Whiteface & Esther
I know this will sound strange to all you frigophobes: 6 hours tromping around the snow in sub-15°F (sub-minus 10°C) is really quite fun. The hardest part is getting from the house to your car; once you’re stomping down fluffy white snow, and especially once you start climbing a mountain, you barely notice the temperature.
Colvin & Blake June 2019
I took advantage of the last sunny forecast for a few days by hiking Colvin & Blake, two peaks which aren’t known for their views. As always, Colvin proved to be quite nice but Blake is just…Blake. There was very … Continued
Ricketts Glen 2019
It was part photo trip, part photo lesson. It didn’t take long, and Kayla’s pictures are stunning. We both gravitated towards the darker images, helped by the cooperative overcast.
Mount Van Hoevenberg
It was a beautiful day for this hike, a nice little gem of a mountain.
Grand Canyon South Rim-to-Rim
We started down the South Kaibab trail at 5:45AM and because of shifting clouds got to enjoy two sunrises on the way. The views were stunning. It looks very different and, strangely, smaller from inside the canyon versus from the rim. The varying waves of different-colored rock made every turn breathtaking.
Cascade & Porter
Despite being the shortest and easiest pair of Adirondack High Peaks, even these aren’t always “easy”. Hiking was uneventful (but pretty!) until we hit the open summit rock. Upon exiting the cover of the trees, we were immediately hit with constant 30mph winds and gusts high enough to knock me over.
Big Slide (January)
The trail to Big Slide was hard-packed snow the whole way. Perfect for snowshoes. No ice the whole way.
Algonquin & Iroquois
Today was an absolutely perfect day to hike. It was chilly (14°F at the start), not so cold that your sweat freezes your zippers but cold enough that snow didn’t stick to your clothes. Or your snowshoes! (Yep, it’s snowshoe … Continued
Dial and Nippletop, Shoulder Season Snow
I was a bit surprised (happily) that both Dial and Nippletop have received a decent amount of snow. There was 3-5″ above 4,000′ elevation. Nippletop was cold and the wind was whipping. I used spikes between Dial and Nippletop, and … Continued
A Wet TableTop and Phelps
Not exactly ideal conditions to enjoy a hike, it was warm, humid, and wet. When the Van Hoevenberg trail had running water on it, I knew that it would be a sopping mess getting to TableTop.
Vermont Part 3: Camel’s Hump
After climbing Mount Mansfield with the family and Abraham/Ellen/Killington on my own, we had one more day of hiking in mind, the very popular Camel’s Hump. We wisely opted for an early start, helped along by the weather (finally!) breaking.
Vermont Part 2: Abraham-Ellen-Killington
I planned a solo/company optional hiking day, and was originally going to drive over to New Hampshire to try my hand at the Whites. Lo, the pre-dawn rain convinced me otherwise, so I decided instead to do the three southernmost peaks in the Vermont 4,000′ list.
Vermont Part 1: Mount Mansfield
Vermont has 5 mountains above 4,000′ elevation, with 4,393′ Mount Mansfield as the highest. When viewed from the side, Mansfield roughly resembles an elongated head. Looking south-to-north, there is a bump for a forehead, then a sloping prominence to the tip of the nose, two small bumps along the ridge as the lips, and the high point on the rounded chin.