The Giant and His Bottle

With the ski season over, I figured it was time to get back my other passion, slide climbing. The large slabs of anorthosite are a fun and adventurous way to reach the summit of an Adirondack peak. Of course, combined with a good amount of snowfall, they become a thrilling descent on backcountry skis.

View from the top of Roaring Brook Falls

Almost every High Peak in the Park has at least one slide, while a few have more than a handful. Giant Mountain is one of these select few, boasting roughly 9 separate landslides on each of its flanks. Each has their own unique characteristics and difficulty, with the hardest one being the Eagle, a Class IV climb that doesn’t require rope but is steep enough to send a careless climber hundreds of feet down the mountain.

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Algonquin: After a Storm

This winter season has been, at times, difficult. Especially for a skiers who earn their turns in the backcountry, relying on Mother Nature to make it possible. After a March Nor’easter pummeled New York with 2 feet of snow in some places, it seemed like a fitting time to head back into the High Peaks wilderness in search of soft snow.

Algonquin intersection

My friend Jack and brother Bailey and I decided upon a couple classic lines within the MacIntyre Range: Algonquin’s northeast bowl and the historic Wright Peak Ski Trail.

Our skin began at 7am at the Adirondack Loj, a popular summer trailhead which grants access to over a dozen High Peaks. It was 15 degrees and cloudy with light snowfall.

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Skiing the Catskill Divide

Steam poured out of the roof of the Frost Valley YMCA sugar house. I could see the sugarman tending the boil through the open door. I wanted to spend all day there hearing stories of sap runs from years gone by. But there was no time for maple lore and syrup as I had other plans.

Biscuit Brook Register
Biscuit Brook

My long time ski bum friend, M.G. Sickman dropped me off at the Biscuit Brook parking area. He was headed off to Belleayre to ski for the day. We had been to Plattekill for their Powderdaize exactly a week before and conditions were now very different. My objective was a point-to-point ski traverse along the Catskill Divide on the 15 mile Pine Hill West Branch Trail ending at Belleayre.

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