Mt. Marcy: 4/1/15

Last Sunday, I got a message from Rick while I was paused mid-mountain at Plattekill, asking if I'd like to do a Mt. Marcy trip on Wednesday. I'd never been and was psyched to get the offer. After some negotiation with my son's mama, I was cleared to go. I checked in with Carl, whom I only knew from Facebook, but who'd asked me the previous week if I knew of anyone doing any BC trips. He offered me and Rick a place to stay the night before near Long Lake, making Wednesday morning much more civilized.

We got to the Adirondack Loj trailhead at 9. It was a perfect bluebird day.


Rick was on Voile Vector BC's with fishscales. Carl was a master of the lost art of waxing, and had a formula that included an ironed-in base layer of bonding wax, which seemed to work almost as well as Rick's no-wax bases. I was on G3 Zen Oxide 93's with Enzos, which are light and tour great, and just crayoned and corked some Blue Extra and Blue Special in the pocket. But I didn't have nearly the purchase of my more experienced BC partners, so the first leg of the ascent was challenging. But as soon as we got to the bridge after Marcy Dam ("Skin-Up Bridge"), the up-hill was smoother.



I had to cancel a trip to Colorado the week prior, which was to have included a 3-day hut trip to Eisemann's, across I-70 from Vail. This trip more than compensated for it - great to experience 'alpine grandeur' so close to home. As Tunis said in his FB comment, it looked just like Colorado, but with snow.

Approaching Marcy



There were a couple of families with 11-year old boys who made it to the summit. So cool!


Most of the folks we saw going up and down were on freeheel equipment (only saw one AT-er) - including a couple of sturdy Swedes on lightweight XC gear who sidestepped and herringboned all the climbs. Respect.  

Temps and wind were mild till you got to the summit. We ended up choosing a less-than ideal route up the icy slab, and it was definitely a no-fall zone. The view from the summit was spectacular, but it wasn't a place you wanted to hang out for long. The bowl below and subsequent gully had some nice soft snow, and we savored the turns that we'd so strenuously earned.

The view from the top of New York




You needed a wedge for a good part of the ride down the very narrow and fairly steep trail. It's always shocking how quickly you lose all the elevation you'd just worked so hard to gain.

We got back to the Loj at about 5, tired and hungry. Rick and I headed back toward the Hudson Valley. I was noticing some vibration on the front driver's side of my Element, and slowed down just after the Albany Toll. Then the tire completely blew out and we pulled over safely to the side of the Thruway. An hour or so later, we got the donut on, got off the Thruway and took 9-W all the way home. Quoting Rick quoting Yvon Chouinard, "It's not an adventure until something goes wrong."  

Nice work

Sweet! CF... you mention challenges with grip wax etc... what do you think about doing this trip on Rossi BC 110s (waxless) and T4s?

Seems like the T4s would be a good compromise, with the weak spot being the first/steep part of summit descent... your opinion on that?

We have always wanted to do that. Maybe in a couple of years when my girl is older. Son is going to be 11 in a week and already out skis me but, I can still carry more stuff and hike faster :).

Crazy about your tire blowing out and good thing you have a spare/doughnut.  This reminds me, I should check if mine is all good.

Great report! Sounds like a great trip. I hope to make it someday -- who knows? Maybe even this year yet.

Any lessons learned? Advice? Would you want to go up entirely on climbing skins, or is the route too up-and-down?

David wrote

Any lessons learned? Advice? Would you want to go up entirely on climbing skins, or is the route too up-and-down?

Not the author - but from a similar trip a few years back, my lesson learned was ski crampons, which I did not have and sorely wished for on the final summit stretch where the ice is rock hard.  Maybe not the question you asked but for me that was the most important takeaway.  I didn't hurt myself but easily could have, and would certainly have enjoyed it more and gotten up quicker with a solid grip.  

I'll let others weigh in and would be interested in opinions on fishscales v skins v wax.  

Nice Job!. I was thinking about you and this trip yesterday as I slaved away in my office.  

Nice report and sweet photos! I was wishing I was up there yesterday.

Waxless skis going up are definitely an advantage HR. And the T4's would be great for all but about 3 turns (and they'd be fine as long as you had decent, edgeable snow).

We talked about crampons a bit. None of us had em but we sure wish we did for that icy face. It wasn't even that bad yesterday, but with more wind, snow, cold etc. could be seriously hairy. Using skins the whole ascent would be fine. Problem is the decent, when you hit all the uphills you didn't remember going down on the way up. The rolling terrain wants wax or fishscales.

Great report!  It's been a few years, but I've had some great trips up and down Marcy, in conditions ranging from mid-winter powder to spring corn and 70 degrees.  It's a classic tour that every avid skier should do at least once.  

Amazing! I've always wanted to do this. Ive only ever been to "civilized" ski areas. It's amazing you pulled it off in 8 hours. It took me nearly 12 hours to hike it.

Ethan Snow wrote

It's amazing you pulled it off in 8 hours. It took me nearly 12 hours to hike it.

My guess is that going up is somewhat slower on skis (vs boots in summer) but coming down is much faster on the down.  Be curious to know the split times up and down.