Hudson Highlands: Breakneck Ridge and Bull Hill

Twenty-four hours before this ski tour began on February 26, I had no plans to ski in New York. I’d never skied in the Hudson Highlands, and I had never met my ski touring partner for the day, Ripitz a well-known character from the NYSkiBlog Forums.

In the fall, Rip and I spoke about meeting up for a hike, but winter came before we could make it work. On a whim, I reached out to see if he was open to skin up somewhere in Vermont.

He countered with skiing in the Hudson Highlands State Park instead and asked if I had my nordic skis with me (I did).

That is how, less than 24 hours later, I found myself at our meeting point, the empty and unplowed Little Stony Point trailhead in Cold Spring, just before 8:15 am. When someone riding a bike strapped with skis entered the parking lot, I assumed this was Ripitz.

What a great idea. The bomb cyclone had just hit the area only a few days prior and it’s not often that the Hudson Valley has this level of coverage. The first part of the trail was an old carriage road that paralleled Route 9D providing beautiful morning views of the Hudson River and Storm King.

The temps went just below freezing the night before so the snow was a bit firm on the surface to start; we hoped rising temps would soften things up. Rip had skied up this way in previous years, and this was the first time he recalled there being this much snow this low. I took this as a good sign.

The path went on for about a mile up to a notch between Bull Hill and Breakneck Ridge, an area that was once a dairy farm owned by the Cornish family until the mid-1940s.

Many of the ruins remain interspersed throughout the notch, including the mansion, swimming pool, greenhouse, barn, dam, as well as other foundations and stone walls. It’s quite impressive and worth a visit in its own right.

The untracked path became less defined after the estate. I sincerely enjoyed the puzzle of picking my way through tight spots and navigating multiple stream crossings. We then came to a fork in the road. A trail on one side leading south to Bull Hill and the trail on the other side leading north up to Breakneck Ridge.

With the amount of snow in the area, Rip thought it may be possible to ski up to the trailless 1,260 ft Breakneck summit, something he had never skied. I immediately was all in to see if it was feasible.

We followed the blazes for a while and then, to make it to the top, we found ourselves first route-finding through the trees and then side-stepping up a series of snow-covered ledges to get to the summit.

The thought never crossed my mind as to how we would ski down on our light touring setup after getting to the top. I was just impressed that there was this much snow on this southwest-facing exposure to make it all the way up without having to take off our skis.

We made it to the top and what a view. What struck me the most about this moment was thinking back to hiking/scrambling up Breakneck from the main trailhead in my youth to reach what looked like the top only to find it to be a false summit with another point higher and then another higher, until I got to the ‘final summit’ and found the next highest point was separated by a deep saddle.

I was now standing across that very saddle (with skis on my feet) finally making it to the top of what we declared to be “Breakneck High Point.”

The view also allowed Rip to point out his ski tour just two days prior across Fishkill Ridge to Mt. Beacon to our north. With over 1,200 ft of elevation gain since we started, it was time for the downhill part of XC-d. Rip quickly checked the topo map and found the northeast side of this highpoint had more forgivingly spaced contour intervals compared to the way we came up.

By now it was noon, the snow softened up a bit since the morning, and the ski descent off the ridge was better than I expected.

I’m relatively new to skiing downhill free-heeled so my technique is non-existent. That said, I was able to stay in control (for the most part), stay upright on my skis (for the most part) and make turns as needed down the 700 ft elevation drop to the old dam in the notch between Breakneck Ridge and Bull Hill.

By this point, we had been touring/bushwacking for 5 hours, which was about the length of my longest ski tour to date. In hindsight, this was our chance to call it a day and ski down the notch for another 2 miles to the trailhead but we were still feeling good and there was still plenty of daylight. We instead headed toward the 1,420 ft high Bull Hill to attempt a double summit day.

The second part of our tour started with a shortcut bushwack traverse around the old dam before starting the ascent up Bull Hill. There was one stream crossing along the way where the snow ledge collapsed as I was about to cross and I instinctively lunged one ski across the stream in hopes I would not end up in the drink.

While that worst case scenario was averted, I found myself doing a split wider than I thought possible with one ski on either side of the stream. I was stuck. In hindsight, my only regret about the day is that I did not ask Ripitz to take a picture of my predicament and instead accepted his help to get me to the other side!

We arrived at the top 1.5 hours later and were treated to fantastic views of the Shawangunks and Catskills far off to the north as well as West Point and the Bear Mountain Bridge to the south. If you knew where to look and squinted real hard, you could even make out the Manhattan skyline some 50 miles away. It was here that we appreciated the distance travelled as we looked across the notch to Breakneck Ridge, where we had been just earlier, and the river far below, from where we had started.

After enjoying the views and the last of our snacks, it was time for our 4 mile, 1,400 ft descent to the trailhead. The ski down Bull Hill involved beautifully spaced trees, a mostly mellow slope and nicely softened snow for a fun ski down. After a little more bushskiing to get back on the carriage road trail, we enjoyed a nice slide out overlooking the majestic Hudson River Fjord.

Arriving unscathed, we found ourselves back at the trailhead at 4:45 pm, just as the afternoon light was transitioning into evening.

We’d skied for over eight hours and about 14 miles, significantly longer than any of my previous ski tours. I was completely spent but feeling accomplished. I forget how much I appreciate being pushed just beyond what I thought to be my limit (and still making it). It’s something that does not happen as much in my day-to-day life anymore.

For me, NYSkiBlog offers a place to connect with like-minded people. To have the experience in excellent company, during a beautiful winter day, and in an area near where I grew up, but haven’t explored in over 30 years, made it that much more special. Fantastic suggestion Ripitz to ski the Hudson Highlands, how fortunate it was to share such a rare opportunity.