Skylight and Marcy, March 19

[nundagao]

The ascent was via the L. Arnold trail. Recent snowshoe tracks turned off toward Colden at the junction, with only a couple of old ski tracks beyond that point. The swamp was still under several feet of snow and not a problem. The trail to Lake Tear was hardpacked. I had hoped to climb Gray but Gray was unbroken. The herd path was totally obscured by deep snow and postholing started immediately after crossing the outlet. Being by myself it seemed unwise to press on with that quest, so I headed for 4 corners and found fresh boot tracks coming down Skylight descending toward Panther Gorge, postholing deeply with each step. But the tracks followed the trail all the way, even where the krumholz was buried. There were some small spruce traps but none of any consequence. The south face of Marcy's summit cone was bare enough above treeline to not need snowshoes. I switched to Stabilicers to shortcut some icy patches, but if I hadn't had them it would've been possible to pick a route on bare rock all the way up. It was sunny but too windy on top to linger. The only people I met all day were four guys skiing Marcy. This was #30 toward my W46. It has been a great season and this was the perfect way to wind it up!