Tom Rankin
Well-known member
This was sort of our 3 year anniversary. Close enough. Our first 'date', we met at a brew pub and went hiking, fancy that! 
We were out to 'recreate' the weekend, and we did a pretty good job. Another goal we have is to do all of the W46 together, and we're getting pretty close. 7 to go turned into 5 this weekend.
We drove up Friday night to the DAX, and just beat the 'blizzard'! Actually, it was almost a non-event up there, not sure about anywhere else, but they only got a few inches. True to the first date, we visited a brew pub that is well known for its Frostbite IPA, oh excuse me, Lake Placid IPA now!
Saturday it was still snowing lightly, and would do so all day, more or less, but it was pretty warm, almost up to 32. We met a famous rabbit in the parking lot, he was going the other way, so we bade each other 'bon journee'. We started out for TT and Phelps around 8:15. When we got to Phelps, no one had been there yet, so we decided to keep going, knowing that 2 people had signed in for TT. Hey! We may be W46'Rs, but we're not dumb!
We made it up to TT, meeting the 2 aforementioned trail breakers shortly before the summit. They did not quite get to the summit marker, but they certainly got to the summit. The marker was just a few feet down over the top, on a trail that we had to break out. There! Some trail breaking!
Views from here were ok, with Colden, Big Al, and Marcy making brief appearances thru the clouds and snow flurries.
Back down we went, and back to the junction with Phelps. Now, it was broken out, but we were pretty tired from being sick all week. So, we decided to skip this one for another day. Like I said, we're not dumb!
Lots of skiers out, lots of peak baggers, enjoyable day, not having to 'bag' any peaks was kind of refreshing!
Sunday, we got an 'alpine' start at 8:30 on the way to Wright. We passed a large group from RI ADK, heading to Big Al. We took our time, and made it to the junction around 11:00. From here, we got ready for the summit push and above tree line travel. Wright can be very windy!
Even though the morning snow flurries had stopped, and it was a perfect blue sky day now, and no wind was stirring down 'low' at 4000', we knew better! As we broke out to tree line, there was just a bit of a breeze. But a few minutes later, Wright was Wright! It was blowing hard enough to numb one side of my face, even with 2 hats on, and it started trying to push me around. We made it to the top, a few places were icy, but the MSRs kept us on our feet all the way. The views (BIG picture! how many hikers can you count?) from the top were great. We snapped a few quick photos from the 'shelter' of the south side of the summit rock and headed down, on the double. We were the first summiters who had not camped out, and now the parade started. We met lots of people who were on their way up, and we warned most of them about the wind. Some looked better prepared then others... A few more pics from just below tree line:
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w6.jpg - Santanoni (?)
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w7.jpg - Sewards (?)
A very nice weekend in the high peaks!
We were out to 'recreate' the weekend, and we did a pretty good job. Another goal we have is to do all of the W46 together, and we're getting pretty close. 7 to go turned into 5 this weekend. We drove up Friday night to the DAX, and just beat the 'blizzard'!
Actually, it was almost a non-event up there, not sure about anywhere else, but they only got a few inches. True to the first date, we visited a brew pub that is well known for its Frostbite IPA, oh excuse me, Lake Placid IPA now! Saturday it was still snowing lightly, and would do so all day, more or less, but it was pretty warm, almost up to 32. We met a famous rabbit in the parking lot, he was going the other way, so we bade each other 'bon journee'. We started out for TT and Phelps around 8:15. When we got to Phelps, no one had been there yet, so we decided to keep going, knowing that 2 people had signed in for TT. Hey! We may be W46'Rs, but we're not dumb!
We made it up to TT, meeting the 2 aforementioned trail breakers shortly before the summit. They did not quite get to the summit marker, but they certainly got to the summit. The marker was just a few feet down over the top, on a trail that we had to break out. There! Some trail breaking!
Views from here were ok, with Colden, Big Al, and Marcy making brief appearances thru the clouds and snow flurries.
Back down we went, and back to the junction with Phelps. Now, it was broken out, but we were pretty tired from being sick all week. So, we decided to skip this one for another day. Like I said, we're not dumb!
Lots of skiers out, lots of peak baggers, enjoyable day, not having to 'bag' any peaks was kind of refreshing!
Sunday, we got an 'alpine' start at 8:30 on the way to Wright. We passed a large group from RI ADK, heading to Big Al. We took our time, and made it to the junction around 11:00. From here, we got ready for the summit push and above tree line travel. Wright can be very windy!
Even though the morning snow flurries had stopped, and it was a perfect blue sky day now, and no wind was stirring down 'low' at 4000', we knew better! As we broke out to tree line, there was just a bit of a breeze. But a few minutes later, Wright was Wright! It was blowing hard enough to numb one side of my face, even with 2 hats on, and it started trying to push me around. We made it to the top, a few places were icy, but the MSRs kept us on our feet all the way. The views (BIG picture! how many hikers can you count?) from the top were great. We snapped a few quick photos from the 'shelter' of the south side of the summit rock and headed down, on the double. We were the first summiters who had not camped out, and now the parade started. We met lots of people who were on their way up, and we warned most of them about the wind. Some looked better prepared then others... A few more pics from just below tree line:
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w6.jpg - Santanoni (?)
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w7.jpg - Sewards (?)
A very nice weekend in the high peaks!
