Wright Peak 3/20

[yuckster]

Well, I bagged my first Adirondack 4000-footer, just missing getting it in winter (Sunday was first day of spring)... skied back down... and then got lost in the parking lot!

Wright Peak is not lift-served, but has a well-designed, narrow, old-school ski trail cut down the northeast ridge. It winds around a lot, with just enough room to link tight turns on the steeps, and long "single-track" traverses that are thoughtfully placed just when you think you've built up too much speed. The kind of trail that no ski area would be able to cut, due to the crowds and possible liability, but bread and butter for someone with reasonable abilities in good snow conditions. There are a couple sections where people have skied VERY tight lines through the surrounding trees; I did one of those, and had a ball, you could probably hear the whoops for miles around. Taking the new skis into the moguls this season paid off.

This trail is rated "more difficult" in the Goodman book; conditions were fast that day, but I kind of hate to think what a "MOST difficult" trail would look like! This was very narrow. It's easy enough to make the turns successfully, but they're all blind.

I skied it with Andrew, an old Internet acquaintance from Ottawa whom I'd recently gotten back in touch with. He was trying out a randonnée kit that he'd purchased the day before, and using his plastic mountaineering boots (which don't really offer fore/aft ankle support the way ski boots do) so he was a little out of control and falling a lot, but made it down in one piece. His was a BRAND new kit with Silvretta 500 bindings, and we had to stop a few times on the skin up until he got the DIN properly adjusted to prevent prerelease. After that, the skin up was smooth sailing. In fact, at the start of our trip we were flying past cross country skiiers and snowshoers on the way up to Marcy Dam; I felt like the aerobic fiend that I am not. Andrew has recently dropped a bunch of weight to get in shape for alpine climbing, which I can totally respect, so we're moving about the same pace on this trip, and I spent most of the time in the lead.

At the top, we decided to stop just short of skinning to the actual summit; there is a pretty exposed chute up there with bare rock to traverse around. We left our skis 50 feet below, and headed up for a nice sunny warm lunch break on the bald summit, summitting at 2:30 after a 9:45 or so start. We sat around at the summit, gawking at the slides on neighboring Algonquin, which are holding snow but clearly steep enough that they constantly slough. You can see the point releases everywhere. We also got a look at some of the slides on Colden, which looked more reasonable, and on the way up from Marcy Dam you can see ski tracks all over one particular pair of twin slides, which looks less steep but with some natural obstacles in the form of rocks. I'm not sure whether this slide is on Whales Tail or the northeast side of Wright; probably Wright. Next time I go up there, I intend to bring a map to triangulate exactly what I'm looking at.

For the descent, we had great corn snow, but it was the last day for many of the low-lying cross country ski/snowshoe trails that we used to access the mountain. They were good in the morning, but packed down to ice by the time we were coming back down. Perhaps the ski-only trails, and the higher elevations, will still be good for a few more days or a week.

Only downside: we got lost in one of the parking lots on the way back down, and hiked back up to Marcy Dam to get back to our car on the truck road, adding an unnecessary hour and a half to the end of the day. I whined like a little girl, when I found out we were climbing back up in circles! :-) But we still got out before the sun was down.


We also did some mellow ice climbing on Saturday, while waiting for Andrew's skis to come in. I borrowed a pair of Aztar axes from his guide friend, and strapped my G14 crampons onto my ski boots. We did Chouinard's Gully, an easy grade 3 that was really one of the only climbs still in solid in the area. I followed, since it was my first time on ice since that weirdass too-early-season trip with Dana last year. This time around, it didn't suck. I had no real difficulties, one fall due to sheer inattention while cleaning a screw.

[RR]

Nice TR...so....what do you think of the Aztars?

[yuckster]

Originally Posted by RR

Nice TR...so....what do you think of the Aztars?

The Aztars have an excellent pick, I liked the looks of it better than the BD tools I almost used.

They were a good match for Chouinard's because mostly it's not steep. The pick angle seemed to match my swing without modifications to my technique.

The Aztar is an alpine tool, probably best for something like Pinnacle. For something steeper I would consider going with a tool with more clearance in the handle.

[RR]

Originally Posted by yuckster

The Aztars have an excellent pick, I liked the looks of it better than the BD tools I almost used.

They were a good match for Chouinard's because mostly it's not steep. The pick angle seemed to match my swing without modifications to my technique.

The Aztar is an alpine tool, probably best for something like Pinnacle. For something steeper I would consider going with a tool with more clearance in the handle.

Thanks....I'm thinking of comparing them to the BD Rages, but if I can Pro-Form the BD Vipers I may have to do that.

BTW, thanks for finding another item for my tick-list....that spot looks great!

[Affix Snow]

How did you ascend Wright?

Did you actually go to Marcy dam? The only trail to wrights and the ski trail doesnt go anywhere near marcy dam....at the junction, .9mi from the parking lot, marcy dam is another 1.2mi in the wrong direction......

Did you go up and over whales tale then pick up the trail up to Algonquin and wright?

Oh...those twin slides yousaw from Marcy Dam, if you were there, were the slides on Wright that took a life in Feb. 2000......

[Freebird]

Originally Posted by Affix Snow

Oh...those twin slides yousaw from Marcy Dam, if you were there, were the slides on Wright that took a life in Feb. 2000......

It claimed TWO of the four lives on the mountain that day if I remember correctly. I met up with one of the survivors a year or two later up on the summit of Seymour. He said he and his (girlfriend I think- maybe it was wife, I don't recall) had a hard time getting over walking on snow. Like even in their backyard if the snow would settle underfoot, they'd almost freak. I guess he almost died as well, but managed only a few breaks. Anyway, terrible accident that year. I guess a year later, the NFOG slabbed and it could be heard all the way down in Keene Valley. (rumored- i don't know the truth to that though) I tell people those stories, and they're all astonished- "Not the NY you were expecting huh?"

[yuckster]

Originally Posted by Affix Snow

How did you ascend Wright?

Did you actually go to Marcy dam? The only trail to wrights and the ski trail doesnt go anywhere near marcy dam....at the junction, .9mi from the parking lot, marcy dam is another 1.2mi in the wrong direction......

Did you go up and over whales tale then pick up the trail up to Algonquin and wright?

Oh...those twin slides yousaw from Marcy Dam, if you were there, were the slides on Wright that took a life in Feb. 2000......

We parked at South Meadows (I think that's what it's called) and went up the truck road to Marcy Dam. We went across the dam, then across/down what I believe was the Van Hoevenburg (sp?) trail, which traverses gently over to the Algonquin trail. It probably loses a little altitude on the traverse but not too much. Then we went up from there normally. Yes, we originally intended to go up over the Whales Tail pass, but we didn't see the trail at first glance and in retrospect I think it would have been slower.

After all was said and done we added a few miles to our trip but we avoided the parking fees at Adirondack Loj, and we still summited as fast as I would have expected for the more direct route. The low lying trails (until you get to the Van Hoevenburg trail junction) are relatively flat.

Thanks for confirming my suspiction that those were the Wright slides. I would have been willing to go take a closer look at them, they had obviously been heavily tested and I think the avy danger was probably low to moderate that day. But my partner wasn't equipped for it, we got a lazy late morning start, and we didn't have the approach beta. Most importantly, we didn't have avy gear with us.

If anyone has skiied these - it looks like they get steeper at the bottom?

[Affix Snow]

Originally Posted by yuckster

We parked at South Meadows (I think that's what it's called) and went up the truck road to Marcy Dam. We went across the dam, then across/down what I believe was the Van Hoevenburg (sp?) trail, which traverses gently over to the Algonquin trail. It probably loses a little altitude on the traverse but not too much. Then we went up from there normally. Yes, we originally intended to go up over the Whales Tail pass, but we didn't see the trail at first glance and in retrospect I think it would have been slower.

After all was said and done we added a few miles to our trip but we avoided the parking fees at Adirondack Loj, and we still summited as fast as I would have expected for the more direct route. The low lying trails (until you get to the Van Hoevenburg trail junction) are relatively flat.

Thanks for confirming my suspiction that those were the Wright slides. I would have been willing to go take a closer look at them, they had obviously been heavily tested and I think the avy danger was probably low to moderate that day. But my partner wasn't equipped for it, we got a lazy late morning start, and we didn't have the approach beta.

OK...it all makes sense now. You really did take the LONG way.....parking is $3 at the loj as a member....not bad. That is one of my fav trails....wrights ski that is.....real fun! Glad you had a good time!

[Affix Snow]

Originally Posted by Freebird

It claimed TWO of the four lives on the mountain that day if I remember correctly. I met up with one of the survivors a year or two later up on the summit of Seymour. He said he and his (girlfriend I think- maybe it was wife, I don't recall) had a hard time getting over walking on snow. Like even in their backyard if the snow would settle underfoot, they'd almost freak. I guess he almost died as well, but managed only a few breaks. Anyway, terrible accident that year. I guess a year later, the NFOG slabbed and it could be heard all the way down in Keene Valley. (rumored- i don't know the truth to that though) I tell people those stories, and they're all astonished- "Not the NY you were expecting huh?"

it ACTUALLY only claimed ONE life- Toma Vracarich.

You must have met Ron Konowitz and that was most likely his wife, Lauren.

She got hurt, but Ron Escaped....