"Hey! Let's do a winter hike!" No one can remember who uttered those words. But it turned out to be a great idea. To be honest, Mikey, Alan and Joe got lucky. REAL lucky. Trail and weather conditions were almost as good as they can get. And the chosen summit was a good one for beginners.
This was an interesting matching of skills, experience and attitude. Alan, as described by Mikey, is outfitted like a model from L.L.Bean but this was to be his first winter climbing experience and first time on snow shoes. Not surprisingly, he was a little apprehensive.
Mikey on the other hand is like a puppy. Raring to go regardless of what may be encountered. Experience? Who needs it? Gear? "Yeah, I'm wearing clothes." Cold? "Is it? Let's go, go, go!"
And Joe? "Are we there yet? You know I heard there a really good micro brew back in town."
So how did this all play out on the trail? Example: Coming off the summit, Mikey is setting a pace that is oblivious of the ice and steep grade. Alan tries to keep up with the crazed puppy. Joe plods along at a comfortable pace (in part because his Camelback water tube has frozen and he's trying to defrost it while descending [so much for experience and proper equipment]). Result: Mikey sets a new record for number of unplanned falls without actually breaking something. Alan realizes that Joe's pace is safer but can't understand why Joe keeps chewing the water tube in his mouth. Joe gets his water tube thawed and has no bruises to compare with Mikey's the next day at breakfast.
The trip started at the Adirondack Loj around 7:00 AM. The original plan was to see if they could do Wright, Algonquin and Iroquois. Somewhere along the way the micro brew started sounding pretty good. Wright was fun and just enough to get them psyched for another hike in March.
You can see Mikey's version of the trip by clicking here.
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The puppy is on the left. Note the high energy level and total lack of understanding of potential danger ahead. On the right, Alan. About a mile on the trail and the apprehension is still obvious.
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About half way to the summit Alan begins to get his stride. But note the snowshoes are still on his pack. 15 minutes later he's trying to climb steep grade ice and the earlier look reappears.
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T-minus
10 seconds
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T-minus 5 seconds Oblivious to what is about to happen.
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Blastoff! Or should we say, Blastdown? Mikey succumbs to the 4 - 5 feet of snow. Funny how a camera refuses to cooperate at the best moments. Snowshoes were donned here and remained on for the rest of the day.
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| Cameras never manage
to give the proper perspective of steep grades so Mikey and Alan trying
to compensate for this photo.
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| Mikey carves a bust of
Alan on the trail.
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| Above tree line the
trio is blessed with about 3 minutes of clear sky. Cameras
furiously took as many pictures as possible.
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| Algonquin summit
before clouds recapture the group.
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This photo published with permission of L.L.Bean.
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Alan shot this photo of Joe and Mike seconds before
the clouds returned and at the same time Joe realized that what they are
looking at is the false summit of Wright. Audio of the awakening
would be R-rated. This is a classic photo. Be sure to check out the full size version. Joe and Mikey use it as their desktop background. Mikey has been showing this photo to everyone and explaining that they work for National Geographic Explorer on weekends.
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Joe shot this just before Alan's photo but with lens
filters. Looks like filters gave an accurate photo but not as
artsy.
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Nothing like being above the clouds. Some call
it "undercast." Regardless of what it's called, you've got to experience
it to it to
appreciate it.
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Well, maybe in different company.
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Alan and Mikey on the summit. Great conditions except for the
cloud cover. No wind and the temperatures were moderate enough to
stay for a quick lunch.
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Joe and Mikey. Although there was no significant snow on the summit snowshoes were still required due to ice cover
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Joe and Waskawy Wabbit Alan.
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Joe and regular Alan
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After returning to tree line and the deep snow the trio
made such a racket descending that a crowd of hikers on their way to
Algonquin waited at the trail junction to see what the commotion was
about. With all the roots and rocks buried under tons of snow the
descent was often on done sledding on their backsides. Lots of speed is picked
up and hitting trees results in plenty of yelling.
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Alan giving the thumbs up to indicate that there are
no broken bones.
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Mikey. Notice the limp.
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M: "We're going for pizza!" A: "No way! I need a carbo load!"
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M: "There's carbs in pizza, you idiot!" A: "Yeah, but Cameron's has the cute bartender!" M: "Oh yeah. Let's go."
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Back in Lake Placid the trio linked back up with
Mikey's wife Teena and her friend Rhonda. They (claim to have) spent the day
taking it easy (the boys believe they spent the day sleeping). The trio was almost out of the woods when these two
finally got out of their hotel room. It's not clear which group
was smarter.
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| As if walking around in the bitter cold was a local requirement, they found a snow sculpture competition on Mirror Lake, posed for a photo, then hightailed it back to the car. |