BlackSpruce
New member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2003
- Messages
- 664
- Reaction score
- 158
First it was Inge who reached Panther on January 25, then Christine on Colden February 16 and Peggy on Grace February 17. Peggy and I will likely move on to skiing but Inge not... We have been preceded by Elsie Chrenko (March 18, 1992) and Janet Stein (200?) and of course by Marta Bolton who, in a league by herself, is about to complete her sixth winter round, a woman record she will no doubt keep for a few decades.
Nevertheless it’s Peggy’s final climb (her account follows) that was the most challenging as it did require a team effort and a combination of skills to be reached. Winter climbing needs friendship to get up there.
----
I managed, with the help of several friends, to finish my third round of the Winter 46 peaks! Grace Peak is one of the shortest in height of the 46 but the route is 100% trailless, which causes some extra problems in winter. The route follows the confusing S Boquet River valley which is a large open hardwood forest with many small streams and drainages to cross as well as small hills and eskers which block the easiest compass course. Christine, Alex, Dennis Babin and I tried two weeks ago to climb Grace Peak but the conditions were very difficult, with a crust on the snow which broke through with every step, even for the 3rd and 4th person! We struggled for 3 hours and had gone only 2.5 miles so we aborted and came home to happily watch the Super Bowl. Christine and Alex don’t “need” this peak for any reason, they just are such nice people that they offered to help me with it. Christine finished her 3rd round of Winter 46 yesterday on Mt. Colden, in the bright sunshine with a balmy temperature of -5 degrees and a dozen brave friends! Even though we were all tired from that hike, Christine and Alex offered to go with me the next day since we knew our other friend, Alain Chevrette (aka PinPin, Jr.) had broken the herd path and done the route finding to Grace Peak Friday and Sat. I had driven down to the stone bridge Friday to follow him but there was no parking plowed out and no sign of his car so I spent 3 hours shoveling out two parking spaces in the snow bank, which was over my head!! The highway usually plows the parking space on the side of the road but has not done that this year. The usual start for this trailless valley is at a stone bridge on Rt 73, south of Lake Placid. I figured that I’d need parking when I went to climb the peak. PinPin utilized my shoveled out parking space on Sat since on Friday the deep snow kept even a legend like him from ascending Grace! He returned Sat and summited as well as continuing on to other peaks, as he is known to do!
So today, Christine, Alex and I met at 8 am, fitting our two vehicles nicely in to the shoveled out parking and started up the herd path. Things were great until we got to where PinPin had ascended the drainage between Spotted Mt and Grace Peak. Christine didn’t tell us but her GPS indicated that we’d need to ascend 1700 feet in .6- mile!!! Pretty steep by anyone’s estimation! PinPin’s track nicely zigzagged up the steep section. He had described his route the previuos evening to us as “Not too steep, kind-of like a staircase”. Maybe we should have asked, “What kind of staircase?!” The winds got stronger and stronger, howling at a loud constant pitch which got louder as we got higher. We arrived at a nice clearing on the ridge between Spotted and Grace and started ascending the ridgeline. Even though we were in the trees, the winds pushed us around!! The open section of summit ridge line was so “moving” we chose not to go out on the ledges on our return and broke a new path in the trees. When we arrived at the summit rock, we found it covered with ice but managed to ascend on all fours with our snowshoes to touch the very top with our hands. There’s NO WAY we would have risked trying to stand up there! We carefully descended and hurried back to the trees.
On the descent we did save an hour but, due to the zigzag path, very little sliding could be done safely. There were a lot of trees that we could have hit or which could have poked us in the face or eyes. At one point, I did slide where I didn’t intend to and ended up with one snowshoe on one side of a tree and the other snowshoe on the other side of the trunk! I struggled to get up and get untangled, happy no injury occurred! We did manage to sneak a peak at the awesome views you always get from any of the peaks in the Dix Range. That’s one reason all 4 trailless peaks in that range are my “favorites”. Once down at the S Boquet River, it was just a long trudge back to the car. We took 4 ½ hours to ascend and 3 hours 15 minutes to return. Even though we had the advantage of a beautiful broken track with hardly any need to route find in the trailless river valley, we really worked hard for this mountain and I sure felt it was an adventure due to the steep route and the high winds! I’m pleased to count Grace as my 3rd winter 46 finish!
Peggy McKellar
Nevertheless it’s Peggy’s final climb (her account follows) that was the most challenging as it did require a team effort and a combination of skills to be reached. Winter climbing needs friendship to get up there.
----
I managed, with the help of several friends, to finish my third round of the Winter 46 peaks! Grace Peak is one of the shortest in height of the 46 but the route is 100% trailless, which causes some extra problems in winter. The route follows the confusing S Boquet River valley which is a large open hardwood forest with many small streams and drainages to cross as well as small hills and eskers which block the easiest compass course. Christine, Alex, Dennis Babin and I tried two weeks ago to climb Grace Peak but the conditions were very difficult, with a crust on the snow which broke through with every step, even for the 3rd and 4th person! We struggled for 3 hours and had gone only 2.5 miles so we aborted and came home to happily watch the Super Bowl. Christine and Alex don’t “need” this peak for any reason, they just are such nice people that they offered to help me with it. Christine finished her 3rd round of Winter 46 yesterday on Mt. Colden, in the bright sunshine with a balmy temperature of -5 degrees and a dozen brave friends! Even though we were all tired from that hike, Christine and Alex offered to go with me the next day since we knew our other friend, Alain Chevrette (aka PinPin, Jr.) had broken the herd path and done the route finding to Grace Peak Friday and Sat. I had driven down to the stone bridge Friday to follow him but there was no parking plowed out and no sign of his car so I spent 3 hours shoveling out two parking spaces in the snow bank, which was over my head!! The highway usually plows the parking space on the side of the road but has not done that this year. The usual start for this trailless valley is at a stone bridge on Rt 73, south of Lake Placid. I figured that I’d need parking when I went to climb the peak. PinPin utilized my shoveled out parking space on Sat since on Friday the deep snow kept even a legend like him from ascending Grace! He returned Sat and summited as well as continuing on to other peaks, as he is known to do!
So today, Christine, Alex and I met at 8 am, fitting our two vehicles nicely in to the shoveled out parking and started up the herd path. Things were great until we got to where PinPin had ascended the drainage between Spotted Mt and Grace Peak. Christine didn’t tell us but her GPS indicated that we’d need to ascend 1700 feet in .6- mile!!! Pretty steep by anyone’s estimation! PinPin’s track nicely zigzagged up the steep section. He had described his route the previuos evening to us as “Not too steep, kind-of like a staircase”. Maybe we should have asked, “What kind of staircase?!” The winds got stronger and stronger, howling at a loud constant pitch which got louder as we got higher. We arrived at a nice clearing on the ridge between Spotted and Grace and started ascending the ridgeline. Even though we were in the trees, the winds pushed us around!! The open section of summit ridge line was so “moving” we chose not to go out on the ledges on our return and broke a new path in the trees. When we arrived at the summit rock, we found it covered with ice but managed to ascend on all fours with our snowshoes to touch the very top with our hands. There’s NO WAY we would have risked trying to stand up there! We carefully descended and hurried back to the trees.
On the descent we did save an hour but, due to the zigzag path, very little sliding could be done safely. There were a lot of trees that we could have hit or which could have poked us in the face or eyes. At one point, I did slide where I didn’t intend to and ended up with one snowshoe on one side of a tree and the other snowshoe on the other side of the trunk! I struggled to get up and get untangled, happy no injury occurred! We did manage to sneak a peak at the awesome views you always get from any of the peaks in the Dix Range. That’s one reason all 4 trailless peaks in that range are my “favorites”. Once down at the S Boquet River, it was just a long trudge back to the car. We took 4 ½ hours to ascend and 3 hours 15 minutes to return. Even though we had the advantage of a beautiful broken track with hardly any need to route find in the trailless river valley, we really worked hard for this mountain and I sure felt it was an adventure due to the steep route and the high winds! I’m pleased to count Grace as my 3rd winter 46 finish!
Peggy McKellar
Last edited:
