March 15th, 2022

After our first day back in two years yesterday our legs were feeling the toll of the ascent the day before. We decided on a shorter, one peak hike that I needed for my winter list: Big Slide. We drove from Keene where we were staying over to Keene Valley to start from the parking lot and hike up over the 3 brothers to the summit.

Today our group of 4 was able to start at the same time and hike together after being separated yesterday with our Covid testing appointments. The last time I hiked Big Slide was back in October of 2011 when my husband Glenn and I waded through hip deep snow and crawled to the summit after starting in the parking lot on wet leaves. Surely this official winter ascent would be easier. We would find out!

Even though today was about bagging another winter peak, it was more about our friend Ivan. At 76, he wasn't sure he still had it in him to do a mountain. He had a knee replaced in 2019, and hadn't been back to the 'dacks since. He started with us up the Brothers, and we thought if he had to turn around then at least he would have been about to have a nice hike with views. The weather today was above freezing and we were down to our baselayers in no time. We hit the first brother and realized our pace was slow, but with the daylight available in March, the warm temperatures and the fact that Ivan was trying to push himself we allowed him to continue to set the pace. After the third brother it was apparent that this pace was going to really slow us down, Ivan gave Deb and I a blessing to run ahead to tag the summit and return to the junction that marked the descent down to the JBL area. 

Deb and I took off and ran up the summit which had just freshly been slid down by three women we had just passed. We dug the crampons of our snowshoes in and felt our heart rates increase as we stepped over the area that normally has a ladder (it was buried!). We got to the summit eager to see the furry summit steward (pine marten), but didn't want to linger too long as we wanted to head back down to see how Ivan was doing. We were getting worried he had pushed himself a bit too much and might need assistance getting back down. We downed some water and took a few photos and took off without even sitting down.

Unfortunately after we slid on our bums down from the summit we arrived at the junction to see that no one had gone down to JBL yet. So we headed back to the 3rd brother and within a couple minutes saw Ivan and Paul huffing their way up. They made it! We took a long lunch break at the junction and Ivan was elated that for the next while it was downhill. The downhill was indeed less energy intensive for sure but did cross a creek multiple times that had some ice bridges that were failing or about to fail. By the time we got down to John's Brook, there was little sign of the 10" of snow that fell 3 days before. In fact there was barely any snow left. We kept our snowshoes on until the parking lot though as they were beneficial most of the way. Ivan hit the wall on the way out so on a break I played one of his favourite tunes Irish Rover which we sang out loud which seemed to lift his spirits and give him a boost to finish the home stretch.

I am so impressed with the mental fortitude of Ivan on this day. For someone I thought we'd leave an hour or two into the day, here he was at the end! He had been to Big Slide's summit before and didn't care if he made it, but to walk 15km with over 3000ft of ascent is admirable. I hope I am like that at 76....

Upon return to Canada the next day, we learned about an overdue hiker that apparently had been hiking the Trap Dike in the blizzard on Saturday. Having hiked in the area for the days he was missing but not found which was a bit unsettling. According to the Adirondack Explorer, his body was found buried under 4 feet of snow in what must have been an avalanche. A very sad outcome for this hiker and his family and friends. Stay safe!

Stats:
Distance: 17.2km
Time: 8:31hr
Elevation: 1056m

March 14th, 2022

Finally!! After a long two year hiatus, I finally crossed the border and headed straight to the Adirondacks! We crossed over on Sunday March 13th, a day later than planned but a large snowstorm was warning us that blizzard conditions were going to be imminent and driving would be 'impossible'. When we finally arrived in Lake Placid and then in Keene in felt like being back to our home away from home. I have spent loads of time in the Adirondacks over the past 15 years and it definitely felt good to be back.

One hoop us Canadians had to jump through in March of 2022 was to have a negative Covid test before re-entering Canada. So we found a free one you could get done at Walgreens in Lake Placid and had our appointments booked in advance for the earliest slots on Monday morning around 9:30AM. The drive-thru test was a breeze - they did Deb and I together. Our two other trip mates had to wait a whole extra hour so we went ahead and started our day off on South Meadow road.

I needed Phelps and Tabletop for my Winter 46er list. We thought those two would fit the bill nicely as a re-introduction to the Adirondacks after our 2 year hiatus. We had tried our best to keep our legs in mountain shape by strength training, walking up and down our local ski hill and doing numerous hikes and backpacking trips in Ontario. The hills just aren't as long, so nothing would fully prepare us for our return trip to the 'dacks.

We started the day late around 10 AM at the South Meadow Parking lot and skied into Marcy dam via the truck trail with our snowshoes on our packs. I love these combo days and my goal is to make all my Winter 46ers as interesting as possible. The skiing was really good- it had just dumped 10-12" of fresh snow two days before. We managed to ski past Marcy Dam and up a little bit more across a creek towards Phelps before we transitioned to snowshoes. Being on snowshoes felt a bit weird as I had spent most of the winter cross country skiing. Off we went to the Phelps turn off and started the inclined portion of the hike to the summit. I was in the lead and told Deb I was going to keep a steady pace on the ascent (not blazing fast but not lollygagging either). Turned out we passed two other parties and reached the summit first on that day! It was a bit of an ego boost for us having not hiked a mountain in 2 years! We still got it!

We took a break on the summit with some food and drink and had some photos taken by some other summiters. We didn't linger too long as we had to descend and then continue over to Tabletop. The descent went well despite being not sure how my knee would handle it after having a knee surgery during my 2 year hiatus. The slog up to the Tabletop turnoff is a part I had forgotten about. You do ascend quite a lot in this section.  I was reminiscing with Deb about a AT ski descent I did off Marcy down the ski trail parallel the hiking trail and it is quite steep. We saw a group of AT skiers heading up Marcy earlier which would have been a great day to do it with all the fresh snow. When we finally got to the Tabletop turnoff we  couldn't remember how far it was to the top. Deb thought it was 30-40 mins or so. I think it ended up being 45 so not too far off! I remembered the Tabletop summit from my first round as being unremarkable but I found this time it does have a really nice view from it despite the dead standing trees. 

Our descent went pretty fast but by now the toll of the ascents had worn out our legs and we marched out and down to our ski stash. We transitioned back on skis and found that now being late afternoon, the snow was freezing up again and things started to get icy. The ski trail out from Marcy Dam was incredibly fast....we were averaging 22km/hr not even poling! There was one part of the ski trail that I was concerned about and made a remark to Deb on the way in. A steep descent ends a one foot ledge drop off that would be consequential at speed. Knowing it was coming, I used the metal edges on my backcountry skis to dig into the snow as best I could and snowplowed my way towards the ledge with alarm bells ringing loudly in my brain. Could I stop before the ledge? With all the extra weight on my back (winter daypack and snowshoes) I came to a screaming halt 2meters before the ledge with my legs still in a wide plow formation. My upper body position was so far forward that it catapulted me into a faceplant into the snow! Luckily I did not go over the edge and besides having a mouthful of snow, I was no worse for the wear. Deb had one wipeout too in a different location, so it was definitely fast skiing!

We zoomed out the rest of the way on skis and finished our first day in the 'dacks and a natural high from the adventure we just had. Long overdue! 2 more winters in the bag!

Stats:
Time: 7h 37mins
Distance: 25.3km
Ascent: 1323m (this could be off as my watch wasn't working well)