No snow at home?

home for a few days
Originally uploaded by kenmores

Somebody's been hogging it all. Their not even sharing with the local valley.... but I found it. There's lots to ski on(over a meter of base) and everyones welcome.

Waiting for snow

This weekend is supposed to be quite pleasant and sunny - definitlely not November weather. Had a look at the blog posts from the last couple of years at this time (who knew they'd be useful for something). Seems I hadn't skied much by this point in the last two years either. They turned out to be great ski years... so I remain optimistic that snow will indeed fall this winter. It will be cold. The skiing will be great. All will be as it should. In the meantime I continue to rollerski... and hike... and wait...


Should be a snowcat... soon, very soon

Remembrance Day hike

Well I missed it… The snow fell last week(just 36 hours off my predicted time) and then disappeared almost as quickly! Sadly I must have overslept because I didn’t think to go ski on it… and now it looks like it could be a few weeks before we see any more snow . Back to roller skiing and hiking for me… Wednesday was Remembrance day and - with the day off work - an opportunity to take a hike . Bryan, Mike and I have gone hiking the last couple of years on Remembrance Day and the weather was looking like this year would be another fine one. At the last minute I spotted a new geocache planted deep in the northern end of the park so we headed off to check it out. Met a few other cars full of hikers as we hit the Eardley escarpment road but no one was at our trail head so we had the back woods to ourselves. The route principally followed a high tension hydro easement through the woods. I thought it would be a pretty dull hike but it turned out to be quite nice. The trail dipped and rolled, in and out of the woods and provided scenic and varied views the whole length. The Gatineaus obviously aren’t high enough to have much “above treeline” hiking but in the hydro easement we had all kinds of views so this worked out as a nice alternative. At the end of the trail a sizeable summit presented itself – I dubbed Mount Hydro Pylon – and after a tough scramble up we topped out to great views of the northern end of the park. I had brought the stove so we heated up some soup and had a little lunch in the warm fall sunshine. Took a few moments to remember why we had the day off and relaxed a while before making the call to head back down for the car. All in all another great day out on the trails. I’d rather be skiing but I guess patience will be the word this year.

One more trek in the High Peaks...

I took a quick trip down on Sunday to the Adirondacks to get one last hike in the big mountains before the snow starts to fall. Actually the high peaks have already seen their share of early snow but it has all melted now and for the most part the leaves are all gone. The forecast however was slated to be beautiful so this looked like as good a time as any. Sunday I took a leisurely start taking care of a few errands in town before packing up and making the drive down. Sadly that was bad judgment on my part as – with the switch to daylight savings time – it gets dark incredibly early. Arriving in Lake Placid a little after 3pm it was clear I had less than an hour before the woods would start to get dim and only a couple of hours at most before I’d be in full headlamp mode. With nothing incredibly short in mind to hike I took my time got some gear items and headed off to my favourite secret camp spot near Newcomb. Sadly my secret camp spot is no secret to the local hunters who have erected mini, mobile condos on all the best sites and were busy inside playing cards and (presumably) prepping their ammo. This left me with some slightly less ideal options but still acceptable for my needs. By 6:30 I was tucked in my sleeping bag with this month’s edition of Powder magazine (I read it for the pictures) and a long night ahead of me.

In the morning I woke to cooler temperatures (just slightly below zero) and quickly packed up and headed to the trail head. It was looking like a sterling morning and I was bound for Mt. Adams a firetower peak I’ve had my eye on for a long time. One car was at the trail head but they were bound for Allen so I would have Adams to myself. Much has been written about the disrepair of the Lake Jimmy bridge(crossed early in the hike) and I can report that it is in excellent shape with only minor issues… still totally serviceable. The climb up Mount Adams starts shortly after the fire observers cabin – about a mile from the trail head - and points pretty steeply upwards. Some might call it murderously steep but I was alone on the hike so this wasn’t an issue for this day. After a tough scramble up the trail I got to the treed-in summit and quickly climbed the tower. The view from the tower is probably one of the better ones I’ve had as Adams is tucked into a massive cirque of high peaks. The MacIntyres, Santanonis, Colden, Marcy, Skylight and Allen to name a few all play out around you. The tower itself is a little beat up – the roof having blown off the cab – but it’s still structurally sound. Could have spent hours there but after all too short a while I started to get cold – the temperature just above freezing at that point with a stiff breeze. Descending was no less a challenge as there are some pretty sketchy chutes to negotiate. Soon enough though I was back in the valley floor – round trip including an hour or so at the top was less than 4 hours. After the short walk back to the car I relocated to a sunny spot on the banks of the Hudson River to make some lunch and enjoy the early afternoon.

Mt Adams firetower observer's office

Lunch done I drove over to the entry to the Santanoni preserve and wandered partway up the trail to the “farm”. I had hoped to take the time to go all the way out to the great camp itself but with an incredibly short amount of daylight I opted to turn around after the farm house (about halfway to the great camp). Equally the trail register showed several groups ahead of me all of whom signed in as “hunting” which sealed the deal at a shorter walk in the woods. Fortunately I had left my antler hat at home but nevertheless the woods (particularly in flatter terrain) belong to other users at this time of year. This is truly a beautiful place and I hope to make the full walk out to the great camp next year. With that, another high peak hiking season draws to a close. Snow is forecast any day (most likely on Nov 4th) and soon the skis will be out. With luck I’ll get another hike in the high peaks this winter but we’ll see how that pans out.