L
Lunregistered
Guest
We left ADK Loj around 3pm Saturday, it was 22 at the parking lot. We headed up the Mcintyre trail and setup camp by the falls. It was much colder up high and as the sun set it fell into the single digits. We had a leisurely night at camp and woke up just after 6am, it was 5 degrees at that point.
We took our time in the morning and hit the trail with light packs around 8:30am. There was a few inches of snow on the ground but nothing like when we did Gothics, Armstrong and Upper WJ a few weeks ago (see post below by "unregistered"). We wore crampons out of camp because we had heard it was icy from returning hikers, but the first 15 minutes were just rocky. As we got higher more and more thick ice started showing up and by the time we neared the Wright turn off we were glad to be wearing crampons. The temp at this point was around 15 degrees. We headed straight up Algonquin and crampons were definitely a good idea. Microspikes would have worked but it was cold enough that I was glad to have thick mountaineering boots, and crampons just make things go quicker anyway.
It was windy and cold (4 degrees) atop algonquin. It was windy enough that I could lean all of my weight back on my heels into the wind and not fall over, so probably 40+ gusts. We threw on our triple fat gooses and hung on top for about 20 minutes before heading down and peeling off to climb Wright. We made quick work of the very icy wright trail and were on top in no time. We hung there for another 20 minutes before making a hasty retreat back to the tents. We packed up and headed back to the Loj and were on the way into town for beers by 4pm.
All in all a fun weekend, cold but no wind except for the summits. Not much snow up there at the moment so leave the snowshoes in the car. Crampons are definitely a good idea over 3500 feet. The ice is thick and slick because it doesn't have a snowpack over it.
We took our time in the morning and hit the trail with light packs around 8:30am. There was a few inches of snow on the ground but nothing like when we did Gothics, Armstrong and Upper WJ a few weeks ago (see post below by "unregistered"). We wore crampons out of camp because we had heard it was icy from returning hikers, but the first 15 minutes were just rocky. As we got higher more and more thick ice started showing up and by the time we neared the Wright turn off we were glad to be wearing crampons. The temp at this point was around 15 degrees. We headed straight up Algonquin and crampons were definitely a good idea. Microspikes would have worked but it was cold enough that I was glad to have thick mountaineering boots, and crampons just make things go quicker anyway.
It was windy and cold (4 degrees) atop algonquin. It was windy enough that I could lean all of my weight back on my heels into the wind and not fall over, so probably 40+ gusts. We threw on our triple fat gooses and hung on top for about 20 minutes before heading down and peeling off to climb Wright. We made quick work of the very icy wright trail and were on top in no time. We hung there for another 20 minutes before making a hasty retreat back to the tents. We packed up and headed back to the Loj and were on the way into town for beers by 4pm.
All in all a fun weekend, cold but no wind except for the summits. Not much snow up there at the moment so leave the snowshoes in the car. Crampons are definitely a good idea over 3500 feet. The ice is thick and slick because it doesn't have a snowpack over it.
