Tom Rankin
Well-known member
We started at 6 AM from the Loj, only one person signed in before us, and he went to Tabletop or Phelps. I noticed with some alarm that 'Frasier' had signed in for Skylight and Gray, but never checked out! 
I see from other TR's that he made it out ok! Anyway, the temps were down in the single digits, and the wind was pretty stiff even in the parking lot, so we dreaded the summits!
A little while after Marcy Dam, Kerry caught up to us. She arrived around 6:10 and hoofed it up the trail, seeing our route in the log book. The trail was beaten down to a very hard packed snow, and on the way out we saw that dozens of skiers had smoothed it to almost a polish!
When we got to the Avalanche Pass junction, we told Kerry what our options were and we all agreed to head towards Lake Arnold. This is a long steady climb up to around 3900'. The sun and the clouds played peek-a-boo but mostly the clouds were winning. We did get a few views from time to time. We could still feel the winds even down in the pines, so the dread in the back of my mind was still there.
By 10:15, we had reached Lake Tear, and we could see that no one had been to Gray recently, much to our surprise! We had already decided we would do it second anyway, because it's closer to Marcy, so off we went. Laurie and I dropped packs at the 4 corners and battened down the hatches for the assault of Skylight. The trail was still broken fairly nicely, thanks guys! When we got to where the trees were just little scrubby things, we could feel the wind getting stronger and stronger. Eventually, there was nothing to shield us from its icy blast. It was strong, but not terribly so. I hadn't brought my goggles, and the wind was blowing thru the 3 layers I had on, but I shielded my face with a glove, and continued up the slope, following the cairns. The wind was strong enough to try to deflect my course, and hitting us at a sideways angle, but it never knocked us down. I've seen worse, and was thankful this summit was not too far from tree line!
When we got to to the top, Laurie asked me for the traditional summit kiss and photo. I gave her a kiss and told her the only photo she was going to get of me was of my backside, turned around and started jogging down the mountain!
I could see the cairns and just barely make out the scratches we had made with our snowshoes, so we found the path successfully and quickly ducked down behind the cover of trees. Whew! I jogged down the trail to the 4 corners and had a snack while the ladies caught up with me.
When we got to Gray again, we decided to at least try it to see what it was like. The trail turned out to be more or less easy, with 3 people taking turns leading. Yes, there were a few times when we floundered in the snow, but aside from that, we could feel the old trail under foot and we knew when we were not on course. This herd path is in fairly good shape. There were a few blowdowns, but we got to the summit in less than half an hour. We found the wooden sign and yellow trail marker after wandering around over a few small bumps, took a few pictures and looked around. We could make out Marcy and Skylight but not much more. I did not stop for a single view on Skylight, but up here, with just a few trees and less than 100' vertical difference, it was almost calm. We retraced our steps, came back out at the trail, and took a break.
The rest of the walk was uneventful, mostly trying to stay warm. We were back to the Loj by 4:00. We changed in the Loj, and headed out for the long drive home. We listened to the Superbowl on the radio and managed to see the 2nd half on TV from my house in Poughkeepsie. I'm now at 41 for the W46 and Laurie is at 39. We're getting close!
I see from other TR's that he made it out ok! Anyway, the temps were down in the single digits, and the wind was pretty stiff even in the parking lot, so we dreaded the summits! A little while after Marcy Dam, Kerry caught up to us. She arrived around 6:10 and hoofed it up the trail, seeing our route in the log book. The trail was beaten down to a very hard packed snow, and on the way out we saw that dozens of skiers had smoothed it to almost a polish!
When we got to the Avalanche Pass junction, we told Kerry what our options were and we all agreed to head towards Lake Arnold. This is a long steady climb up to around 3900'. The sun and the clouds played peek-a-boo but mostly the clouds were winning. We did get a few views from time to time. We could still feel the winds even down in the pines, so the dread in the back of my mind was still there.
By 10:15, we had reached Lake Tear, and we could see that no one had been to Gray recently, much to our surprise! We had already decided we would do it second anyway, because it's closer to Marcy, so off we went. Laurie and I dropped packs at the 4 corners and battened down the hatches for the assault of Skylight. The trail was still broken fairly nicely, thanks guys! When we got to where the trees were just little scrubby things, we could feel the wind getting stronger and stronger. Eventually, there was nothing to shield us from its icy blast. It was strong, but not terribly so. I hadn't brought my goggles, and the wind was blowing thru the 3 layers I had on, but I shielded my face with a glove, and continued up the slope, following the cairns. The wind was strong enough to try to deflect my course, and hitting us at a sideways angle, but it never knocked us down. I've seen worse, and was thankful this summit was not too far from tree line!
When we got to to the top, Laurie asked me for the traditional summit kiss and photo. I gave her a kiss and told her the only photo she was going to get of me was of my backside, turned around and started jogging down the mountain!
I could see the cairns and just barely make out the scratches we had made with our snowshoes, so we found the path successfully and quickly ducked down behind the cover of trees. Whew! I jogged down the trail to the 4 corners and had a snack while the ladies caught up with me.
When we got to Gray again, we decided to at least try it to see what it was like. The trail turned out to be more or less easy, with 3 people taking turns leading. Yes, there were a few times when we floundered in the snow, but aside from that, we could feel the old trail under foot and we knew when we were not on course. This herd path is in fairly good shape. There were a few blowdowns, but we got to the summit in less than half an hour. We found the wooden sign and yellow trail marker after wandering around over a few small bumps, took a few pictures and looked around. We could make out Marcy and Skylight but not much more. I did not stop for a single view on Skylight, but up here, with just a few trees and less than 100' vertical difference, it was almost calm.
We retraced our steps, came back out at the trail, and took a break. The rest of the walk was uneventful, mostly trying to stay warm. We were back to the Loj by 4:00. We changed in the Loj, and headed out for the long drive home. We listened to the Superbowl on the radio and managed to see the 2nd half on TV from my house in Poughkeepsie. I'm now at 41 for the W46 and Laurie is at 39. We're getting close!
