The winds of Marcy came late.
I enjoy checking the forecast for the summit of Marcy on this site, which is usually quite accurate. I can attest to this accuracy because in the past 3 or 4 months I have trod upon the summit of Marcy 6 times. I don,t have a spreadsheet and I am not working a list, it just has happened that way due to Marcy offering a sizable unit of elevation gain. One Marcy unit is greater than say one Cascade unit. For elly gain, Marcy is the best game in town. Better yet Marcy is located geographically in such a fashion as to lend itself to combining it with other peaks for more and more gain.
So, the forecast had been showing some pretty good wind (pgw) coming Tuesday. We’re talking in the 50-60 mph range with some decent wind chills. So Trail Boss, Randomscooter and your humble servant hit the not so dusty trail from the HPIC at 8:45, which was a pretty late start for our itinerary. Those who are slaves to lists wanted to do Sky and Gray (as in Asa Gray, the botanist) seeing as they are “right there” and why not throw in Colden while we’re at it.
Prior to even starting out we had already “shortened our bench” by Colden for fear , not of wind but of a different fluid: dihydrogen oxide of the Opalescent variety.
We began our hike in one inch of snow and temperatures of -8C (to convert to F, see Google) and bare-booted to the Hopkins junction. The temperature had fallen to -18C and the skies were bright with interesting clouds scudding by. The clouds were not white and fluffy drifting by peacefully. Rather they moved in a determined, purposeful manner from West to East on our viewing ‘scape.
Tom decided to put his full crampons on for the summit cone so I followed suit and Taras put Hillsounds on. The delay caused me to lose core temperature and I began to shiver lightly. My fingers had become uncomfortably numb so I increased the work output per unit time to the Phelps junction where we stopped again. Taras decided to take care of his cold feet and I applied thicker insulation to my person.
We were prepared to face the brunt of those 60 mph winds (goggles, masks, etc. etc.) and off we went breaking trail through 6-12 inches. We gained elevation and the snow got pretty deep. We hit some drifts that were mid-thigh and we also walked on bare rock with a coating of ice. Crampons were overkill. As we rose we noted that wind was not rising with us. However at least the thermometer was falling and it bottomed out at -20C. We estimated the wind speed on the summit to be about 30 mph with some gusts to 40. We had already decided not to go down to 4 Corners because the going had been fairly slow all day and we preferred not to come back up to Marcy and begin the long walk out from the summit in darkness. I also had to go to work the next day and liked the idea of a decent night’s sleep. Lack of sleep deprives one of growth hormone and ups the production of cortisol. This endocrinological combo makes for poor recovery and as we all know, hiking makes you weaker, recovery is what makes you stronger.
So we went to Scooterville in Keene and before the drive to Montreal Taras and I were treated to hot beef stew with buttered buns and home-baked cookies.
Of note on the trail was the DEC employee who was baiting fishers with beaver meat scented with skunk perfume.
I enjoy checking the forecast for the summit of Marcy on this site, which is usually quite accurate. I can attest to this accuracy because in the past 3 or 4 months I have trod upon the summit of Marcy 6 times. I don,t have a spreadsheet and I am not working a list, it just has happened that way due to Marcy offering a sizable unit of elevation gain. One Marcy unit is greater than say one Cascade unit. For elly gain, Marcy is the best game in town. Better yet Marcy is located geographically in such a fashion as to lend itself to combining it with other peaks for more and more gain.
So, the forecast had been showing some pretty good wind (pgw) coming Tuesday. We’re talking in the 50-60 mph range with some decent wind chills. So Trail Boss, Randomscooter and your humble servant hit the not so dusty trail from the HPIC at 8:45, which was a pretty late start for our itinerary. Those who are slaves to lists wanted to do Sky and Gray (as in Asa Gray, the botanist) seeing as they are “right there” and why not throw in Colden while we’re at it.
Prior to even starting out we had already “shortened our bench” by Colden for fear , not of wind but of a different fluid: dihydrogen oxide of the Opalescent variety.
We began our hike in one inch of snow and temperatures of -8C (to convert to F, see Google) and bare-booted to the Hopkins junction. The temperature had fallen to -18C and the skies were bright with interesting clouds scudding by. The clouds were not white and fluffy drifting by peacefully. Rather they moved in a determined, purposeful manner from West to East on our viewing ‘scape.
Tom decided to put his full crampons on for the summit cone so I followed suit and Taras put Hillsounds on. The delay caused me to lose core temperature and I began to shiver lightly. My fingers had become uncomfortably numb so I increased the work output per unit time to the Phelps junction where we stopped again. Taras decided to take care of his cold feet and I applied thicker insulation to my person.
We were prepared to face the brunt of those 60 mph winds (goggles, masks, etc. etc.) and off we went breaking trail through 6-12 inches. We gained elevation and the snow got pretty deep. We hit some drifts that were mid-thigh and we also walked on bare rock with a coating of ice. Crampons were overkill. As we rose we noted that wind was not rising with us. However at least the thermometer was falling and it bottomed out at -20C. We estimated the wind speed on the summit to be about 30 mph with some gusts to 40. We had already decided not to go down to 4 Corners because the going had been fairly slow all day and we preferred not to come back up to Marcy and begin the long walk out from the summit in darkness. I also had to go to work the next day and liked the idea of a decent night’s sleep. Lack of sleep deprives one of growth hormone and ups the production of cortisol. This endocrinological combo makes for poor recovery and as we all know, hiking makes you weaker, recovery is what makes you stronger.
So we went to Scooterville in Keene and before the drive to Montreal Taras and I were treated to hot beef stew with buttered buns and home-baked cookies.
Of note on the trail was the DEC employee who was baiting fishers with beaver meat scented with skunk perfume.
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