Another great day to be outdoor. I headed out from the Garden at 6:55 (parking was slightly more than half full – almost all overnighters). Overcast weather, about 20F. It would clear up later in the day.
Uneventful trek to the interior outpost.
I then got onto the Orebed trail, which is a really nice trail with an easy grade until the lean-to and a steeper grade after that. Some portions are in the slide, which gets you quality views of Saddleback going up.
After 6 miles, I got to the junction between Gothics (0.6mi) and Saddleback (0.5mi). I had decided to focus on Saddleback but wanted to try doing both. It turned out I was the first up Saddleback this day, so had to break trail through fresh snow but trail was not hard to find. Many portions are in the open and allow you to contemplate Gothics’ Western slope (yes, it is steep – more on this later). No ice, only a lot of snow.
Once the false summit, the walk to the actual summit is easy. Views here are towards the West (Basin, Haystack). I was curious to see if the other approach to Saddleback (the “cliff”) is as frightening as I had imagined. It was actually worse. I couldn’t even get close to the start of the trail. All I could do was take this picture from a safe distance (notice the yellow blazes).
Back at the junction, I decided to go take a look at Gothics. This approach is known as the “cable route” since there is steel cable to help for part of the ascent. Well, I got to the start of the cable and things started to look shaky at that point. This is probably the steepest open trail I’ve been on in the Adirondacks (excluding rock scrambles). There was ice and ice-like snow and rock. The cable was not useful – partly buried and on top of very hard ice and rock. I started up on the left side of it, but my snowshoes did not get a lot of purchase, so I switched to trail crampons – this took a lot of time as I there was no flat surface to do this and I didn’t want to have my stuff and myself slide down the mountain. I was getting whipped by icy winds. I got up and made it up a few more feet. The crampons were not helping as much as I’d hoped so I decided to turn around. At this point, two gentlemen with a dog climbed down and passed me – they had wanted to do a loop towards Armstrong but decided against it since the trail was difficult to find.
The walk back to the Garden was not particularly challenging, but my mind kept playing tricks for the last mile (I thought I could see the parking, but no).
Uneventful trek to the interior outpost.
I then got onto the Orebed trail, which is a really nice trail with an easy grade until the lean-to and a steeper grade after that. Some portions are in the slide, which gets you quality views of Saddleback going up.
After 6 miles, I got to the junction between Gothics (0.6mi) and Saddleback (0.5mi). I had decided to focus on Saddleback but wanted to try doing both. It turned out I was the first up Saddleback this day, so had to break trail through fresh snow but trail was not hard to find. Many portions are in the open and allow you to contemplate Gothics’ Western slope (yes, it is steep – more on this later). No ice, only a lot of snow.
Once the false summit, the walk to the actual summit is easy. Views here are towards the West (Basin, Haystack). I was curious to see if the other approach to Saddleback (the “cliff”) is as frightening as I had imagined. It was actually worse. I couldn’t even get close to the start of the trail. All I could do was take this picture from a safe distance (notice the yellow blazes).
Back at the junction, I decided to go take a look at Gothics. This approach is known as the “cable route” since there is steel cable to help for part of the ascent. Well, I got to the start of the cable and things started to look shaky at that point. This is probably the steepest open trail I’ve been on in the Adirondacks (excluding rock scrambles). There was ice and ice-like snow and rock. The cable was not useful – partly buried and on top of very hard ice and rock. I started up on the left side of it, but my snowshoes did not get a lot of purchase, so I switched to trail crampons – this took a lot of time as I there was no flat surface to do this and I didn’t want to have my stuff and myself slide down the mountain. I was getting whipped by icy winds. I got up and made it up a few more feet. The crampons were not helping as much as I’d hoped so I decided to turn around. At this point, two gentlemen with a dog climbed down and passed me – they had wanted to do a loop towards Armstrong but decided against it since the trail was difficult to find.
The walk back to the Garden was not particularly challenging, but my mind kept playing tricks for the last mile (I thought I could see the parking, but no).
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