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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Return to Mount Washington

This year my wife and I moved back east from Colorado. While I lived in Gunnison, I’d wake up early before work a few days a week and skin 2000 vertical feet before sunrise to ski, sometimes with a headlamp. This winter, back in Pennsylvania, I started skinning a small ski hill that is only 15 minutes from my house — Spring Mountain — to get my exercise and ski fix.

Mount Washington

Getting to Mount Washington was at the top of my list this spring. I hadn’t skied in the Whites since moving west and I was eager to get back. My plan was to arrive midday on Good Friday in hopes of getting a spot in one of the shelters near HoJo’s below the lower headwall of Tuckerman Ravine.

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