The Mount van Hoevenberg Blog

Mount van Hoevenberg Singletrack Hike

Posted on by Peter Minde

Sunday before Memorial Day. The 400th consecutive cloudy day in the Adirondacks. At least it wasn’t raining. I paused construction on the ark for a trip to the happiest place on earth, Mount van Hoevenberg.

intersection of 3 trails
3 Trails intersection

While I’ve put in my share of mileage on the Ho’s ski trails, the singletrack is a mystery. I think that most of these were originally snowshoe trails linking various ski trails. At some point, many of them were cleaned up and manicured for summer cycling.

Last summer, I had a day where I incorporated a bit of singletrack on the cross country side into my run.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Hiking, Mount van Hoevenberg3 Comments

Lake Placid Loppet: The Forecast Called for Pain

Posted on by Peter Minde

I haven’t blogged much for NYSB this year. Skiing at Mt van Hoevenberg on 1 December, I crashed hard when Pumphouse Road turned from groomed powder into a rock garden. A torn acromioclavicular ligament put me outta commission. When I returned to skiing, it was decent early season conditions. No one wants to hear “It’s thin, but really good” when downhill writers are contributing stories with epic powder shots.

Lake Placid Loppet

Early on, the big storms were missing us in Saranac Lake. Gradually, conditions improved in the Tri-Lakes. Three inches here, three inches there, and pretty soon you’re skiing in good conditions. By the time the Lake Placid Loppet rolled around, we had serious midwinter conditions.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Mount van Hoevenberg, Nordic Skiing4 Comments

Mount van Hoevenberg: The Happiest Place on Earth

Posted on by Peter Minde

With travel on two consecutive weekends, my workout schedule has been disrupted lately. Not feeling completely fit, I decided to skip the Climb to the Castle on 11 August. Wednesday would have to be my overdistance day. I didn’t want to spend seven hours in the woods, so I drove to Mount van Hoevenberg to run the old Olympic trails.

new biathlon range

Like the rest of the Tri-Lakes, the Ho is inundated with tourists during the summer. Everyone wants to see the legacy Olympic venues. As I strapped on the unloader brace and my heart rate monitor, people were stepping up for the mountain coaster, the indoor climbing wall, and trying their hand at target shooting with the Be A Biathlete program.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Mount van Hoevenberg6 Comments