way to morning. The temperature was in the twenties. Snow was not deep and trail was previously broken the length of the Indian Pass trail to the junction for Scott’s Clearing. From there to Scotts Pond we gained significant elevation, the snow depth increased, and the broken track disappeared. For the most part, we could follow the trail markers without much difficulty, but had to cast about a bit for the trail in places, with 8 to 12 inches of unbroken snow.

We made pretty good time, and set up camp near the beaver-flowed headwaters of Indian Pass Brook, with a view of Algonquin and the MacIntyre Range back beyond Scott Pond. We had enough daylight left for a summit bid, and went for it. We were camped less than half a mile from the Wallface Ponds, and we walked on the frozen upper pond to the narrow channel connecting the ponds to get to the start of the herd path. Jeff got too close to the beaver dam, where the channel is narrow, and apparently the current is fastest and the ice is thinnest. He broke through. The water was shallow, but he went down, and got pretty well soaked by the time he got up and got out. Unsure of how close Jeff might be to hypothermia, we returned to camp as a group, and made sure he got into dry clothes and a sleeping bag. Dana stayed with Jeff, while Frank, Gabe and Mike headed back to Wallface Ponds to try to find the herdpath. We realized that we probably no longer had enough daylight to break trail to the summit, but figured that any route-finding and trail-breaking we did would pay off the next day.

We made a safe crossing of the connecting channel well above the beaver dam, and thrashed about for a while, looking for something resembling a herdpath. None was evident, so we did the best we could, following terrain contours, compass course and instincts, now in two or more feet of unconsolidated snow. We turned around in time to reach camp and get dinner started in daylight. We discovered that while we were making our ill-fated first attempt, a pine marten had raided unlucky Jeff’s food bag. Fortunately, community food had escaped the forager, and we had plenty to spare for Jeff.

Night brought near-freezing temperatures and a mist that robbed our view of Algonquin. Frank cooked for himself, Jeff and Gabe, while Dana cooked in Mike’s tent. Dana had stove problems, apparently due to contaminated fuel. When we repacked, we decided that one large bottle would suffice for two of us. If we had brought two smaller ones instead, we would probably have had one good bottle. Frank had extra fuel, and the stove kept going for a while with that, but sputtered out. Frank wound up melting snow and boiling water for all five of us for breakfast.

We retraced our tracks to Wallface Ponds, which was getting to be a regular commuter route by now, to the end of our broken trail. Frank had programmed the summit into his GPS, so we took turns leading, route-finding and breaking trail, following the best line and going up, up, up. Most of the route was open enough, and only a few places were dauntingly steep. We reached the summit ridge, went over a couple of bumps, and reached what we determined to be the summit. We found no disk or sign, but confirmed our compass dead reckoning by GPS and altimeter watch.

The pine marten that hit Jeff’s food bag must have been fastidious, because while we climbed, he came back and stole a zip-loc bag containing Dana’s cup, bowl and spoon. If he had taken the stove, he’d have been in for a disappointment. We hiked out in rising temperatures and a deteriorating snow base, in another January of global warming. A shot of WD-40 or silicone spray on snowshoe bottoms cuts down on clumping. The Indian Pass trail manages to be uphill both going in and coming back out. We again saw Heart Lake in twilight, and finished up by headlamp. This was a good intro for Gabe. In spite of warm temperatures, we did have enough snow for trail-breaking, camping and cooking, and we dealt with a few mishaps – the unplanned swim, the food theft and stove malfunction – successfully as a group.

Cliff and Redfield- Introductory Trip

January 11-13, 2008

Leader: Don Berens; Old Hands: Frank Cabron, Paul Navik, Karin Töpfer; New Members: Vern Kreuter, Laura Williams

After a December of deep snow in the north country and a January week of weather above freezing and even as warm as 50F, it rained most of Friday, producing fog on the drive to Schroon Lake and the Maple Leaf Motel.

The slush in the parking lot was crunchy on Saturday morning when we breakfasted at Stewarts in the village. At the Upper Works trailhead, it was 32F and mostly cloudy when we began walking at 8:00 am. The views of Mounts Marshall and Colden were obscured by a cloud ceiling that hung at about 4,300 feet. There was a firm crust over packed trail and well consolidated snow which made for easy snowshoeing. Laura did some preventive foot maintenance, but otherwise the inbound trip was uneventful. We admired the views from Colden Dam and along the Opalescent River which had much open water and in the Flume was decorated with curtains of icicles. We reached the Uphill Lean-to just after noon. We set up camp there, Frank, Vern and Karin in the lean-to and Don, Paul and Laura in Paul's tent nearby. At 1:00 pm, we left camp to follow the herd path to Cliff. The warmth and rain had cleaned the snow from the tree limbs and the firm, crusty snow underfoot covered some of the blowdown and smoothed some of the rock steps, making progress as easy as the steep slopes of Cliff ever allow. We briefly lost the herd path on the summit ridge, but by zig-zagging we found it again in five minutes. We summited at 2:10 pm, enjoyed the views, which since Hurricane Floyd in 1999 are no longer so limited by trees, but which on this day were limited by low clouds, and returned to camp at 3:30 pm. Don discovered that his food bag had been removed from his backpack, dragged 20 yards, and emptied of his breakfast pouch by the local pine marten. But there was enough spare(d) food in Don's pantry and others' to tide him over. Because snow conditions were so good, we resolved to add Redfield to the trip program on Sunday at no extra charge. The night was calm with occasional snow flurries and the temperature dropped to only a little below 20F.

Sunday morning dawned mostly clear, but cool (20F) because we were in the shadow of Redfield. We left camp at 7:45 am and, because the snow remained firm, we made short work of the herd path, emerging into the sunlight on the summit at 8:55 am. The atmospherics were reversed from Saturday. Instead of a ceiling above us, there were clouds in some of the valleys below us. We lingered for 20 minutes on and near the top, counting 24 of the Adirondack high peaks visible, from the Sewards to the Dixes. It was tempting to stay longer, but Don wanted to see the NY football Giants' playoff kickoff that afternoon, so we returned to camp by 10:00 am, broke camp in 35 minutes, and started back down the trail as the temperature rose into the mid-30s. We were back to the trailhead between 1:35 and 1:55 pm with plenty of time to drive home.

We had surprisingly good conditions. Though we saw human tracks, we saw no other hikers. The beginners, Vern and Laura, did well. But they will have to come back if they are to experience the joys of knee-deep trail breaking, waist-deep snow holes, snow bombs falling off trees and down necks, and either freezing rain or sub-zero cold.

Colvin and Blake

January 18 to 20, 2008

Leader: Jim Dykes. Participant: Les Knox.

On Saturday, January 19, 2008 Les Knox and I climbed Colvin and Blake Mountains. This RWMS trip had an easy to calculate one to one leader to participant ratio.

We drove up Friday afternoon and stayed at the Keene Valley Hostel. The new owners were very nice and maintain the spirit of the place. We awoke at 5:00 on Saturday morning and began our hike from the AMR trailhead parking lot at 6:35. The temperature was a moderate 16 degrees. The road had packed snow and we started out in snowshoes. The trail was broken out until the junction with Elk Pass. From here we broke trial through 5 to 6” of powder with some moderate crusty snow underneath from the recent thaw. It was mostly cloudy with some breaks of sun as we arrived at the Colvin summit at about 11:00. The views of the slide on Nippletop and the Great Range were very impressive. After a short break we descended into the col towards Blake. The climb to Blake seemed to have a little more snow and we broke through about 8” of powder to the summit. The summit was reached at 12:30. After another brief rest we began our descent and met up with a single hiker and a party of three which were staying at the Hostel also. We used a nylon rope to help negotiate a small tricky portion of the Colvin descent. We took a break here and shared the rope with the other hikers who were very appreciative. During our return via the road it snowed moderately. We reached the car at 5:30.

After another successful trip we returned to the Hostel and enjoyed a good meal in Keene. Sunday we drove home in bright sunshine and chilly temperatures.

Pemigewasset Traverse (New Hampshire)

January 25 to 27, 2008

Leader: Eric Marshall; Participants: Neal Andrews, Gregory Chambers.

The group left Albany at 2 pm and drove to New Hampshire to the leader's house. We were up at 4:30 and on the trail by 6 am. The day started with clear blue skies and temps in the 20’s. Perfect weather!! The walk in along the Wilderness trail was flat and quickly we were at the start of the Bondcliff trail. We climbed up over Bondcliff and Bond then took the sidetrail out to West Bond. This trail was all broken out for us. We then climbed up onto the AT and headed south. The AT was not broken at all and powder was at least shin deep. We made camp at 5pm and stayed just before South Twin Mountain on the AT. We had a great dinner followed by a calm night’s sleep. We waited for the sun in the morning to warm the tent before venturing out, a dusting of new snow overnight. We then packed up and were up and over South Twin on a blustery snowy day with no views. We had broken trail down to the Galehead hut and then were back to breaking trail again on a very steep side-sloping Twin Brook trail. Once we were down to the Franconia Brook Trail was a broken trail back to the starting point. 26.2 miles. Out to the cars by 4 pm.

Gothics Pyramid and Sawteeth

February 1 to 3, 2008

Leader: Andy Ryan. Participants: Jim Dykes, Paul Sheneman, Reinhard Gsellmeier and Greg Buzulencia

The trip began with sleet on Friday evening forcing us to drive on the Interstate as much as possible to avoid the dicey driving conditions on unplowed side roads. Which gave us a great excuse to stop in Saratoga for some beer, err, I mean dinner, at the Parting Glass.

We arrived in Schroon Lake and pushed Greg’s car into the unplowed driveway at the Wayfarer Motel. Allow me to briefly digress and discuss the RWMS lodging tradition. First, no chain hotels or motels are allowed. Too fancy. The motel must not charge more than $25 per person per night. The sheets must be threadbare, the mattresses must sag and the bedding must smell as if a feral animal slept in it the previous night. The paint must be peeling, the walls must be thin and the innkeeper must be eccentric. The Wayfarer not only qualifies, but exceeds, in all categories.

The “front desk” at the Wayfarer doubles as a living room for the owners of the establishment, and on Sunday mornings, as the local gathering place for Schroon Lake’s born again Christians. Despite the frigid outdoor temperature, a gentleman was lying shirtless, bearded, large and hairy on the couch watching a game show on a television screen that was so large it must have cost at least as much as the motel itself (really) and was louder than the front row at a Metallica concert.

The number and variety of animals in the room were truly astounding. There were dogs, both seen (quiet) and unseen (barking maniacally somewhere in the back of the house), several species of birds in various cages, numerous fish tanks (both fresh and saltwater), a Burmese Python that had to be at least ten feet long, a minimum of two cats and some small, unidentified rodents in a terrarium that may have been pets, or may have been fodder for the snake. One had to be careful not to wander aimlessly, lest he knock over some live-animal cage or disturb a slumbering pet.

Greg, Reinhard and I retired to the Honeymoon Suite, which was nicely appointed with mirrored walls and faux leopard skin bedding. The water from the tap was cloudy and the dresser drawers were filled with newspapers dating back several months, which gave us nostalgia for the days before the presidential campaign began. The Innkeeper’s husband (the shirtless dude on the couch) warned us not to leave the door open or else the heat will kick on and everyone in the motel would get “baked”.

We passed the night in quiet slumber, wakened only occasionally by Reinhard’s nocturnal babbling that I can only assume were subconscious reflections of his dreams provoked by the exotic surroundings of our abode.

Saturday morning, we went out to breakfast.

Oh, yeah, and then we hit Pyramid, Sawteeth and Gothics. It was awesome.

Great Slide on East Dix

Feb 8-10, 2008

Leader: Paul Navik Trip was canceled due to lack of participation.

Mount Washington

February 15 to 18, 2008

Leader: Andy Sansone The forecast was for high temps of around minus 15 and lows of minus 30. With the high level of exposure on this climb and the potential for severe windchills, the leader thought it prudent to cancel.

Skylight and Gray

February 29 to March 2, 2008

Leaders: Karin Töpfer and Neal Andrews. Participants: Frank Cabron, Paul Navik, Dana Mills, Irene Liberty, Cole Goughary, Josiah Vincek

The parties from Syracuse and Rochester met at the Cascade Inn on Friday night (hint: politely decline room 11 if it's ever offered to you ...). Paul and I were very grateful for Frank's fantastic winter driving skills. Next morning we met Neal, Cole and Josiah at the High Peaks Info Center at 6:45 a.m. We were on the trail by 7:15 a.m. and found a bit less than a foot of new snow that had fallen during the week and overnight. The snow got deeper higher up with a lot of spin drifts, and the section from the turn-off for Lake Arnold to the Feldspar lean-to was mostly light trail breaking. It took around 4 hours to get to the lean-to. We set up camp, had some quick lunch, and left for the peaks at noon. The trail to Marcy was broken, and we met a few hikers returning from Marcy. This made for easy climbing to the Four Corners. We decided to tackle Gray first, and Josiah broke trail all the way to the summit ridge. An icy section with vegetation just in the right places added some excitement to the climb. The Gray sign was at ankle level and it made for some great picture taking. We even got some limited views down to Lake Tear and over towards Mt. Colden, although light snow was falling most of the time. We got back to the trail by 2:30 p.m. and headed across the lake to the Four Corners and Skylight. This time Cole led the way through some deep snow. The wind was howling on the summit; time for goggles, face masks, etc. On the way back we caught a glimpse of the drop-off into Panther Gorge. An hour later the view from Skylight would have been more than elusive (did we climb too quickly? ...). We got back to the Four Corners by 4 p.m. and down to camp by 4:45 p.m. The trees along the trail above 3500 ft were loaded with snow, frozen beauties from fairyland.

More fluffy snow fell overnight, and I had my first experience of packing up an icy tent fly, which suddenly seemed to weigh a ton. Although rumbles about backpacking out over Marcy were heard, the majority voted to give it a miss. On this nice sunny morning, we hiked out via Lake Colden. Paul was determined to pick his own route across the windy lake and he soon had a following of 10 people. Avalanche Lake was of course a popular destination on a sunny Sunday, and the clouds of "blow snow" around some of the cliffs were very impressive. For us, it was time to head home quickly because we like solitude. It almost felt like we were flying towards the Loj despite the big winter backpacks. The route out took just less than 4 hours for around 8 miles.

I was very thrilled to put my first RWMS trip together. Special thanks go to Neal for words of the wise and for bringing two strong trailbreakers.

Haystack and Basin

March 7 to 9, 2008

Leader Andy Sansone; Participants: Les Knox, Eric Oogjen, Paul Sheneman, Karin Töpfer, Rheinhard Gsellmeier, Bob Ciecierega, Paul Navik.

After a pleasant stay at the Brookside the group headed for the Garden for an early start. We backpacked to Bushnell Falls where we set up a camp before starting our climb. The weather forecast for the day was not the best. Warm temps with the potential for rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain. All the favorites of a winter climber!

Just as we finished setting up it started to rain. The group headed out toward Slant Rock still in high spirits. The weather did not improve. Five hearty souls continued on toward Haystack. As they reached the height of land beyond Slant Rock and looked out toward Little Haystack it was raining sideways. The group persisted and summitted Haystack. Everyone was soaked to the bone and the decision was made not to continue on the Basin.

The freezing rain continued well into the evening. Eventually it changed over to snow and the temps dropped to single digits for the night. Our tent was frozen solid like an igloo. The morning brought some frozen boots but everyone managed fine. The hike out on a nice solid trail was uneventful.

Dix Range

March 14-16, 2008

Bill Crowe (leader), Al Bushnell, Kim Goppert, Paul Navik, Todd Obbie, Vern Kreuter, Jim Dykes, Les Knox, Paul Sheneman

Our goal was all five Dixes and we had a highly motivated group. Todd Obbie needed all but Dix to reach 45 winter peaks, Paul Navik only needed East Dix after five previous trips to the range, and Les Knox needed Dix to finish his Winter 46. We left the Maple Leaf at 7:00 Saturday morning and headed for Round Pond. We hoped to leave a car at the North Fork of the Bouquet but there was no shoulder at all to park a car. Hiking commenced about 7:45 with temps near freezing and a chance of rain, which, fortunately never occurred. The freezing rain the weekend before had caused quite a bit of damage down low and we had to detour around lots of downed branches.

The base of the steep climb up Dix was reached about 11:30. It’s only about a mile long but the summit was not reached until about 1:30. At least we must have reached the summit as we walked over all the high points but none of us recognized it. No rock was showing anywhere. We also did not recognize the junction of the Hunter Pass Trail before that. The sign musty have been buried. All were able to ascend in snowshoes although we all carried crampons just in case. However, several hikers did grumble about the snow balling up on their plastic MSR snowshoes. No views were available on top of Dix and Les decided we could postpone his Winter 46 celebration until we were down in the trees on our way to Hough. We celebrated with champagne and photos and the leader was very happy to allow Les to keep the bottle.

A group of two was ahead of us and we followed their tracks, which were on and off the herd path but worked well enough to get us to Hough by 3:00. The trees were heavily coated with ice which in places looked like glass chandeliers and at times felt like icy cats-o’-nine-tails whipping the tailgating climber in the face. A crumbly icy surface made the descent from Hough a bit tough but soon enough we were beyond that and shortly thereafter found fresh tracks heading towards S. Dix. We set up camp just below S. Dix (Carson) about 4:15. All but Les and Bill went off towards Macomb and summited and returned before dark. Daylight Savings Time made the difference. It was a weary group that wandered back to camp that evening.

Next morning we were under way at 8 with temps again around freezing. S. Dix was reached about 8:15. East Dix (Grace) was reached about 9:15 following tracks from the day before. Our exit route was over Spotted along a mostly open ridge. Unfortunately, again, we had no views but the route is highly recommended. We left the ridge in the col just northeast of Spotted and headed for the South Fork of the Bouquet. The two Pauls successfully navigated us to Rte 73 and the North Fork of the Bouquet about 2:30. Most walked a good portion of Rte 73 back to the cars before Paul Sheneman (who finally got a ride from Karin Töpfer who happened to be driving by) shuttled the remaining hikers to their cars. All together, we traveled about 17 miles and climbed approximately 6000 feet, almost all of it with full packs.