M
MikeLib
Guest
Went in Saturday morning to Feldspar Lean-to. No problems up until the Avalanche Camps. After that the snow was intermixed in with a firm but narrow spine. Not an easy task with full packs on. We were warned of flooding along the Feldspar Trail, but the swampy part was negotiable, if not easy to pass around. Do not be persuaded to go through Avalanche Pass instead, the trail through Feldspar is definitely passable. We set up camp at the lean-to and tried to head up Skylight that day. The conditions on the trail up to 4 corners were very difficult to deal with. We made it to about 4000 feet and turned around knowing that we had a long way to go and not much daylight. We spent the night and went back up under clear blue skies on Sunday. The trail was deep in spots to bare in others. It took us 45 minutes to go the 1.5 miles to 4 corners keeping a very fast pace. The .5 trail up Skylight was posthole city. At one point I post holed 5 straight steps. The spine was melting in the warm snow. We summitted to amazing views around us. We could see the people climbing Marcy. Took us about 15 minutes to head down Skylight and then headed over the cairn that marked Gray Peak. The herdpath is in rough shape. Very easy to follow, but very soft deep snow made hiking very very difficult. IF you were not in snow, you were in ankle deep water and mud. It looked like we were the first ones back there in a while as there were no footprints in the snow at all. We summitted and were surprised by the views, then turned around and headed back out. We picked up our packs at the lean-to and made the 6.4 mile venture back to the Loj in 3.5 hours. All in all a great weekend under very difficult conditions in the High Peaks.
