Dawn + Matt finish Catskill Winter 35's on Westkill

[funkyfreddy]

Congratulations to Matt(mcorsar) and Dawn (hike the115) for finishing the Catskill Winter 35's. It was a great hike yesterday up Westkill Mt., where a surprising number of hikers showed up to help them celebrate their finish. A number of us met at the Kingston park and ride, from where we carpooled over to the trailhead on Spruceton Rd. where a lot more folks were waiting for us.

The weather was beautiful with the sun coming through the trees as we started hking, a nice layer of ice on the falls as we started the hike up Westkill Mt. This mountain has always been one of my favorites and it was a real treat to do it in winter with a large group of friends, old hiking buddies, and new faces.

The large group quickly split up into many different groups who hiked at different speeds, many of us spending as much time talking as walking, for many of us hadn't seen each other in quite a long time and had a bit of catching up to do. I had a great time hiking with a lot of old friends up and down the mountain and it was especially sweet to be in the catskills again on this nice winter day.

There was a large gathering to celebrate at the summit where many pictures were taken (I will be posting a link shortly to mine). After the hike a large group of us went to Brios in Phoenicia and ate at the bar next door to it that shares its kitchen.

Special thanks go to David/Coldfeet for giving me a ride to the Catskills! It was great to ride with him and catch up on things, we just managed to get back to southern NY before the snowstorm hit really hard.

 

[MattC]

Thanks for being there Freddy. While you were posting this, I was typing a more detailed TR, which appears below. Rather than be redundant, I deleted the other thread and copied my TR into this one:

This hike completed the winter round of the Catskill 35 for both Dawn (Hike the 115) and myself. We had quite a crew show up-Jay H, Al (ajtiv), Funky Freddy, T-max, Harry K, Coldfeet, ERD, and several non-VFTT friends from the 3500 Club and Mid-Hudson ADK, including Frank, Rich, Bonnie, Krista, Carol and David White and a few more whos names escape me now-sorry.

Anyhow, we met up at the end of Spruceton Rd. w/ mostly cloudy skies and reasonable temps (mid 20s, maybe?). After gearing up we tramped down the first section of road/trail, which was almost completely iced over. Rather than put on crampons this early, everyone simply stuck to the sides of the road and the bare rocks sticking out. One or two spills, but nothing major.

Diamond Notch Falls was flowing nicely, w/ a good amount of blue ice all around it. A lovely way to begin the hike. The bridge also appeared to have been fixed up recently, as I didn't notice the hole. After looping around, the climbing began. Most of the crew pulled out ahead fairly quickly, while a small group stayed in sweep position-most of the time it was Freddy, Harry, Krista, Dawn and myself.

While the snow was pretty minimal, there was quite a bit of ice in all the ledgy areas. We managed to skirt around the worst parts and most of us still didn't bother with the crampons. We climbed, and talked and laughed, at one point being overtaken by a group of four-we then leapfrogged back and forth with them up to Buck Ridge. Most of the crew was already at the lookout when I arrived, and I continued on to the summit. Frank came along, and several others followed to take pictures. I threw on a layer and ate a little, and Dawn and Krista arrived a few minutes later. Lots more pics, cameras being tossed back and forth, and general revelry. David White is the membership chair for the 3500 Club, and he had winter patches right there to hand us! Thanks Dave! Jay also supplied his cardboard W 3500 sign, which Dax had given him several weeks previous.

Back down to Buck Ridge lookout for champagne and limited, but still nice views. Still more pics and laughter. What a great bunch of friends! In addition to this being #35 for Dawn and I, it was #1 for Krista, which I thought was pretty cool. Big thanks to Rich for bringing the bubbly. We finally pulled ourselves away from this amazing spot and headed down. Everyone was in crampons now, and the conditions were quite good for them-both the hardpack and the water ice.

Once again, many folks were out in front, with just about the same crew sweeping, except now with Coldfeet as well. We caught up to ERD right around the 3500' marker and continued on. Somewhere between there and 3000' or so, the rock to snow/ice ratio became rocky enough to take the crampons off. On we went, with one last brief stop in Diamond Notch before heading back out to the cars.

Then it was on to Brios in Phoenicia, where we ate, drank and made merry for an hour or so. Dawn and I handed in our tally sheets to Dave right there in the restaurant. He said we'd be in the 630s somewhere. We were actually eating in the place next door, but I checked back in Brios to see if any of our other friends might be in there-no dice. After the meal, a few goodbyes were said and we headed out. While we were standing on the street Rocky Summit pulled up! Mudhook was getting out of his car down the street. They had just climbed Wittenberg and Cornell, w/ Cornell making #35 for Rocky. Unfortunately, we had to hit it, since some of our crew were headed back to NYC/Long Island/Jersey. We did get to chat in the lot for a few minutes at least. Congrats, Tony-glad we got to see you guys. Thanks to all that showed up and hiked with us. You're all the greatest!

Matt

 

[Doodles]

Congrats Dawn and Matt and Rocky. What a great day to finish up the winter 35.

Sounds like a great party on the mountain. Sorry I didn"t hook up for the hike, but I was really determined to get my planned hike in (Baksam thru Fir).

George

 

[jade]

Very enoyable trip report....Congrats to all!!

 

[funkyfreddy]

pictures are here.....

http://community.webshots.com/album/547484184zPBsLb

 

[Jay H]

Congrats to Matt and Dawn and Tony for the finishing of the Winter 3500.. Is there a record somewhere for non-related finishers for the 3500 club?

Had fun hiking pre-blizzard yesterday.

Good folks, good friends and good food. It's great when a whole group from all over the NE and Canada can get together and just meld. Anyway, looking forward to future hikes and explorations.

It started to rain/snow as I got to about Woodbury Commons but it was just starting to stick where I live when I got home at 9pm. This morning there was about 14 inches on the ground and I went snowshoeing right from my house in Pyramid Mountain, which was an absolute blast. Finally, a true winter hike!

Jay

 

[MattC]

Good to see Jay and Freddy got home okay. Hope the same is true for Al and Coldfeet. It sounds like maybe they would have just had it a little tough for the end of their drive.

It didn't start up here until late at night. It snowed for a long time, probably over 12 hours, but it didn't seem to amount to much. Very light powder blowing all over the place, maybe 4 or 5 inches. One of the guys at Rock and Snow said there was more up at Mohonk-he was XC skiing up there today.

I'm jealous Jay-I thought I'd at least get to put on the snowshoes today for a walk on the rail trail, but it wasn't worth taking them out. Ironic that all the metro areas got slammed, but the mountains didn't get much.

Matt

 

[Jay H]

Central park recorded something like 26.4". Although the snows were very very wide, even in the new's distribution. My sister in Monmouth County got only 4" of snow because a lot of it was rain. It started as rain when I got onto Rt 17 near Monroe and then turned to snow/rain as I hit the throughway near Sloatsburg. My thermometer was reading about 32-30 so the roads were just wet and the traffic was non-existant pretty much.

I thought about skiing today but I knew nobody was going to be in Pyramid and breaking trail in 14" of fresh powder is tough with my somewhat skinny Karhu Pavos so I snowshoed today. Got some pictures.

Back on topic. I have the celebrated cardboard Winter 3500w sign, we can record it's usage on it!

Jay

 

[daxs]

Congrats to Dawn and Matt on completing your catskill winter 3500!

 

[MattC]

Central park recorded something like 26.4".

Could they maybe truck some of that up to the Catskills? Just to borrow-we'll send it back through the aqueduct when it melts in the spring.

Congrats to Dawn and Matt on completing your catskill winter 3500!

Thanks Carol. We decided that your cardboard sign should be re-used at each W35 finish. We'll record the hiker name, the mountain and the date on the back. Jay, maybe you could write down your own, Dawn's and mine to start. We were laughing when we noticed that the cardboard was from a steroid box! I joked that we didn't want Dave White to see it, because he'd think we'd been "juicing" and our climbs would be disqualified!

Matt

 

[hikethe115]

Thank you so much to all of those who joined us. It was a great day! And thanks for the congrats from those who couldn't join us. It was a lot of fun and definitely a social hike at a slow pace. Getting our winter patches at the top was a nice surprise! Of course, Dave reminded us we still had to make it down or we would have to give them back . Thanks to Matt for sharing the finish. We each finished on West Kill for our first round, so it seemed appropriate that we each finished on West Kill for our winters.

It was also nice hiking today in the snow. It felt good to finish the winter 35 on one day and then go do another 35er (Graham) the next day. I let TMax do a trip report since she is better at it than I am. The roads were not great when we headed out this morning, but they were fine on the way home.

 

[coldfeet]

I made it home....Congrats to Dawn and Matt....just sent a message to the 35 club yahoo group....got 15-? inches here in long Island,,,,better have fun now, it's supposed to hit 50 degrees on Thursday and friday.....went snowshoeing with my daughter today, then snowblowed my house and neighbors for app 2-3 hours...i am tired....great hike yesterday, it was like an expedition of 15 people...very cool, two great people and the size of the group proved it, even though they were all for Dawn!

HarryK (blue eyes) lives and he was wearing a VFTT shirt!

 

[ROCKYSUMMIT]

Hey Matt and Dawn, congrats to you both on a great accomplishment with a great group. Glad Mudhook and I met up with you guys before you hit the road!... Oh yeah, sounds like that cardboard sign is going to take a beating.
-Tony

 

[Jean]

Congratulations! Great trip report. Wish we had been there!

 

[TMax]

Congratulations Matt and Dawn. Glad I could be there with you. Maybe I'll get to use the steroid sign in a few weeks?

 

[daxs]

Hey, I really did not pick the "steriod" box on purpose when making the sign.l I just grabbed the first smaller box I could lay my hands on. Who'd know it become "famous" and get passed around. I'm afraid its gonna be a couple of years before I get to use it.

 

[Jay H]

Carol, the sign will be waiting. By then, perhaps the 3500 club will initiate random drug tests on the 35th peak..!

Avoid those poppy sead bagels and Prevacid Though I think Prevacid is mostly a guy thing.

Jay

 

[mudhook51]

Congrats to Matt and Dawn and Tony for the finishing of the Winter 3500.. Is there a record somewhere for non-related finishers for the 3500 club?
Don't forgetthe two on Lone, Rik and Charlene.

 

[sapblatt]

Way to go!

Congrats to all - looks like a grand time was had by all!