The Backcountry Blog

Chasing Winter at The Top

Posted on by ThatNYSkier

Powder skiing in New York came to an abrupt halt in early March. Without a season saving storm in sight, the mountains have been losing snowpack. Even at higher elevations, temperatures above freezing during the day and below freezing overnight, brought on an early spring.

Marcy Dam

Spring isn’t bad. Longer days, light crowds and of course, t-shirt weather. Corn snow is a blast when time and temperature align. Early in the day, it can be a nightmare of frozen crud, and in the afternoon it can become mashed mush. Combine all of it together, and you have a springtime backcountry tour in the High Peaks.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Backcountry, Earning Turns, High Peaks9 Comments

The Giant and His Bottle

Posted on by ThatNYSkier

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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Tagged: Adirondacks, Backcountry, Hiking4 Comments

Algonquin: After a Storm

Posted on by ThatNYSkier

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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Tagged: Adirondacks, Backcountry, Earning Turns7 Comments