Slain by a Giant ?

[Tom Rankin]

Giant and Rocky, no big deal, right? Only 8 miles. Just a nice little warmup for the Sewards tomorrow. (?) How much elevation gain was that again? More on that later...

We got up early down in Poughkeepsie, at about 5:00. We were on the road by 5:40, heading up to the Giant trailhead. We got there just before 9:00, got ready and started up, just before a group of 11 from an ADK Winter Mountaineering School trip. They all had crampons on, but I kept my snowshoes on, not knowing what the trail would hold. Laurie donned crampons from the start, having been up mighty Giant twice in the winter before.

The trail conditions at the beginning ranged from bare rock, bare dirt, solid ice, hard packed snow, and some minor stream crossings. It was in the single digits, and even at the bottom, the wind was still blowing. We saw quite a bit of blowdown as we drove to the trailhead, but thankfully almost none on the trail.

For quite a bit of the way up, we were working our way up over a lot of hard ice. The trail looked like a frozen stream in many places. I managed to keep making progress in my MSRs.

After about an hour, we were at the viewpoint overlooking the ponds. It was snowing on and off, and at this point we couldn't see very much. So we kept marching on. By about 12:00, we had reached the summit. At the top, the ice was less prevalent, and we made better time on the hard packed snow. After a very quick summit photo session, we were heading back to the junction.

Going over to Rocky was almost completely different. There was almost no ice. There was new powder on the trail, up to 10" in places. The going was much faster. 900 feet down and 750 feet up seemed like no problem. When we got to just before the summit, we layered up for the very short push to the top. We touched the cairn, took 1 or 2 more pictures, and bolted back for the cover of the trees. It was *VERY* windy on Rocky, and it froze my mask almost immediately. What a difference when dozens of people were gathered last October to join Neil and Dominick for their 46th!

Walking back up to Giant was a long slow march. We got back up to the junction around 2:00, just in time to see the Mountaineering cavalcade parade by. We took a break, and caught up with them around the time we came to the trail down to St. Hubert's.

We eventually passed another group of 4, and even saw a few people going up, one wearing a helmet.

Both Laurie and I fell in the same place going down, and banged our knees, and shoulders. We were both fighting blisters too. The hike was starting to get stressful! We just wanted to get down off the mountain, but we still had a long way to go! The ice made the going very slow. Eventually, we got back to the trailhead around 4:30.

When we added up all the elevation gain, it was over 4600' I guess that's why we were so tired when we got done. Rocky is in one sense the highest mountain in the ADKs!

It was a good thing the LPPB was only 15 miles away!

 

[out there]

Giant black and blue and ice all over

Wow if that was the ridge trail you went up in snow shoes then I'm impressed! We went up the ridge trail Saturday with crampons all the way and passed several snowshoe-ers(?) making bruise filled retreats, it was basically ice all the way. We came down the Roaring Brook Trail, which it sounds as if you did as well, to avoid the trip-slip-splat possibilities and that was much more snowshoe-able(!)
Climb on

 

[Tom Rankin]

Wow if that was the ridge trail you went up in snow shoes then I'm impressed! We went up the ridge trail Saturday with crampons all the way and passed several snowshoe-ers(?) making bruise filled retreats, it was basically ice all the way. We came down the Roaring Brook Trail, which it sounds as if you did as well, to avoid the trip-slip-splat possibilities and that was much more snowshoe-able(!)
Climb on

Well, there were a few bruises!

And we returned the same way we came, down the Ridge Trail to Chapel Pond.

We chose not to hike the next day, because we were tired, sore, and due to human error with the alarm clock ( DOH! ), overslept.

 

[takeahike46er]

I attempted Giant on Saturday (2/18) via the Ridge trail. I underestimated how little snow and how much ice there would be on this route. Without crampons this hike was too dangerous for my liking. My group made it beyond the trail junction for the nubble until we reached a steep pitch that was sheer ice (much like the trail before it). I ascended a good deal of it, but was reluctant to descend this section with tired legs. It was at this point that we decided to turn around and hit up The Lake Placid Brewery and make the best of the day.

This is the first winter hike I have been on that truly required crampons (Well, aside from a trip up Haystack). Up until this point, I've been lucky enough to have minimal ice and a consistent snowpack.





Pics from the first lookout are here.

 

[Neil]

Tom, do you think backing down certain sections using rope or webbing looped around a tree would have made for an easier descent?

 

[Tom Rankin]

Tom, do you think backing down certain sections using rope or webbing looped around a tree would have made for an easier descent?

It depends on what you mean by easier. I saw a group of 4 doing exactly that, and while it is probably safer, it slowed them down quite a bit. They were on snowshoes and they invited us to join them, but we declined.

As you may know, there are a couple of places where a fall along the trail could result in going over a decent sized cliff!